Distressed

The strength of the housing market helped to increase forbearance exits while minimizing new requests, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

So far companies plan on using roughly the same number of employees as they shift from handling payment suspensions to assessing borrowers who have seen long-term declines in their incomes.

Experts expect only a small uptick in distressed mortgages, either through default or inability to refinance, which will create some opportunity for debt buyers

About 20% of the pandemic-related delinquent borrowers are up for review by the end of June, which could lead to vast improvement or deeper financial strife, according to Black Knight.

Consumer-permissioned access to bank or payroll information could be used to evaluate borrowers who still need relief after payment suspensions for pandemic-related hardships end.

Although activity crept down in May from April, it posted “dramatic” increases from the year before, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The guidance addresses confusion related to how lenders should handle situations in which borrowers have not paid for a year and need additional help due to a natural disaster.

Meanwhile, National MI has been increasing its new insurance written by slightly widening its credit standards.

But March's overall late payment rate was 1.3 percentage points higher than one year ago, while the 90-day-plus rate was 2.3 percentage points higher.

The four-week high in forbearance exits also helped drive the considerable drop in plans, according to Black Knight.