The rapid rise of real estate prices in recent years has led to fears of a housing price bubble. But, to determine whether there has been a bubble–and whether the bubble is bursting–one needs to know what home prices “should” be. The authors estimate a simple model of home prices and...

The authors’ findings indicate that homebuilder financing affiliates do make loans to observably riskier borrowers, but the loans made by homebuilders have lower delinquency rates than those made by unaffiliated lenders, even when loan and borrower characteristics are held constant.

This article examines how competition among lenders affects mortgage loan characteristics. The author finds that, on average, banks issue safer mortgages than independent mortgage banks. Further, mortgages from banks with a branch in the local market where the property is tend to be safer than...