Over 4.1 million American homeowners are currently skipping their mortgage payments on a temporary basis as COVID-19 keeps the economy shut down, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Meanwhile, forbearance requests have slowed – the MBA’s weekly survey indicates that 8.16 percent of total loans are now in forbearance plans, up from 7.91 percent the week prior, and while the share of loans in forbearance is rising, the trend is toward requests decreasing.

Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, said in a statement, “There has been a pronounced flattening in loans put into forbearance – despite April’s uniformly negative economic data, remarkably high unemployment, and it now being past May payment due dates.”

Congress passed the $2.22 trillion CARES Act (the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act), under which homeowners holding a federally backed home loan may delay mortgage payments for up to a year, but politicians are quick to remind folks that the money is still due, and fees may still apply during the forbearance period.

This relief effort is the primary reason so many did not pay their mortgage this month. People are still unsure of whether or not they will be employed in the near future, and are managing their finances accordingly, particularly while lenders are still in the mood to negotiate. Economists believe that difficulties will be ongoing, and homeowners will continue to struggle as a whole.

While our economy hasn’t been hit this hard since the Great Depression, and unemployment numbers reveal widespread economic devastation, slivers of hope remain. Forbearance requests slowing isn’t the only housing hope – new home construction levels are down, but nowhere near at the same pace as other sectors harder hit.

The Texas Supreme Court extended a moratorium on evictions through April 30. Dallas County’s moratorium runs through May 18. Tarrant County, next to Dallas County, has an indefinite moratorium. Meanwhile, cities, counties, and states across America have different moratoriums.

The CARES Act includes a federal eviction moratorium that begins on March 27 and lasts for 120 days.

Federally subsidized housing cannot evict tenants for non-payment for 120 days. If you’re like most renters, you may not know if your property is backed a federal program, such as HUD, FHA, USDA or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Here is a searchable database helps renters identify if their home is covered by the CARES Act

The National Low Income Housing Coalition offers a searchable database of homes that are covered by the CARES Act. Please note that the database is not comprehensive. Just because your home isn’t listed, doesn’t mean that the CARES ACT doesn’t apply.

The NLIHC offers updates on COVID-19 housing issues. They also have a page for state housing assistance. Low income households in Austin may qualify for assistance through the Austin Tenant Stabilization Program. Share that program with tenants and landlords to prevent evictions.

Eviction moratoriums do not mean that tenants don’t have to pay rent or late fees.

Tenants and landlords need to work together to find a solution to paying rent during the COVID-19 pandemic. The eviction moratorium is not a rent freeze. When life gets back to normal, tenants will still owe back and current rent or risk eviction.

We wrote that the National Multifamily Housing Council is recommending that its members waive late fees and administrative costs and help residents with payment plans.

It’s going to take everyone working together to keep families stable after the pandemic. We will do our best to keep you updated on any new options and helpful programs.

As many Americans know, our national budget has a yearly deficit. These deficits have placed many lawmakers into situations that resemble a not so comfortable space in between a rock and a hard place. This results in many discussions over the budget each year, and in some cases, a government shut down until a path is chosen for the country. On March 6, 2020, 33 organizations sent a letter to multiple lawmakers that could have significant impacts on the decisions of the housing market for not only fiscal year 2021 but over 10 years later.

The topic of the letter focused around “g-fees”, or also known as guarantee fees within the “GSEs” (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). These g-fees, “cover projected credit losses from borrower defaults over the lifetime of the loans, administrative costs, and a return on capital” according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

When these g-fees are hoisted up, like in 2011 to fund a two-month payroll tax relief period, it raises the cost of homeownership nationwide for 10 years. The letter gives the example of a “10 basis points [raised] in g-fees amounts to an additional $5,100 in mortgage payments on the average GSE loan amount of $255,000.” In short, homeowners or those looking to get a mortgage loan would almost instantly see an increase in how much they would pay if g-fees were raised.

Besides laying out the details of how g-fees function, the letter also focused on this cohort’s logical objection for not raising g-fees. These organizations stated they “firmly believe that g-fees should only be used as originally intended: as a critical risk management tool to protect against potential mortgage credit losses.” and not used to fund non-housing related programs and becoming the nation’s “piggy bank”.

If you are a homeowner, or can be impacted by mortgages in any situation, it might be time to start saving or speak up. This is a current issue as the president’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 suggests using g-fees again to help fund loses in the budget.

These are the organizations who are asking for this reconsideration through their letter:

American Bankers Association
American Escrow Association
American Land Title Association
Asian Real Estate Association of America
Center for Responsible Lending
Community Associations Institute
Council for Affordable and Rural Housing
Credit Union National Association
District of Columbia Association of REALTORS
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc.
Housing Policy Council
Independent Community Bankers of America
Institute of Real Estate Management
Leading Builders of America
Manufactured Housing Institute
Mortgage Bankers Association
National Apartment Association
National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions
National Association of Home Builders
National Association of Housing Cooperatives
National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB)
National Association of REALTORS®
National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC)
National Community Stabilization Trust
National Council of State Housing Agencies
National Fair Housing Alliance
National Housing Conference
National Housing Resource Center
National Multifamily Housing Council
National NeighborWorks Association
The Community Mortgage Lenders of America
The Realty Alliance U.S. Mortgage Insurers