This article reviews the surge in research on mortgage default inspired by the recent foreclosure crisis. Economists …

Did securitization exacerbate the foreclosure crisis by altering mortgage servicing practices? I exploit the … unanticipated freeze of private mortgage securitization in 2007 to provide new evidence that securitization increases foreclosure … favoring foreclosure. The evidence implies that securitization significantly increased foreclosure rates during and after the …

time costs of foreclosure. We estimate that the California Foreclosure Prevention Laws (CFPLs) prevented 250,000 California … borrower transitions into default. They also mitigated foreclosure externalities via increased maintenance spending on homes … that entered foreclosure. The CFPLs had minimal adverse side effects on the availability of mortgage credit for new …

, balloon loans, and reduced documentation on the probabilities of foreclosure and prepayment. Results indicate that across … cities, reduced documentation is consistently related to higher probabilities of foreclosure, and prepayment penalties are …

will not pursue foreclosure if borrowers have insufficient equity. Lenders of defaulted subordinate debt may revisit their …

Existing research on the foreclosure crisis tends to focus on national trends or on metropolitan areas. Few studies … rural communities face unique challenges in the wake of the foreclosure crisis due to capacity constraints, lack of …

. Politicians and commentators often use this explanation to argue that the foreclosure crisis is the result of regulations that …. Holding loan cost constant, I find that foreclosure is lower in minority areas. This evidence is consistent with lenders … foreclosure crisis …

The current mortgage foreclosure crisis is presumably related to lax lending policies pursued by financial institutions … mortgage lending is higher in minority areas, the estimated mortgage foreclosure rate is lower in these areas. This evidence is … inconsistent with the contention that regulations encouraging lending in minority areas contribute to the subprime foreclosure …