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Working Paper
Mortgage contracts and housing tenure decisions
In this paper, we analyze various mortgage contracts and their implications for housing tenure and investment decisions using a model with heterogeneous consumers and liquidity constraints. We find that different types of mortgage contracts influence these decisions through three dimensions: the downpayment constraint, the payment schedule, and the amortization schedule. Contracts with lower downpayment requirements allow younger and lower income households to enter the housing market earlier. Mortgage contracts with increasing payment schedules increase the participation of first-time ...
Working Paper
Equilibrium mortgage choice and housing tenure decisions with refinancing
The last decade has brought about substantial mortgage innovation and increased refinancing. The objective of the paper is to understand the determinants and implications of mortgage choice in the context of general equilibrium model with incomplete markets. The equilibrium characterization allows us to study the impact of mortgage financing = decisions in the productive economy. We show the influence of different contract characteristics such as the downpayment requirement, repayment structure, and the amortization schedule for mortgage choice. We find that loan products that allow for low ...
Journal Article
Recent trends in homeownership
The homeownership rate began to trend upward in 1995 after years of being relatively constant, near 64 percent. This article describes recent changes in the share of U.S. housing that is owner-occupied and explores the reasons for the surprising rise over the past decade. Explanations that have been offered include demographics, low mortgage rates, changes in housing policy, and innovations in the mortgage financial market. Of all these explanations, the most plausible one is that innovations in the financial markets increased access to mortgage finance, mainly by reducing downpayment ...
Journal Article
The Homeownership Experience of Minorities During the Great Recession
It has been argued that during the Great Recession, wealth losses were more concentrated for college-educated Black and Hispanic families than for White and Asian college-educated families and their non-college-educated Black and Hispanic peers. This article explores the extent to which the homeownership experience for families who purchased homes between 2004 and 2008 is a potentially important factor in explaining this finding. During the housing boom, the increase in homeownership for Blacks and Hispanics was very similar, but the second group had a smaller decline. Despite these ...
Journal Article
Gauging Debt Levels in the U.S. and Eighth District
In this article, we look more closely at the recent developments in household debt accumulation nationally and in the Eighth District. One of the key findings is that household debt is increasing, but it has not yet reached the level observed in 2008 if adjustments are made for inflation. Also, the cause of the debt run-up in 2008 was mortgage debt. By contrast, consumer credit card debt and auto debt are the key drivers in the more recent increase.
Journal Article
Mortgage Debt Continues to Decline While Auto Lending Soars
Auto and student loans remained the fastest growing consumer debt categories in the second quarter, a Center for Household Financial Stability report states.
Working Paper
Equilibrium mortgage choice and housing tenure decisions with refinancing
The last decade has brought about substantial mortgage innovation and increased refinancing. The objective of this paper is to understand the determinants and implications of mortgage choice in the context of a general equilibrium model with incomplete markets. The equilibrium characterization allows us to study the impact of mortgage financing decisions in the productive economy. We show the influence of different contract characteristics such as the down payment requirement, repayment structure, and the amortization schedule for mortgage choice. We find that loan products that allow for low ...
Journal Article
On Corporate Income Taxes, Employment, and Wages
The passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has resulted in debate on whether the decline in personal and corporate income tax rates will increase employment, income, and wages.
Journal Article
Do Firms Switch Their Legal Form of Organization When Taxes Change?
Tax-law changes can cause firms to change their organizational structure.