The United States is in the midst of a rather severe housing crisis. Home prices have declined and foreclosures have increased in cities all over the country. The crisis began in 2007 and has continued into the fourth quarter of 2008. Some cities have been severely affected by the housing crisis while others have been able to maintain relatively healthy housing markets. This paper demonstrates the local nature of housing markets and the factors which shape them. Analyses of the local housing markets of Austin, TX, Atlanta, GA and Miami, FL comprise the bulk of this paper and demonstrate the broad spectrum of housing market conditions that exist today. The lessons learned from the three case studies finally lead to some recommendations for local planners which could prove effective for creating and maintaining healthy local housing markets. / text

Reverse Mortgage Programme (“RMP”) was launched in Hong Kong on 11th July 2011. It aims to help the elderly to improve the living standard. Since the aging population is getting serious and the lack of comprehensive retirement protection scheme in Hong Kong, a big potential market for reverse mortgage is given which is anticipated that the eligible elderly should eagerly participate to the programme. However, the statistic from the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation (“HKMC”) showing that the participation rate of RMP is surprisingly low. Up to 31st May 2014, only 624numbers of applications were recorded. In order to boost the participation rate, this dissertation has conducted a study to identify the reason(s) of low participation rate and explore the possible way(s)to enhance the RMP. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a questionnaire survey was conducted to investigate the consumer’s perception to RMP. It divided consumer’s perception into consumer’s awareness and consumer’s motivation. High awareness but low understanding to RMP was found according to the results of survey. Meanwhile, low consumer’s motivation to RMP was found and the complicated programme content and legacy concern are the major factors influencing the consumer’s motivation. Nevertheless, there still a long way to go for the RMP in Hong Kong. To enhance the performance of RMP, it is recommended to promote it by different means of media and focus it to the elderly without children. Further studies would be needed to assess the effectiveness of the approaches in the recommendation. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This dissertation first investigates the possible house price trend and the relationship with the mortgage market, from the perspective of risk management; then it chooses the angle from bond insurers and figures out possible methods to avoid capital procyclicality. In Chapter I, we apply vector auto regression models (VAR) and simultaneous equations models (SEM) to estimate the dynamic relations among house price returns, mortgage rates and mortgage default rates, using historical data during the time period of 1979 through second quarter 2008. We find that house prices would be better estimated and predicted with the consideration of the mortgage market. In Chapter II, following the methodology of co-integration, we first construct several succinct measures to display the possible intrinsic values of house prices. In the short run, house price return dynamics are investigated by dynamic adjustments following Capozza et al (2002) and error correction models. We examine the possible overshooting problem of house price returns. By analytical derivations and simulations, we demonstrate the effects of the coefficients on overshooting. In Chapter III, we adopt a structural model with time-varying correlations for bond insurers. We consider losses due to bond insurers’ downgrading and losses from both insurance contracts and investment portfolio. On that basis, we propose forward-looking smoothing rules of capital over a full business cycle, instead of only based on a short-term horizon, to avoid the procyclicality. With the smoothed capital, a bond insurer can actually establish some capital buffer in good times to support the potential losses in crisis.

Zugl.: Duisburg, Essen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Zugl.: Duisburg, Essen, Univ., Diss., 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (University of Texas Digital Repository, viewed on Sept. 9, 2009). Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

by Donald Lessard and Judith Mason. / At head of title: Mortgage study reports, report [no.] 2. This project is funded by the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Home Loan Bank under HUD contract no. H-2211R.

Thesis (M.B.A)--Boston University.

My diploma work deals with the possibilities of financing a second-hand personal car by leasing, by a consumer bank credit and by an American mortgage with regard to the advantages of single methods of financing for a private person. This work is made up of two basis parts. The first of them - the theoretical one - is divided into three chapters treating of the way of use, advantages and disadvantages of all these methods. In the second, practical part the possibility of single methods of funding is proved by an analysis of concrete companies and banks, which offer these methods of financing. On the basis of the analysis the most advantageous companies and banks, which are offering their product with the most advantageous conditions, are evaluated. For interest I compared the possibilities of financing in the Czech Republic with Germany. The work also contains some detailed information about the second-hand car schop NOVOSAD, where I was getting consulation during my practise, and I gather information from their experience in my whole diploma work.

The purpose of this thesis is to empirically investigate the factors which drive the demand for and supply of mortgage finance in the United Kingdom. In particular, borrowers of long term mortgage funds are especially susceptible to the effects of inflation in `tilting' the stream of real repayments towards the initial years of the loan. As such, under certain circumstances inflation can be an important cause of mortgage default and thus plays a crucial role in the determination of mortgage demand. The mechanism through which mortgage default leads to households being possessed by their creditors is examined empirically. The results suggest that the ability to withdraw equity from the property either by remortgaging or `trading down' is important for borrowers who face financial difficulties. In addition, a relaxation of the non-interest terms of the mortgage contract is shown to lead to a rise in mortgage default, although this does not appear to have dampened the willingness of either mortgage borrowers or lenders to transact at high loan to value ratios. Understanding the underlying forces which cause repayment problems gives an important insight into the specification of both the mortgage demand and supply functions. In formulating such models, it is imperative that the dramatic structural changes in the market for mortgage finance are accounted for. This is particularly true for the supply side, and a formal theoretical model of building society interest rate setting is derived in which societies choose the degree to which they are either `member-' or `profit-oriented'. Interestingly, the model suggests that up to a point a building society may not alter either its mortgage or savings rate if its `preference for mutuality' were to change. Finally, reduced form cointegrating relationships for the quantity of mortgages traded, the mortgage interest rate and the loan to value ratio are estimated. The results are used to evaluate the extent of mortgage rationing during the 1970s; this research reaffirms the findings of other papers and anecdotal evidence to suggest that disequilibrium quantity rationing was substantial prior to 1980. In fact, a regime shift in the early 1980s is confirmed by the change in the way mortgage lenders have used combinations of the mortgage rate and the loan to value ratio to restrict lending.