Foote, Christopher L.; Loewenstein, Lara; Willen, Paul - 2016 - This version: November 17, 2016
The reallocation of mortgage debt to low-income or marginally qualified borrowers plays a central role in many … explanations of the early 2000s housing boom. We show that such a reallocation never occurred, as the distribution of mortgage debt … with respect to income changed little even as the aggregate stock of debt grew rapidly. Moreover, because mortgage debt …