As millions of Americans are currently out of work amid the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented number of homeowners are filing requests to delay mortgage payments. Forbearance requests have jumped almost 2000% since early March.

The unprecedented scale of the coronavirus pandemic's economic impact has created mass unemployment, the scale of which the United States was mostly unprepared for. With many homeowners out of work and unable to make mortgage payments, lenders are being hit with a tidal wave of forbearance requests. Between March 2 and 16 alone, requests to delay mortgage payments exploded 1,270%, later growing to 1,896% between March 16 and 30.

Relief for homeowners was provided as part of the CARES act, the comprehensive economic stimulus plan passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in March. As part of CARES, any borrowers with a government-backed mortgage are allowed a minimum of 90 days of forbearance. Those missed payments must be met at a later date, however.

While relief for homeowners is readily available, lenders were largely unable to keep pace with the sheer number of borrowers trying to reach them. With the employees of many lenders working from home, efficiency is down. Call hold times have averaged around 17 minutes as employees struggle to process the sheer volume of calls.

A major problem facing lenders is that while many callers have had their income affected and desperately need a forbearance, many other callers appear to have not been affected and may not need immediate help. "I would ask if you're not facing a hardship right now, if you haven't lost your job, at least wait a week or so," says Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria, "We can get through the first payment at the beginning of the month where we can help the people who need help."

Many lenders are working on digital options, however, and expect to have online forbearance options available in the coming weeks. Some lenders expect to have online options available as early as next week.