The obvious economic, although not political, solution to the overinvestment in owner-occupied housing in the 1970s would be to tax owner-occupied hous ing more heavily, thereby raising its user cost relative to that of industrial capital.

Between the early 1980s and 1986, the share of new conforming (under $153,000 in 1986) conventional fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) that went into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage pools increased from under 5 percent to over 50 percent. The impact of these agencies moving from negligible...

This paper computes how coupon rates on hypothetical default-free 1- 3- and 5-year adjustable rate mortgages with various caps and teaser rates issued during the 1970-76 period would have had to be set in order for the ARMs to have earned the market rate of return over a 7 1/2-year holding...

Spreads between yields on different mortgage instruments and comparable maturity portfolios of Treasury securities have been computed and compared with quoted yields over the 1974-82 period for three different mortgage instruments: GNMA pass-throughs, FHLMC participation certificates, and...

This paper develops and employs a five-asset, four-household and single-business sector simulation model to measure the long-run impacts of the major provisions of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 on the allocation of a fixed capital stock among owner-occupied housing, rental housing, and...

In recent years, the conforming loan limit hes risen rapidly (62 percent between 1985 and 1989 versus a 10 percent rise in the price of a constant-quality new house) and has assumed significant importance to homebuyers and portfolio lenders. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become the price...

The 1980s S&L debacle is generally viewed as the result of: (1) sharply rising interest rates eliminating the net worth of thrifts funding fixed-rate loans with short-term deposits and (2) thrifts responding by taking even greater interest-rate and credit risks. The question investigated in this...

The aggregate homeownership rate in the United States has continued to rise throughout the 1970s despite rising inflation and the rapid growth of young and primary individual households with relatively low homeownership rates. This appears to be a result of a decline in the cost of homeownership...