The CFPB Research Office recently released a special feature detailing the trends among borrowers in terms of forbearance and delinquency on their mortgages since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief covers the characteristics of three groups of borrowers who have mortgages: those with forbearance, those with loans over 60 days past due, and those with outstanding loans. Key CFPB findings for data reported up to March 2021 included, among other things, that: (i) Black and Hispanic borrowers made up a “significantly larger” share of borrowers who demonstrated forbearance or delinquency; (ii) the share of loans with a loan-to-value ratio greater than 60 percent was “significantly higher” for borrowers withholding or past due compared to those outstanding; (iii) factors related to payment difficulty (such as single borrower status, delinquency status beyond 30 days in February 2020 and non-mortgage financial difficulties) were associated with higher probabilities of abstention and delinquency; and (iv) area-level characteristics were also important in the analysis, with abstention and delinquency being “much more likely” in majority and minority census tracts and in lower relative income areas.

The brief further describes how a significant portion of mortgage borrowers still found themselves in abstention or delinquency a year after the onset of the pandemic, and it highlights how the pandemic has disproportionately impacted particular communities. , noting the recovery difficulties that remain to come for these borrowers.