This third COVID-19 Special Issue Brief explores the characteristics, including demographics, of mortgage borrowers in forbearance or delinquent during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report uses data from the National Mortgage Database (NMDB®), which is a random 1-in-20 sample of closed-end...

Many struggling mortgage borrowers who have home equity lose it through foreclosure. To explainwhy they do not just sell their homes instead, this paper develops a new model of mortgage default in which homeowners face psychic moving costs. A transparent calibration procedure yields psychic...

Why do homeowners default on mortgages? This paper studies the question using a survey specifically designed for the purpose, with a sample drawn from (and matched to) very rich administrative data. I find that a wide variety of typically-unobserved liquidity shocks together trigger nearly all...