, and its relationship with mortgage default. We find that lender effort to collect soft information is intertwined with …

strategically as their home value falls below the mortgage value (exercise the put option to default on their first mortgage). While … current but stand behind a seriously delinquent first mortgage, are subject to a high risk of default. On the other hand … that the various mortgage loss mitigation programs also play a role in providing incentives for homeowners to default on …