Forbearance volumes fell by 71,000 (-3.2%) week-over-week, continuing the trend of early-in-the-month declines. Decreases were seen across all investor classes, with GSE forbearances falling by 26K (-3.8%), FHA/VA forbearances falling by 28K (-3.2%) and portfolio/PLS plans declining by 17K (-2.7%) over the past seven days.
With 65,000 plans still listed with May 2020 expirations, opportunity for an additional modest decline remains for next week as well. Some 700,000 plans are listed with June expirations, marking the final quarterly review for early forbearance entrants before they reach their 18-month expirations later this year.
Plan starts saw their lowest weekly total since the onset of the pandemic, with both new forbearance starts and well as restarts both seeing noticeable declines this week. Another mark of the improvement seen this week: plan exits hit their highest level in four weeks, driven by plan expirations/reviews taking place at the end of May.
Given the large review volumes on the horizon, it will be worth keeping a close eye on exit activity in coming weeks – most acutely in the first week of July. As of June 1, 2.12 million (4.0% of) homeowners remain in pandemic-related forbearance plans, including 2.4% of GSE, 7.1% of FHA/VA and 4.7% of portfolio/PLS loans.
