After exogenous shocks caused by natural disasters, the surge in demand for mortgages to rebuild damaged property is satisfied by FinTech lenders more than by traditional and shadow banks. Although both FinTech and traditional bank lenders increase mortgage availability, FinTech lenders are more...

This paper proposes a novel measure of financial fragility for shadow bank mortgage lenders and investigates its implications on credit supply and financial stability. The overall financial fragility of the shadow bank sector has been consistently increasing in recent years, reaching its highest...

A national loan level data set, aggregated at the zip code is used to examine the elasticity of default relative to local demographic characteristics and state level legislation regulating foreclosure procedures and predatory lending. We also illustrate the merit of using a form of hierarchical...

How do changes in a rating agency's reputation affect the ratings market? We study the dynamics of credit ratings after Standard & Poor's (S&P) was shut out of a large segment of the commercialmortgage-backed securities (CMBS) ratings market following a procedural mistake. Exploiting the fact...

There is a general consensus that the root cause of the most recent turmoil in the domestic and global markets is due to a failure in our regulatory system. Yet, Congress has not supported comprehensive regulation related to the day-to-day activities of mortgage brokers and their relationship...

House prices have increased significantly in Canada over the past decade, driving household debt and residential construction activity to historical highs. Although macro-prudential tightening has slowed the pace of household borrowing in the last few years, house prices have continued to trend...

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...

The U.S. mortgage finance system was one of the focal points of the 2007-08 financial crisis, yet legislative decisions about the appropriate role of the federal government in the system remain unsettled. Policy deliberations have focused on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the two enormous...

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...

This paper examines the impacts of changes in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured loan limit in response to the Economic Stimulus Act (ESA) of 2008. We use difference-in-difference approaches to compare the number of transactions and average loan-to-value ratios for properties...