We develop a unique paired loan dataset containing information on multiple conventional conforming mortgage loans to examine home equity extraction decisions over the 2000–2006 period. The main question addressed is how much households borrow when refinancing their current mortgage debt...

We empirically examine the role of appraisal in the residential mortgage lending process--in particular, the incidence, consequences, and determinants of appraisal below contract purchase price. Using the Boston Federal Reserve Study data set, we find that, as expected, low appraised value...

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...