From a broad macro-financial structure perspective, overly easy credit conditions gave rise to house price booms and busts in several advanced economies (e.g., Ireland, Spain, and the U.S.), and, more specifically in the U.S., an underpricing of risk made possible by regulatory arbitrage and...

This paper presents evidence on the impact of the housing bubble, flood of high risk mortgage lending, and subsequent meltdown in homeownership. We point to agency and information problems in the mortgage origination and securitization market; incomplete risk transfer; and underassessment of...

The impact of borrowing constraints on homeownership has been well established in the literature. Wealth is most likely to restrict homeownership followed by credit and income. Using recent movers from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and borrowing constraint definitions commonly...