The securitization of fixed-rate mortgages suggests that the FRA/VA market was fully integrated with capital markets by the early l98Os and that the conventional market moved toward integration during the l98Os. Assuming full integration of FHA/VA5 via the GNMA securitization process, we first...

Mortgages, like all debt securities, can be viewed as risk-free assets plus or minus contingent claims that can be usefully viewed as options. The most important options are: prepayment, which is a call option giving the borrower the right to buy back the mortgage at par, and default, which is a...

Option theory predicts that mortgage prepayment or default will be exercised by homeowners if the call or put option is sufficiently "in the money." This analysis: tests the extent to which the option approach explains default and prepayment behavior; evaluates the importance of modeling both...