The number of mortgages in active forbearance rose for the second week in a row, climbing by by 21,000 (+0.08) since last Tuesday, pushing the total back up above 2.7 million after falling below that threshold for the first time since last April earlier this month.
This week’s rise continues the trend of mid-month increases that have become commonplace since the recovery began.
Despite the weekly increase, the monthly rate of decline held steady at -2%, continuing the trend of very slow but steady improvement in the number of outstanding forbearance cases. Remember, monthly declines have been averaging less than 2% since early December.
According the McDash Flash daily mortgage performance data set, as of February 23, 2.7 million homeowners (5.1% of all mortgage-holders), remain in active forbearance. This includes 9.3% of FHA/VA, 3.2% of GSE and 5.2% of portfolio/private mortgages
Once again, portfolio-held and privately-securitized loans saw the largest increase in plans (+16,000 / +2.4%), followed FHA/VA loans, which saw active forbearance plans rise by 7,000 (+0.6%). As was the case last week, GSE loans were the only cohort to see any sort of decline (-2,000; -0.2%).
Some 160,000 forbearance plans are set to hit scheduled expiration points at the end of February.
Source: themortgageleader.com