Survey Says Almost 65% of US Households Are Confident They Can Pay Mortgage in June

A majority of mortgage borrowers are confident that they can pay their monthly mortgage obligation, the latest U.S. Census Bureau survey reveals.

Almost 65 percent of U.S households said they are confident about being able to pay their home loan obligations in June, according to the weekly Household Pulse Survey. The week's survey result was a slight improvement from 61 percent recorded from April 23 to May 5, 2020, Forbes reported.

Those most confident about their ability to pay their home loans this month are borrowers aged between 40 to 54, married, at least bachelor's degree holders, and earn between $100,000 and $150,000.

The U.S. Census Bureau - Household Pulse Survey, aims to collect real-time data on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Americans' lives to help federal and state governments in their response and recovery planning. The survey data is released every week through mid-July 2020.

The initial release of the experimental survey revealed that more than 25 percent of American households have difficulty paying rent or mortgage or resorting to deferring their payments, the Spokesman-Review report said.

As for the latest data release, the same cohort of respondents also said that they are likely to defer or will defer their home loan payments, Forbes said. These findings appear to confirm the LendingTree study, as cited by Forbes. The LendingTree report revealed that a majority of those approved for a mortgage forbearance might not have actually needed such forbearance in the first place.

The study showed that almost 70 percent of those who were approved for a mortgage forbearance claimed they could have made their monthly mortgage payment obligations; however, they wanted a break from their usual payments.

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According to Black Knight's McDash Flash Forbearance Tracker June 2 data, the active forbearance volumes have decreased by a net of 34,000 over the past week, the first weekly decline since the coronavirus pandemic began.

From May 26 to June 2, the number of government-backed mortgage forbearances declined by 43,000 but was partially offset due to the increase of 9,000 among mortgages in private-label securities and bank portfolios.

However, the report also revealed that as of May 26, remittance was significantly lower at 22 percent compared to 46 percent in April.

Meanwhile, the May 2020 Employment SItuation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed encouraging news - an increase of 2.5 million nonfarm payroll employment and unemployment declining to 13.3 percent. These improvements reflect the partial resumption of economic activity across the country after being restricted in March and April.

Employment in the leisure and hospitality sector increased by 1.2 million after recording job losses of 7.5 million in April and 743,000 in March, Construction, on the other hand, registered employment increase of 464,000 in May after declining 995,000 in April.

Employment in retail trade and education and healthy also saw an increase of 368,000 and 424,000, respectively. As for other services, an increase of 272,000 was also recorded after declining by 1.3 million in April. Two-thirds of which occurred in the personal and laundry services.