Loans in Forbearance Drop Below 3 Million

The number of FHA and VA loans in forbearance rose slightly last week, however, the overall numbers of forborne loans fell nationally by 11,000. Black Knight's weekly survey of the COVID-19 mortgage forbearance measures found that, as of October 20, there were 2.98 million borrowers in active plans, 5.6 percent of the nation's 53 million active loans.

About 5,000 loans were added to the number of loans in portfolios serviced for FHA and VA investors, bringing the total to 1.155 million loans or 9.5 percent of the total. Loans serviced for investors in GSE securities (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) declined by 14,000 to 1.09 million or 3.9 percent of those 28 million active mortgages. There was a 2,000-loan decrease in portfolio-held and private label securitized (PLS) loans to 729,000, 5.6 percent of the total. The total unpaid principal balance of these loans is $616 billion.

Eighty percent of the remaining plans have been extended beyond their initial expiration dates. Many forbearance plans expired at the end of September and were not renewed. This was largely the reason for a 17 percent month-over-month decline in overall forbearance plans (-623 loans), most of which occurred in early October. The number of plans peaked at over 4.7 million in mid-May.

Black Knight estimates that investors in GSE loans and portfolio/PLS securities in forbearance are each due monthly interest and principle advances of $1.2 billion. Servicers of FHA/VA loans are required to advance $1.0 billion. Servicers are also responsible for $1.3 billion in monthly tax and insurance premium payments, almost evenly divided among the three types of portfolios.