As clients will see in our in-depth report on the CARES Act’s mortgage provisions, we simply don’t share the Administration’s desperate hopes that only the extra-worthy will apply for relief. Indeed, even if we shared them, the proliferation of YouTube videos instructing borrowers to run to the phones tells us otherwise. The very generous forbearance HUD has also announced reinforces our forecast of a mortgage-forbearance deluge, adding to it a second wave of partial forgiveness once the crisis ebbs and loan-mod negotiations begin. It’s too soon to tell whether all this ends up in a nationalized U.S. mortgage system, but we think GSE privatization has gotten even more complicated than before.
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