The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) monthly Loan
Monitoring Survey revealed that the total number of loans now in forbearance decreased by 4 basis
points from 0.55% of servicers’ portfolio volume in the prior month to 0.51% as of April 30, 2023.
According to MBA’s estimate, 255,000 homeowners are in forbearance plans. Mortgage servicers have
provided forbearance to approximately 7.8 million borrowers since April 2020.In April 2023, the share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased 2 basis points to
0.24%. Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased 7 basis points to 1.11%, and the forbearance share
for portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) decreased 7 basis points to 0.61%.“While the number of loans in forbearance continues to dwindle, there was some deterioration in the
performance of post-forbearance workouts,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry
Analysis. “About three out of four borrowers are remaining current on their post-forbearance workouts,
but this is down from the average of four out of five borrowers that was relatively consistent in 2022
and into 2023.”Added Walsh, “Overall servicing portfolios remain healthy, and some of the worsening monthly
performance can be attributed to seasonal factors such as tax refunds that pushed up the March results
and then normalized in April. MBA’s forecast calls for an economic slowdown and an increase in
unemployment later this year and into 2024, which will impact loan performance.
emphasis added
Click on graph for larger image.
This graph shows the percent of portfolio in forbearance by investor type over time.
The share of forbearance plans has been decreasing, declined to 0.51% in April from 0.55% in March.
At the end of April, there were about 255,000 homeowners in forbearance plans.