The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) has initiated a new monthly Loan Monitoring Survey , to replace its Weekly Forbearance and Call Volume Survey which it published weekly from the start of the pandemic through December 1. The new report covers both forbearances and loan delinquencies for the month of December. At the end of the reporting period MBA estimated that 750,000 loans remained in forbearance, 1.41 percent of mortgages in servicer portfolios. This is a 26-basis point decline over the course of the month. By stage, 23.2 percent of total loans in forbearance were in the initial forbearance plan stage, while 63.1 percent were in an extension . The remaining 13.7 percent are forbearance re-entries, including re-entries with extensions. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSE) loans in forbearance decreased 8 basis points to 0.68 percent during the month and Ginnie Mae (FHA and VA) loans fell 47 basis points to 1.63 percent. The share of forborne loans among those serviced for bank portfolios and private-label securities (PLS) declined 51 basis points to 3.43 percent.  “The share of loans in forbearance continued to decline in December 2021. This was especially the case for government and private-label and portfolio loans, as those loans have higher levels of forbearance than loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis. “With the number of borrowers in forbearance continuing to decrease below 750,000, the pace of monthly forbearance exits reached its lowest level since MBA started tracking exits in June 2020.”