We present a simple theoretical model of adverse selection when lenders allow reduced documentation. The model shows how reduced documentation attracts both riskier borrowers and larger size loans. We then empirically test implications of the model using stated income loans originated during the...

Empirical research on mortgage default in the single-family market has focused on the value of the borrower's put option using house price indices to estimate contemporaneous loan-to-value ratio or the probability of negative equity. But since the borrower possesses the option to increase...

This paper uses microlevel data to examine recent prepayment performance of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) employing the competing risk methodology developed by Deng, Quigley and Van Order (2000). We find support for the teaser rate and adjustment date effects implied by the theoretical model...

The magnitude of the effect of government-sponsored enterprise purchases on primary mortgage market rates has been a difficult research question with differing data and competing methodologies producing varying results. Here we present a new approach using loan level data and controlling for...

Housing policy in the United States has long supported homeownership, yet variation persists across income groups. This article employs recent mortgage origination data to focus on the revealed preferences of low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in home purchase mortgage choice. I identify...

We extend previous research on traditional one-year adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) by analyzing the performance of 3/27 hybrid instruments. Under this contract innovation, which first appeared in the mid-1990s, note rates are fixed for three years after which they convert to a traditional...

We model competing risks of mortgage termination where the borrower faces a repeated choice to continue to pay, refinance the loan, move or default. Most previous empirical work on mortgage prepayment has ignored the distinction between prepayments triggered by refinancing and moving, combining...

This paper shows how reduced form estimates of discrimination in mortgage lending may be biased by race differences in loan demand. The result, which follows formally from the model of the mortgage lending process developed in the seminal paper by Maddala and Trost (1982), has important...

ABSTRACT The cause of the "housing bubble" associated with the sharp rise and then drop in home prices over the period 1998-2008 has been the focus of significant policy and research attention. The dramatic increase in subprime lending during this period has been broadly blamed for these market...