 TITLE: Mortgage Debt Sees Record Growth Despite Pandemic CONTENT: How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact Mortgages in 2020?\n-------------------------------------------------------\nIt's difficult to illustrate the pandemic's full impact on home borrowing in 2020, but there are a few trends that can be attributed to the pandemic with a high degree of confidence.\nFirst, the spike in mortgage forbearance and deferral clearly shows that mortgage lenders and consumers were quick to adopt Congress' emergency protections that allowed some to delay repayment. These protections were meant to help consumers struggling financially, and with the average FICO® Score of mortgage borrowers growing, this plan appears to have been successful thus far.\nSecond, the Fed's reduction in interest rates appears to have helped stimulate borrowing, as the number of hard inquiries for first mortgages showed a sharp increase the month the Fed announced changes to their benchmark rate compared with the same month the prior year. END