How consumers’ financial profiles vary by levels of emergency savings and understanding the mortgage characteristics and demographics of borrowers who remained in forbearance in January 2022 are the topics of two, separate reports issued Wednesday by the consumer financial protection agency.
On emergency savings and financial security – based on a new version of the agency’s “Making Ends Meet” survey and paired with credit bureau data from its “Consumer Credit Panel” – the agency said the survey’s findings “highlight the degree to which consumers struggle across multiple dimensions of their financial lives.”
In particular, the agency said, the survey results show “striking differences” in consumers’ credit and debt profiles, savings profiles, ability to meet financial obligations, and financial well-being by their level of emergency savings. “While savings are a way for consumers to weather unexpected shocks, financial constraint resulting from obligatory expenses and insufficient income can impede consumers’ ability to save for emergencies,” the agency said.
On its survey of mortgage characteristics and demographics of borrowers who remained in forbearance, the agency said its aim is to understand the mortgage characteristics and demographics of borrowers who remained in forbearance in January 2022. As of that date, 1.3% of borrowers were in forbearance, compared to 4.7% in March of 2021.
CFPB said it used data from the National Mortgage Database (NMDB) to report on the characteristics of mortgage borrowers during the COVID-19 pandemic based on the account status of borrowers reported through March 2021.
“We analyze borrower demographic and loan characteristics for a sample of more than 2 million mortgage loans for owner-occupied properties,” the agency said. “The data include borrower-level demographics and loan-level origination and performance information.”
New Data on the Characteristics of Mortgage Borrowers During the COVID-19 Pandemic