Jean Holman

Mortgage News

• First Wave of Forbearances Almost Doubles Delinquency Rates

  The years-long downward trend of mortgage delinquencies appears to have come to an abrupt end in April. Black Knight, in its "first look" at the month's loan performance data, said the national delinquency rate shot up 90 percent compared to March and is 86 percent higher than in April 2019 at 6.45 percent. That rate indicates the percentage of active loans that were 30 days or more past due but not in foreclosure with 3.40 million loans in that category, 1.61 million more than the prior month and 1.59 more than in April 2019. Black Knight reported earlier this month that, as of April 30, more than 3.8 million home mortgages had entered forbearance plans. They subsequently reported that some 46 percent of borrowers in forbearance at the end of April, had continued to make at least part of their April payment Black Knight counts mortgages for which payments have not been made as delinquent, even if they are in forbearance and servicers are not reporting them to credit bureaus under rules established by the CARES Act. This means that some of the early stage delinquencies are not in forbearance and that many that are continue to perform.

   

• People Feel More Guilty About Forbearance Than Cheating on Their Spouse.

  Yep. In a recent Lending Tree survey 70% of people surveyed feel guilty about taking a mortgage forbearance. Believe it or not, that’s a higher feeling of guilt than people who cheated on their spouse!

  The post People Feel More Guilty About Forbearance Than Cheating on Their Spouse. appeared first on National Real Estate Post.

• Existing Sales hit 10-Year Low, But Low Rates are a Silver Lining

  Existing home sales fell hard in April, the numbers coming in about where analysts expected them but breaking a nine-month string of annual gains. The National Association of Realtors® said total sales of single-family homes, townhouses, condos, and cooperative were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.33 million, down from the 5.27 million sold in March, a 17.8 percent decline. It was the lowest level of sales since July 2010 (3.45 million) and the largest month-over-month drop since July 2010 (-22.5 percent). The loss, which NAR said was due to the coronavirus pandemic, brings the aggregate decline over the last two months to 26.3 percent. Sales are now down 17.2 percent from the 5.23 million rate in April 2019 The rate of sales almost matched the 4.325 million-unit consensus estimate from analysts polled by Econoday. Their predictions had covered a range from 4.20 to 4.92 million.