Requests to delay mortgage payments jump nearly 2,000% as borrowers seek relief during coronavirus outbreak

A sign advertising home mortgage services at a Bank of America branch in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Mortgage payments for the month of April are not even officially late until the 15th, but borrowers are flooding into the government’s mortgage forbearance program.
Requests to delay mortgage payments grew by 1,270% between the week of March 2 and the week of March 16, and another 1,896% between the week of March 16 and the week of March 30, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. It includes data on 22.4 million loans serviced as of April 1, almost 45% of the first lien mortgage servicing market.
The Cares Act, which President Donald Trump signed March 27, seeks to limit the economic damage from COVID-19. The government implemented the mortgage relief measures before Trump …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]