We evaluate the effects of the lending institution and soft information on mortgage loan performance for low-income homebuyers. We find that even after controlling for bank selection, those who receive a loan from a local bank are significantly less likely to become delinquent or default than...

President Pianalto began by sharing her views on how financial innovation has reshaped the mortgage market over the past few decades. She spoke about the promises and pitfalls of that innovation and about how the current situation in the mortgage market has unfolded. Finally, she described ideas...

Within this increasingly complex mortgage market, policymakers must preserve the benefits of financial innovation while protecting consumers from unfair and abusive practices.

A discussion of how mortgage lenders might use posted lending terms to signal both their eagerness to take new loan applications and their lending standards.

A lender-specific analysis of differences in minority and low-income mortgage loan originations using new applicant-level data gathered under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.

A documentation of racial and neighborhood differences in home mortgage denial rates using data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, exploring the extent to which objective lending criteria are responsible for observed differences. The authors find persistent variations in denial...

In this paper, we consider the role of statistical analysis in fair-lending compliance examinations. We present a case study of an actual fair-lending examination of a large mortgage lender, demonstrating how statistical techniques can be a valuable tool in focusing examiner efforts to either...

An examination of how information about a neighborhood affects the level of lending activity in it--specifically, whether lenders deny mortgage applications at higher rates in neighborhoods where they have little experience in evaluating applications and/or where the lending community in general...