The mortgage market collapse which followed the burst of the housing bubble in 2007 led to unprecedented levels of mortgage default, mortgage foreclosure, and housing vacancies. The dramatic increase in mortgage terminations prompted extensive discussions among academics, industry practitioners,...

The 10-year Treasury rate has long been considered the primary determinant of 30-year mortgage interest rates. The contemporaneous 10-year LIBOR swap rate is shown to better explain the contemporaneous mortgage rate than the contemporaneous 10-year Treasury rate. This result appears to hold over...