A Quantitative Analysis of the U.S. Housing and Mortgage Markets and the Foreclosure Crisis
Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Download Document| Date Published | 2015 |
| Version | |
| Primary Author | Satyajit Chatterjee and Burcu Eyigungor |
| Other Authors | |
| Theme | |
| Country | United States |
Abstract
We present a model of long-duration collateralized debt with risk of default. Applied to the housing market, it can match the homeownership rate, the average foreclosure rate, and the lower tail of the distribution of home-equity ratios across homeowners prior to the recent crisis. We stress the role of favorable tax treatment of housing in matching these facts. We then use the model to account for the foreclosure crisis in terms of three shocks: overbuilding, fi nancial frictions, and foreclosure delays. The financial friction shock accounts for much of the decline in house prices, while the foreclosure delays account for most of the rise in foreclosures. The scale of the foreclosure crisis might have been smaller if mortgage interest payments were not tax deductible. Temporarily higher in inflation might have lowered the foreclosure rate as well.