This paper analyzes the role of uncertainty in a multi-sector housing model with financial frictions. We include time varying uncertainty (i.e. risk shocks) in the technology shocks that affect housing production. The analysis demonstrates that risk shocks to the housing production sector are a...

This paper examines the available data on market conditions for equity release schemes (ERS) in all EU member states to cluster Member States for subsequent extrapolation of the findings from six EU Member States (DE, IT, NL, IE, HU, and the UK) to the EU as a whole. It aggregates various...

Recent proposals to address housing market troubles through principal modification raise the possibility that such policies could increase the cost of credit in the mortgage market. We explore this using historical variation in federal judicial rulings regarding whether Chapter 13 bankruptcy...

We expand the debate on incentives embedded in the originate-to-distribute lending model by presenting evidence on the placement of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) with mutual funds. We do so by capitalizing on a unique testing platform encompassing institutional holdings of private-label MBS...

Theoretically, if firms face a regulatory per-customer quantity limit, they should have an incentive to discriminatively charge high-demand customers higher prices and make them just willing to buy a quantity equal to the limit. In the U.S. residential mortgage industry, mortgages with...

Rural homeownership is promoted in the United States by mortgage insurance programs administered by the federal government. We analyze the choice between assistance offered by two such agencies: the Federal Housing Administration and the Rural Housing Service. We find applicants are sensitive to...

Using information on mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, this article examines the disproportionate decline in collateral values associated with reverse mortgages. Properties securing reverse mortgages sell at a sharp discount in foreclosure relative to similar properties...

This paper examines the shift in how Federal Housing Administration collateral valuations were conducted in the mid-1990s. Moving from assignment of appraisers by Department of Housing and Urban Development field offices to selection by lenders did not increase the speed of valuations. However,...

The financial health of the mortgage insurance industry is vital for the flow of mortgage credit to low wealth borrowers. Private mortgage insurance competes with insurance offered through the federal government, particularly the Federal Housing Administration. This paper employs a Heckman...