Forbearance Plans Edge Higher
Forbearance plans edged higher in mid-March, following a familiar pattern, led by portfolio/PLS loans.
According to our McDash Flash daily mortgage performance dataset, the number of active forbearance plans increased by 8,000 (1%) this week. A 9,000 (3.9%) rise in loans held in bank portfolios and private label securities (PLS) was partially offset by a 1,000 (-0.3) decline in FHA/VA plans. GSE plans held steady.
Both new plan starts and re-starts fell, with new plan starts hitting their lowest weekly total since Thanksgiving.

As of March 15, 726,000 homeowners remain in COVID-19-related forbearance plans – 1.4% of all active mortgages. The group includes 0.8% of GSE mortgages, 2.2% of FHA/VA and 1.8% of portfolio held and privately securitized mortgages.

Plans are down by 41,000 (-5%) from the same time last month. Nearly 130,000 plans are still up for review by the end of March, with a third expected to be reaching their final expirations.

We will continue to monitor the very latest forbearance data from the McDash Flash dataset and report our findings each week on this blog.