Buying or Refinancing After a Forbearance
A forbearance is not a foreclosure and it is not a bankruptcy. On several programs, if you kept making your payments, there is no waiting period at all.
Forbearance has its own rules
It is not lumped in with the serious credit events.
- Where all payments were made as originally scheduled during the forbearance and the account is reinstated, at least one program states the borrower is eligible for financing with no waiting period.
- Government guidelines say a borrower who kept paying is treated as on time, provided the forbearance plan is terminated before closing.
- One second-lien program states no waiting period is required if you accepted a forbearance plan but never actually used it.
- If payments were missed, the account has to be reinstated and a set number of payments made after the plan ends. Three is the most common figure.
- You can have missed more than three payments, or had them added to your loan balance, and still be eligible.
- The forbearance has to be over. Active forbearance is an ineligible status across the programs we work from.
No waiting period path
Three payments after missing
Government and conventional
Jumbo and non-agency
Deferred balances addressed
Purchase or refinance
How Long You Actually Wait
The number varies more than almost anything else in underwriting, which is why lender selection matters here.
Across the programs we work from, the required number of payments after exiting forbearance runs from zero to three to four to six to twelve. Three consecutive payments is the most common on government purchase and rate and term transactions. Six months of satisfactory payments shows up on jumbo and on several home equity products. Twelve months appears on some second lien and non-agency programs, and a few investor-specific programs go considerably longer for events unrelated to the pandemic.
Loan purpose changes the answer more than most people expect. On government financing, a purchase or rate and term refinance generally needs three consecutive payments since the forbearance ended, while a cash-out refinance on the same program needs twelve. Two documents from the same investor even disagree on whether falling short means a manual review or an outright decline, which tells you how much the specific lender matters.
A modification is treated as a separate event from a forbearance. If your forbearance ended in a loan modification, guidelines generally want at least six payments made under the modification agreement, and one program treats a modification that moved payments to the end of the loan as a credit event with its own multi-year waiting period.
What determines whether you qualify now
Six things that decide how soon you can move.
Whether You Actually Missed Payments
This is the single biggest factor. A borrower who took a forbearance as a precaution and kept paying is in a completely different position from one who skipped payments, and several guidelines say so explicitly.
Whether The Plan Has Been Terminated
You have to be out. Guidelines require the forbearance to be reinstated or terminated before closing, and second lien programs additionally require the senior lien to be out of forbearance at the time of application.
How The Missed Payments Were Resolved
Payments added to the end of your loan balance are handled differently from a formal modification. A deferred balance seasoned more than twelve months may be allowed to stay open on some programs, while a newer one has to be paid through closing.
Which Loan Purpose You Need
Purchase and rate and term refinance carry the shortest requirements. Cash-out is consistently the strictest, and on government financing that gap is three payments versus twelve.
Whether It Resulted In A Modification
A modification restarts a different clock. Six payments under the modification agreement is the common threshold, and where the modification involved hardship or debt forgiveness the wait can be years.
Which Lender The File Goes To
This is the least satisfying answer and the most useful one. The same borrower can be ineligible at one investor and approved at another purely because of where the seasoning table lands.
Hear From Homeowners Like You
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions from borrowers who took a forbearance.
Potentially not at all. At least one program states plainly that where all payments were made as scheduled and the account is reinstated, the borrower is eligible with no waiting period. Government guidelines take a similar position, treating you as on time provided the plan is terminated before closing.
No. The common requirement is that the account be reinstated and three monthly payments made after the forbearance ends. One guideline says explicitly that you can have missed more than three payments, or had them added to your loan balance, and still be eligible.
They are different events with different treatment. Guidelines put foreclosure, short sale and deed-in-lieu on multi-year waiting periods. Forbearance is generally measured in payments made afterward, not years.
Yes, but it is the strictest loan purpose. On government financing a cash-out generally needs twelve consecutive payments since the forbearance ended, compared with three for a purchase or rate and term refinance.
Modifications are treated separately. Expect a requirement of at least six payments under the modification agreement, and understand that a modification involving hardship or debt forgiveness can carry a much longer waiting period.
Yes, though second lien programs tend to want more seasoning, commonly four to twelve months of payments after resolution. They also require the first mortgage to be out of forbearance at application.
Evidence the forbearance ended, the terms of how missed payments were resolved, and your payment history since. A current mortgage statement showing no deferred balance and no forbearance status resolves most of it.
Find out what you qualify for
The question is never just whether you had a forbearance. It is whether you missed payments, how they were resolved, and how many you have made since. Tell us those three things and we can usually tell you same day whether you qualify now or what date you will.
Get Pre-QualifiedSeasoning requirements after a forbearance, modification or deferral vary substantially by loan program, loan purpose and investor, and are subject to change. Loans in active forbearance are ineligible. Deferred balances may be required to be paid at closing. Not all applicants will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend.