Almost 6% of homeowners nationwide with loans have asked for payment relief.
The number of homeowners seeking payment forbearance rose from less than 4% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
"With over 22 million Americans filing for unemployment over the past month, homeowners are contacting their mortgage servicers seeking relief, leading to a sharp increase in the share of loans in forbearance across all loan types," Mike Fratantoni, the mortgage industry trade association's senior vice president and chief economist, said in the latest report. "Mortgage servicers continue to receive a very high level of forbearance requests, but volumes were down somewhat compared to the prior week.
"Given that lockdowns and associated job losses will continue in the coming weeks, forbearance inquiries will likely rise again as we approach May payment due dates.
"Borrowers facing COVID-19-related hardships should contact their servicer to review all of their options."
About 3.5 million U.S. home loans are already in payment forbearance, the American Enterprise Institute estimates.
The Mortgage Bankers Association survey covers almost 77% of the country's first-mortgage servicing market.
With mortgage servicing companies having to make up the unpaid mortgages to bond holders, the industry is lobbying for federal help to make up for the expected billions of dollars in lost payments.
"Mortgage servicers are performing an essential function of the housing finance system by continuing to advance funds to investors at a time when roughly 3 million homeowners are now in forbearance," Fratantoni said. "To ensure market stability during these challenging times for consumers and the entire industry, servicers need access to interim financing so that they can continue to play this critical role."
With a record number of Americans losing their jobs, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has authorized mortgage servicing companies to allow borrowers affected by the pandemic to put off mortgage payments for six months and maybe as long as a year.
The homeowners will still have to make up the missed payments, either in a lump sum or over time.
In most cases, foreclosure actions have been put on hold.
