Recent years have seen a sharp rise in the number of negative equity homeowners--those who owe more on their mortgages …

modifications to help delinquent homeowners pay their mortgages. While it is too soon to assess the effectiveness of these …

Over the past several years, U.S. homebuyers have increasingly favored fixed-rate mortgages over adjustable …-rate mortgages (ARMs). Indeed, ARMs have dropped to less than 10 percent of all residential mortgage originations, a near-record low … different types of mortgages. Supply-side factors, in particular a rise in the share of mortgages eligible to be securitized by …

In the view of many analysts, the best way to assist “underwater” homeowners—those who owe more on their mortgages than … their houses are worth—is to reduce the principal on their home loans. Yet in the case of privately securitized mortgages … underwater mortgages, thereby sidestepping the need to coordinate action across large numbers of security holders. …

Because of the concentrated distribution of interest rates on outstanding mortgages, modest interest rate declines in …