Between the early 1980s and 1986, the share of new conforming (under $153,000 in 1986) conventional fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) that went into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage pools increased from under 5 percent to over 50 percent. The impact of these agencies moving from negligible...

This paper estimates the likely impact of the Administration tax reform plan on housing. Our analysis incorporates two general equilibrium impacts -- a one percentage point decline in the level of interest rates and a decrease in the property tax rate on principal residences -- and corrects...

The impacts of four major tax reform proposals on the level of interest rates and the allocation of the American capital stock are derived. The four plans are Bradley-Gephardt, Kemp-Kasten, Treasury I and Treasury II. The allocation is among seven types of nonresidential capital, rental housing,...

Four tax reform proposals have been advanced in recent years: Bradley-Gephardt, Kemp-Kasten, Treasury-Department and the Administration plan. These plans could have significant impacts on financial markets. Reductions ininvestment incentives and marginal tax rates would tend to lower before-tax...

Purchase of a house requires three interrelated household financial decisions: what level of debt to obtain, whether to select an adjustable or fixed rate mortgage (ARM or FRM) and whether to choose an FHA or a conventional loan. While some have analyzed the mortgage debt decision and the...

We analyze by far the most extensive data base yet employed in estimating capitalization" of below-market interest rates into asset prices: nearly 300,000 sales of owner-occupied homes in" Sweden from 1981 to 1993 with 40,000 including government subsidized interest rates. Our" estimates...

Two phenomena characterized the housing market in the 1970s: a somewhat-disguised surge toward home ownership and a well-publicized sharp increase in the real price of housing. These movements were partially reversed in the first half of the 1980s. In the "standard view", the 1970s changes are...

We examine foreclosures on FHA single family mortgages insured during 1975-87. The importance of the market value of borrower equity, and of the dispersion of national house prices support much earlier work emphasizing the key role of negative equity in triggering default. The lower the "mean"...

In this paperwe examine the household's option to prepay or call a standard fixed-rate mortgage. Results based on simulation indicate that the value of this option is sensitive to the expected path of interest rates, the variation around that path, risk aversion and refinancing costs....

During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. government closely regulated the single-family housing finance system. The regulation manifested itself in a highly specialized system with four notable characteristics: portfolio restrictions against investments in corporate assets, tax inducements to invest...