【Freddie Mac】Mortgage Forbearance Rates during the COVID-19 Crisis

During the COVID-19 crisis, mortgage forbearance plans have played an important role in helping households manage their finances by providing short-term liquidity to mortgage borrowers. Mortgage forbearance temporarily removes the obligation for borrowers to make their monthly mortgage payment.¹ This Insight contrasts the characteristics of those mortgages in forbearance across the current COVID-19 crisis and two earlier periods: the 2017 Storms period (in declared disaster areas in the aftermath of hurricanes and tropical storms in 2017, including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria); and the Baseline period (January 2019 to February 2020) just before the current crisis. We find that forbearance rates during the COVID-19 period are similar to those during the 2017 Storms but are much higher than rates during the Baseline period.
 

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