!--more-->As of March 9, 2.6 million homeowners remain in forbearance, representing 4.9% of all homeowners with mortgages. This marks the first time the forbearance rate has been below 5% since early April 2020.

This week’s improvement was due to a combination of February month-end expirations as well as the proactive extension and/or removal of borrowers who were set to see their plans expire at the end of March.

While scheduled March month-end expirations are down from 1.1 million a week ago, there are still more than 800,000 plans currently listed with March expirations.

This represents a daunting task for servicers as they review upcoming expirations for removal or extension based on recently revised HUD and FHFAs allowable terms of up to 18 months for early forbearance entrants.
Early extension activity suggests servicers continue to approach forbearance plans in three-month increments, with the bulk of would-be March expirations being extended out through June.