This week, MBS Highway Founder and CEO Barry Habib joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the nation’s housing ecosystem.

In the second half of this two-show episode, Habib explains why U.S. markets now face an uphill battle as the unemployment rate falls to Great Recession levels, and why first-payment defaults on forbearance are problematic for the housing finance sector.

Additionally, Habib discusses a conversation he had with Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria regarding the state of U.S. mortgage servicing. According to Habib, Calabria anticipates there's a good chance the nation’s forbearance window might close at the end of May.

The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins. Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines, sponsored by our partners at Arch MI and Quicken Loans Mortgage Services.

Here are links to the topics discussed:

• Banks have the biggest share of mortgages in forbearance
•  Nearly 500,000 borrowers went into forbearance in the last week
• Democrats press top mortgage servicers on forbearance issues
• HUD watchdog: Some servicers are providing wrong information about forbearance

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