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The role of neighborhood characteristics in mortgage default risk: Evidence from New York City

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  • Chan, Sewin
  • Gedal, Michael
  • Been, Vicki
  • Haughwout, Andrew

Abstract

Using a rich database of non-prime mortgages from New York City, we find that census tract level neighborhood characteristics are important predictors of default behavior, even after controlling for an extensive set of controls for loan and borrower characteristics. First, default rates increase with the rate of foreclosure notices and the number of lender-owned properties (REOs) in the tract. Second, default rates on home purchase mortgages are higher in census tracts with larger shares of black residents, regardless of the borrower’s own race. We explore possible explanations for this second finding and conclude that it likely reflects differential treatment of black neighborhoods by the mortgage industry in ways that are unobserved in our data.

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  • Chan, Sewin & Gedal, Michael & Been, Vicki & Haughwout, Andrew, 2013. "The role of neighborhood characteristics in mortgage default risk: Evidence from New York City," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 100-118.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhouse:v:22:y:2013:i:2:p:100-118
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhe.2013.03.003
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    3. J. Michael Collins & Carolina Reid, 2010. "Who receives a mortgage modification? Race and income differentials in loan workouts," Community Development Working Paper 2010-07, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
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    5. Thomas P. Boehm & Alan M. Schlottmann, 2020. "Achieving Effective Mortgage Modifications: The Importance of Household Characteristics," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 151-182, August.
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    7. Patricia D. Posey, 2023. "Information Inequality: How Race and Financial Access Reflect the Information Needs of Lower-Income Individuals," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 707(1), pages 125-141, May.
    8. Stephen L. Ross & Yuan Wang, 2022. "Mortgage Lenders and the Geographic Concentration of Foreclosures," Working Papers 2022-001, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    9. Jacob W. Faber & Peter M. Rich, 2018. "Financially Overextended: College Attendance as a Contributor to Foreclosures During the Great Recession," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1727-1748, October.
    10. Been, Vicki & Weselcouch, Mary & Voicu, Ioan & Murff, Scott, 2013. "Determinants of the incidence of U.S. Mortgage Loan Modifications," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 3951-3973.
    11. Selma Hepp, 2013. "Zoning Restrictiveness and Housing Foreclosures: Exploring a New Link to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 460-462, April.
    12. Sewin Chan & Claudia Sharygin & Vicki Been & Andrew Haughwout, 2014. "Pathways After Default: What Happens to Distressed Mortgage Borrowers and Their Homes?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 342-379, February.
    13. Fernando Ferreira & Joseph Gyourko, 2015. "A New Look at the U.S. Foreclosure Crisis: Panel Data Evidence of Prime and Subprime Borrowers from 1997 to 2012," NBER Working Papers 21261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Emily S. Taylor Poppe, 2016. "Homeowner Representation in the Foreclosure Crisis," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 809-836, December.
    15. Lee, Hyojung & Bostic, Raphael W., 2020. "Bank adaptation to neighborhood change: Mortgage lending and the Community Reinvestment Act," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    16. Schweikert, Jochen & Höchstötter, Markus, 2018. "Epidemiological spreading of mortgage default," Working Paper Series in Economics 112, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    17. Chan, Sewin & Haughwout, Andrew & Tracy, Joseph, 2015. "How Mortgage Finance Affects the Urban Landscape," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 987-1045, Elsevier.
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    20. Saty Patrabansh, 2015. "The Marginal Effect of First-Time Homebuyer Status on Mortgage Default and Prepayment," FHFA Staff Working Papers 15-02, Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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    22. Selma Hepp, 2013. "Foreclosures and Metropolitan Spatial Structure: Establishing the Connection," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 497-520, July.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mortgage; Default; Neighborhoods; Race;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • R2 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis

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