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Special Report | COVID-19
HOW MANY
AMERICANS COULD
STOP PAYING
MORTGAGES
UNDER COVID-19?
e Chief Economist at Moody's
Analytics estimates that as many as 30%
of Americans with home loans—nearly 15
million households—could stop paying their
loans if the economy is closed through the
summer.
"is is an unprecedented event," said
Susan Wachter, professor of real estate
and finance at the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania, in an article
published by the Los Angeles Times. "e
great financial crisis happened over a number
of years. is is happening in a matter of
months—a matter of weeks."
Andrew Jakabovics, a former senior
advisor for the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development and who is now at
Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit
affordable housing group, said of the virus,
"Nobody has any sense of how long this
might last."
"e forbearance program allows
everybody to press pause on their current
circumstances and take a deep breath. en
we can look at what the world might look like
in six or 12 months from now and plan for
that," Jakabovics told the Times.
CNBC reported that a coalition of
mortgage leaders sent a request to Federal
regulators for "desperately needed cash."
e report said the number for mortgage
forbearance requests have been coming in at
an "alarming rate," but servicers still need to
pay bondholders.
CNBC cited Jay Bray, CEO of Mr.
Cooper, who said his company has already
granted 80,000 forbearances. Mr. Cooper
services nearly 4 million loans across the
nation.
CNBC quoted Bray as saying, "ere is
going to be complete chaos" without federal
help.
