Moody’s Analytics economist Mark Zandi said Tuesday that he expects the U.S. housing market to become weaker as the year continues amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“The confluence of high unemployment and the end of the forbearance measures means that we’ll get more defaults and ultimately more foreclosures, more foreclosure sales, and that’ll put some weakness into the housing market,” Zandi said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” program.

Under the $2 trillion CARES Act passed in March, homeowners were allowed to request forbearance on federally backed mortgages for up to 180 days. Once the forbearance period ends, these homeowners will be forced to make payments on their mortgages. As unemployment remains in the double-digits, many homeowners will unlikely be able to make these payments. This could result in more foreclosures.

Zandi said the housing market had handled the coronavirus pandemic “remarkably well” but claimed the lack of affordable housing remains a major problem.

“There’s a severe lack of homes, both in the new market and the existing market,” Zandi said.

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of at least 7 million affordable homes for the nation’s 11 million or more extremely low-income families.

Many millennials are also delaying homeownership due to high real estate prices. A survey from the Urban Institute in August revealed that 53% of millennials say they do not own a home because they cannot afford a downpayment.

New home sales jumped in May by 16.6%, beating expectations of a 1.9% jump. This spike in sales could be a result of pent up demand as states reopen from coronavirus lockdowns.

Coronavirus