This paper studies how mortgage borrowers and house prices react to a tightening of mortgage limits following a policy … leverage (LTV) of the mortgage. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, I find that groups of (poorer) borrowers, who …-to-value threshold, responded primarily by reducing the LTV of the mortgage. Borrowers who purchase cheaper houses could be buying …

main facts: first, the features of residential mortgage markets differ markedly across industrialized countries; second … house prices is significantly stronger in those countries with larger flexibility/development of mortgage markets; third …, the transmission to consumption is stronger only in those countries where mortgage equity release is common and mortgage …

term interest rates, local and global money and credit developments, and the incidence of mortgage market deregulation …