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The devil's in the tail: residential mortgage finance and the U.S. Treasury

Author

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  • W. Scott Frame
  • Larry D. Wall
  • Lawrence J. White

Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the U.S. housing finance reform conversation by providing a critical assessment of the various types of policy proposals that have been offered. There appears to be a broad consensus to maintain explicit government guarantees for certain narrowly defined borrower populations, such as Federal Housing Administration insurance guarantees for low- and moderate-income and first-time homebuyers. However, the expected role of the federal government in the broader housing finance system is in dispute. The expected role ranges from no role to insuring against only extreme or tail events to insuring against all losses. However, most proposals agree that any public insurance be priced and available only for loans meeting specified criteria to limit taxpayer exposure.

Suggested Citation

  • W. Scott Frame & Larry D. Wall & Lawrence J. White, 2012. "The devil's in the tail: residential mortgage finance and the U.S. Treasury," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2012-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedawp:2012-12
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    File URL: http://www.frbatlanta.org/documents/pubs/wp/wp1212.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brent W. Ambrose & Michael LaCour‐Little & Anthony B. Sanders, 2004. "The Effect of Conforming Loan Status on Mortgage Yield Spreads: A Loan Level Analysis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 541-569, December.
    2. Andra C. Ghent & Marianna Kudlyak, 2010. "Recourse and residential mortgage default: theory and evidence from U.S. states," Working Paper 09-10, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
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    5. James Vickery & Joshua Wright, 2013. "TBA trading and liquidity in the agency MBS market," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 19(May), pages 1-18.
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    7. Congressional Budget Office, 2010. "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Role in the Secondary Mortgage Market," Reports 21992, Congressional Budget Office.
    8. Robert Eisenbeis & W. Frame & Larry Wall, 2007. "An Analysis of the Systemic Risks Posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and An Evaluation of the Policy Options for Reducing Those Risks," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 31(2), pages 75-99, June.
    9. Jonathan D. Rose, 2011. "The Incredible HOLC? Mortgage Relief during the Great Depression," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(6), pages 1073-1107, September.
    10. Toni Dechario & Patricia C. Mosser & Joseph Tracy & James Vickery & Joshua Wright, 2010. "A private lender cooperative model for residential mortgage finance," Staff Reports 466, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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    12. Nothaft, Frank E & Pearce, James E & Stevanovic, Stevan, 2002. "Debt Spreads between GSEs and Other Corporations," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2-3), pages 151-172, Sept.-Dec.
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    14. W. Scott Frame, 2010. "Estimating the effect of mortgage foreclosures on nearby property values: a critical review of the literature," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 95(3).
    15. Engelhardt, Gary V. & Eriksen, Michael D. & Gale, William G. & Mills, Gregory B., 2010. "What are the social benefits of homeownership? Experimental evidence for low-income households," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 249-258, May.
    16. Viral V. Acharya & Matthew Richardson & Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh & Lawrence J. White, 2011. "Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9400.
    17. Diana Hancock & Wayne Passmore, 2010. "An analysis of government guarantees and the functioning of asset-backed securities markets," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2010-46, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    18. Dwight Jaffee & John M. Quigley, 2012. "The Future of the Government-Sponsored Enterprises: The Role for Government in the U.S. Mortgage Market," NBER Chapters, in: Housing and the Financial Crisis, pages 361-417, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. repec:aei:rpaper:26125 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Jaffee, Dwight M. & Quigley, John M., 2009. "The Government Sponsored Enterprises: Recovering From a Failed Experiment," Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series qt8v17v5vz, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy.
    21. Wall, Larry D. & Eisenbeis, Robert A. & Frame, W. Scott, 2005. "Resolving large financial intermediaries: Banks versus housing enterprises," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 386-425, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Gete & Franco Zecchetto, 2018. "Distributional Implications of Government Guarantees in Mortgage Markets," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 1064-1097.
    2. Zhao, Yunhui, 2016. "Got Hurt for What You Paid? Revisiting Government Subsidy in the U.S. Mortgage Market," MPRA Paper 81083, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Aug 2017.
    3. Patricia C. Mosser & Joseph Tracy & Joshua Wright, 2013. "The capital structure and governance of a mortgage securitization utility," Staff Reports 644, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

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