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Working Paper
Mortgage contract choice in subprime mortgage markets
The boom in the subprime mortgage market yielded many loans with high LTV ratios. From a large proprietary database on subprime mortgages, we find that choice of mortgage rate type is not linear in loan sizes. A fixed rate mortgage contract is a popular choice when loan size, measured by LTV ratio, is small. As LTV ratio increases, borrowers become more likely to choose adjustable rate mortgage contracts. However, when LTV reaches a certain level, borrowers start to switch back to fixed rate contracts. For these high LTV loans, fixed rate mortgages dominate borrowers' choices. We present a ...
Journal Article
The use of cash and transaction accounts by American families
Working Paper
A New Look at the Effects of the Interest Rate Ceiling in Arkansas
Arkansas has been a popular place to study the effects of rate ceilings because of its exceptionally low interest rate ceiling. This paper examines the effects of the Arkansas rate ceiling on credit use by risky nonprime Arkansas consumers, which are especially vulnerable to credit rationing because of the low ceiling. We compare the level and composition of consumer debt of nonprime consumers in Arkansas with that of prime Arkansas consumers and also nonprime consumers in the neighboring states. We find that nonprime Arkansas consumers are less likely to have consumer debt and, conditional ...
Journal Article
Survey of Finance Companies, 2015
Finance companies are nondepository financial firms whose primary business is providing debt and lease financing to consumers and businesses. This article reports findings from a Federal Reserve survey of the assets and liabilities of finance companies in 2015. While the finance company industry provides a wide variety of credit and lease products, the survey indicates that firms in the industry are highly specialized. Nearly all finance companies hold a majority of their assets in one type of credit--consumer, real estate, or business credit. Firms specializing in consumer loans and leases ...
Journal Article
Financial characteristics of high-income families
Journal Article
Banking markets and the use of financial services by households