The increase in employment since April, income support from stimulus payments, programs such as the Paycheck Protection Program that helped small businesses retain workers, and enhanced unemployment insurance all helped borrowers continue making their mortgage payments.
And forbearance provisions in the CARES Act to homeowners with mortgages securitized by the GSEs or Ginnie Mae (around 65 percent of outstanding mortgages in the United States) have, so far, helped prevent foreclosures, which also supports home prices. The share of mortgages in forbearance rose above 8 percent last spring, but it has since fallen to below 6 percent.