As the fallout from subprime losses clearly demonstrates, the credit risk in residential mortgages is large and economically significant. To manage this risk, this paper proposes the creation of derivative instruments based on the credit losses of a reference mortgage pool. We argue that these...

To what degree has the development of alternative mortgage funding channels promoted the recent boom and bust in U.S. housing markets? Past research examined whether Alt-A and subprime market shares are correlated with the housing bubble. This paper expands the analysis to include the share of...

The foreclosure crisis that began in 2008 triggered the need for new approaches to treat distressed mortgages. A key component of the Obama Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was the development of a standardized Net Present Value (NPV) model to identify troubled loans...

This paper proposes two measures of credit risk for the population of outstanding mortgages. The first uses an average ex ante default probability to characterize risk, the second uses the unexpected loss generated by the asymptotic single factor risk (ASFR) model, a probabilistic model of...

In Housing Economics, filtering is the process by which properties, as they age, depreciate in quality and hence price and thus tend to be purchased by lower-income households. This is the primary mechanism by which competitive markets supply low-income housing. While at the national level...

As the fallout from subprime losses clearly demonstrates, the credit risk in residential mortgages is large and economically significant. To manage this risk, this paper proposes the creation of derivative instruments based on the credit losses of a reference mortgage pool. We argue that these...

This paper examines complications that arise in the nonparametric estimation of scale and scope economies. This paper presents a simple nonparametric strategy for estimating cost functions--the localization of the translog functional form--that is both easy to implement and has very desirable...

An examination of the impact of mortgage hedging activities on interest rate volatility considers a wide range of interest rate derivatives to isolate the sources that might be contributing to volatility. Over a rolling window providing estimates of key parameters, the measured effects of...