It appears that mortgage origination and securitization is currently “in limbo”: Private securitization has all but disappeared and is being absorbed by government- sponsored enterprises

This study presents a brief overview of the Alt-A mortgage market with the goal of outlining broad trends in the different borrower and mortgage characteristics of Alt-A market originations between 2000 and 2006. The paper also documents the default patterns of Alt-A mortgages in terms of the...

Contrary to popular perception, the foreclosure process can be very costly for a lender…it remains a puzzle as to why such large numbers of mortgages in default enter into foreclosure in the first place.

Loan performance of subprime originations during the boom years of 2004–2006 is contrasted with that of subprime originations during the early period of 2000–2002. A counterfactual technique is developed to determine how originations during the early period would perform in a different...