The purpose of this study was to examine housing, demographic, and economic characteristics that are present in neighborhoods with high rates of mortgage default. In addition, the effect of minority percentage was studied in neighborhoods with high rates of default. Defaulted properties recorded in 2003-2004 in Weber County were geo-coded and assigned into one of 42 census tracts in Weber County. Descriptive statistics then profiled the characteristics of the census tracts. Correlations were used to determine which characteristics had statistical significance with mortgage default rates as well as minority percentage. Logistic regression was conducted to create a model describing the characteristics of neighborhoods that have high rates of default. The findings from the analysis show that mortgage defaults in Weber County occurred mostly in two well-defined housing markets. The first housing market is found in census tracts with low minorities, newer homes, higher priced homes, more use of second mortgages and home equity loans, more self-employed households, more dependents, and more vacant homes. The second housing market is described as census tracts with high minority percentages, fewer number of dependents, older and lower value of homes, and fewer second mortgages and home equity loans. The results show that the two housing markets that experienced mortgage default in 2003-2004 are different in their needs and possible prevention strategies. Educators can use this information to help target at-risk neighborhoods for education on horneownership and pre-purchase counseling, therefore strengthening communities.

The crisis of the mortgage market and the mortgage-backed security (MBS) market in 2008 had dramatic negative effects in dragging down all of the economy on a worldwide scale. Many researches have, therefore, attempted to explore the influencing factors on mortgage default risk. This project, in cooperation with the company EnerScore, revolves around discovering a correlation between portfolios of mortgages to underlying energy expenditures. EnerScore€™s core product provides an internal dataset related to home energy efficiency for American homes and gives their corresponding home energy efficiency rating to every home, which is called an €œEnerScore.€� This project involves discovering a correlation between default within portfolios of mortgages based on underlying energy expenditures. The goal is to show that energy efficient homes potentially have lower default risks than standard homes because the homes which lack energy efficiency are associated with higher energy costs. This leaves less money to make the mortgage payment, and thereby increases default risk. The first phase of this project involves finding a foreclosure dataset that will be used to design the quantitative model. Due to limited availability and constraints related to default data, Google search query data is used to develop a broad based and real-time index of mortgage default risk and establish a meaningful scientific correlation. After analyzing several statistical models to explore this correlation, the regression tree model showed that the EnerScore is a strong predictor for mortgage default risk when using city-level mortgage default risk data and EnerScore data.

The thesis sheds light on key policy issues emerging from the recent Global Financial Crisis. The first chapter studies whether expansionary monetary policy contributes to bank risk-taking, in the case of Asia. I rely on panel data analysis covering 432 banks in 9 Asian countries over the year 2000-2011. The ratio of risky assets to total assets serves as a risk-taking indicator. The results support the existence of the bank risk-taking channel, which is more pronounced for banks listed on the stock market. I also report new findings with respect to how banks take more risk following monetary expansion. Importantly, evidence of excessive leverage is not found. The second chapter constructs a model for analyzing bank risk-taking. I embed firm heterogeneity, endogenous default risk and capital adequacy regulation into both RBC and NK DSGE models. A subset of the firms can partially default on their loans obligation but subject to non-pecuniary default penalty. With those financial frictions in place, I find that standard macroeconomic shocks can induce banks to engage in higher risk-taking. The chapter then explores the effectiveness of several macro-prudential tools in mitigating risk-taking. I find countercyclical capital buffers and risky to total asset ratio targeting to be effective. The third chapter emphasises the spillover effects of shocks originating in the housing and financial market on the real economy. I embed endogenous mortgage default into a New Keynesian model that features housing and the banking sector. The latter faces capital regulation. We study two key shocks, namely shocks to the variance of idiosyncratic housing shock and shocks to the penalty on capital regulation. Both are instrumental in causing a surge in mortgage default and loans risk premium, which constrains bank lending activity. The chapter later introduces three macroprudential measures to explore whether they improve economic stability and welfare.

This Ph.D. thesis deals with questions related to the housing market, and answers the questions: "Does it matter if housing markets are underpriced?" and "How do the legal system and the loan contract affect those who default on their mortgage payments? "When selling a home, a popular marketing strategy is to set the list price far below market value. The idea is that a low list price will attract loads of buyers, who will push up the sale price. This thesis finds that a voluntary reform can reduce underpricing in the short run. Further, underpriced housing markets do indeed require more attention from potential buyers during all stages — online, at open houses, and during the bidding. This extra search effort is costly to society. However, underpricing is found not to affect the sale price, the time to sell, who the buyers are, or how hard the real estate agent works. The household's choice to default on a mortgage depends on the cost of the default (the legal system) and the mortgage contract. By studying a heterogeneous agent consumption/savings lifecycle model, this thesis finds that households prefer "lender friendly" laws that are costly for the homeowners upon default. This is because costly defaults yield fewer defaulters and thus lower interest rates, and thus are cheaper for non-defaulters. Households always prefer non-amortizing mortgages except when defaults do not have any cost associated with them, and they prefer adjustable rates over fixed rates. The benefits of costly defaults are particularly large for non-amortizing mortgages. The thesis concludes with the development of a new mathematical method to solve a particular class of dynamic programming problems, using stochastic simulated grids and nearest-neighbour interpolation.​

In the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, banking executives feared the impact of increased capital reserve requirements for losses from mortgage defaults. One reason was that home price declines during the Great Recession precipitated mortgage defaults, which increased the percentage of foreclosures as well as accelerated negative equity, and default. The purpose of this correlational study, grounded in Fishbein's expectancy of value and Vroom's expectancy theories, was to examine the relationship between the independent variables of homeowner's equity, rental cash flow value, and recourse, and the dependent variable, default mortgage status. Archival data comprised a sample of 408 single family residences in Alameda County, California, and Shelby, Fayette, and Tipton Counties in Tennessee. The results of the binary logistic regression model indicated the model was a good fit to predict a significant relationship between the variables (Ï?2 = 3.490, p = 0.322, df = 3). The findings did not reveal a significant relationship between homeowner's equity, rental cash flow value, recourse, and default mortgage status. Therefore, the independent variables did not predict mortgage default status. However, a minor relationship was found between homeowner's equity (p = 0.215), rental cash flow value (p = 0.215), and default mortgage status. A non-significant relationship between the independent variables and default mortgage status indicated that factors other than the study variables influenced default mortgage status. Advocates for fair housing laws may use study findings to encourage lenders to change lending policies to reduce the risk of default and increase stability in local communities, which may result in potential positive social change.

The first two chapters are dedicated to the modeling and implementation of a stock-flow consistent framework that incorporates real estate as an asset in the portfolio of the household. The third chapter investigates the main determinants of mortgage repayment of Canadian households. This first chapter presents a five-sector stock-flow consistency growth model where the portfolio decision of the households includes their choice of how much real estate they are interested in holding. The primary aim of the chapter is to model the housing market using the stock-flow consistent approach to explain the current global financial problem triggered by the housing market. The model is then simulated to predict the behaviour of various variables and propose appropriate solutions to the financial problem in the hope of returning the economy to a suitable equilibrium. Households' portfolio consists of money deposits, bills, bank equities and real estate. The other sectors that interact with the household sector are the production firms, the banks, the central bank and the government. Aside from the household sector, the banking sector ends up holding some real estate equivalent to the amount of mortgages defaulted by the households. The supply of real estate from the production sector is therefore augmented by the additional ones held by the banks. The second chapter presents the implementation of the stock-flow consistency model of first chapter. The purpose of the chapter is to run a simulation of the model and experiment with shocks to determine the path of the economic variables of the model. Another objective in performing the experiments is to find policies for mitigating the housing crisis. The model is implemented using the Eviews computer modeling software and runs until a stationary steady state is achieved. Various shocks are applied to the baseline stationary state. The results of the monetary policy show that the mortgage rate shock is more effective in influencing the growth rate of the economy as well as controlling the real estate market. Government fiscal policy is also effective in regulating the housing market. A one-period temporary fiscal policy shock is even capable of generating permanent long run growth effects. Household expectations in future housing price increases or future high rates of housing returns have the effect of heating the real estate market without comparable increases in economic growth. Policy makers must keep these expectations in check. The third chapter analyzes the determinants of mortgage repayment options in Canada. With the freedom that comes with being debt-free and owning a home one will assume that households pay off their mortgages as soon as possible. However, there are factors that inhibit households from carrying out these payoffs. The study uses Canadian micro-level data to examine factors that drive households to default, prepay or continue to make regular mortgage payments. The research methodology uses multinomial (polytomous) logistic regression analyzes. The empirical results establish that the traditional mortgage related predictor variables for repayment are statistically significant with the expected signs. The results relating to the provinces are not significantly different from each other. The results did not however provide any significance in relation to mortgage rates and the number of children in the household.

The first two chapters are dedicated to the modeling and implementation of a stock-flow consistent framework that incorporates real estate as an asset in the portfolio of the household. The third chapter investigates the main determinants of mortgage repayment of Canadian households. This first chapter presents a five-sector stock-flow consistency growth model where the portfolio decision of the households includes their choice of how much real estate they are interested in holding. The primary aim of the chapter is to model the housing market using the stock-flow consistent approach to explain the current global financial problem triggered by the housing market. The model is then simulated to predict the behaviour of various variables and propose appropriate solutions to the financial problem in the hope of returning the economy to a suitable equilibrium. Households' portfolio consists of money deposits, bills, bank equities and real estate. The other sectors that interact with the household sector are the production firms, the banks, the central bank and the government. Aside from the household sector, the banking sector ends up holding some real estate equivalent to the amount of mortgages defaulted by the households. The supply of real estate from the production sector is therefore augmented by the additional ones held by the banks. The second chapter presents the implementation of the stock-flow consistency model of first chapter. The purpose of the chapter is to run a simulation of the model and experiment with shocks to determine the path of the economic variables of the model. Another objective in performing the experiments is to find policies for mitigating the housing crisis. The model is implemented using the Eviews computer modeling software and runs until a stationary steady state is achieved. Various shocks are applied to the baseline stationary state. The results of the monetary policy show that the mortgage rate shock is more effective in influencing the growth rate of the economy as well as controlling the real estate market. Government fiscal policy is also effective in regulating the housing market. A one-period temporary fiscal policy shock is even capable of generating permanent long run growth effects. Household expectations in future housing price increases or future high rates of housing returns have the effect of heating the real estate market without comparable increases in economic growth. Policy makers must keep these expectations in check. The third chapter analyzes the determinants of mortgage repayment options in Canada. With the freedom that comes with being debt-free and owning a home one will assume that households pay off their mortgages as soon as possible. However, there are factors that inhibit households from carrying out these payoffs. The study uses Canadian micro-level data to examine factors that drive households to default, prepay or continue to make regular mortgage payments. The research methodology uses multinomial (polytomous) logistic regression analyzes. The empirical results establish that the traditional mortgage related predictor variables for repayment are statistically significant with the expected signs. The results relating to the provinces are not significantly different from each other. The results did not however provide any significance in relation to mortgage rates and the number of children in the household.

The first two chapters are dedicated to the modeling and implementation of a stock-flow consistent framework that incorporates real estate as an asset in the portfolio of the household. The third chapter investigates the main determinants of mortgage repayment of Canadian households. This first chapter presents a five-sector stock-flow consistency growth model where the portfolio decision of the households includes their choice of how much real estate they are interested in holding. The primary aim of the chapter is to model the housing market using the stock-flow consistent approach to explain the current global financial problem triggered by the housing market. The model is then simulated to predict the behaviour of various variables and propose appropriate solutions to the financial problem in the hope of returning the economy to a suitable equilibrium. Households' portfolio consists of money deposits, bills, bank equities and real estate. The other sectors that interact with the household sector are the production firms, the banks, the central bank and the government. Aside from the household sector, the banking sector ends up holding some real estate equivalent to the amount of mortgages defaulted by the households. The supply of real estate from the production sector is therefore augmented by the additional ones held by the banks. The second chapter presents the implementation of the stock-flow consistency model of first chapter. The purpose of the chapter is to run a simulation of the model and experiment with shocks to determine the path of the economic variables of the model. Another objective in performing the experiments is to find policies for mitigating the housing crisis. The model is implemented using the Eviews computer modeling software and runs until a stationary steady state is achieved. Various shocks are applied to the baseline stationary state. The results of the monetary policy show that the mortgage rate shock is more effective in influencing the growth rate of the economy as well as controlling the real estate market. Government fiscal policy is also effective in regulating the housing market. A one-period temporary fiscal policy shock is even capable of generating permanent long run growth effects. Household expectations in future housing price increases or future high rates of housing returns have the effect of heating the real estate market without comparable increases in economic growth. Policy makers must keep these expectations in check. The third chapter analyzes the determinants of mortgage repayment options in Canada. With the freedom that comes with being debt-free and owning a home one will assume that households pay off their mortgages as soon as possible. However, there are factors that inhibit households from carrying out these payoffs. The study uses Canadian micro-level data to examine factors that drive households to default, prepay or continue to make regular mortgage payments. The research methodology uses multinomial (polytomous) logistic regression analyzes. The empirical results establish that the traditional mortgage related predictor variables for repayment are statistically significant with the expected signs. The results relating to the provinces are not significantly different from each other. The results did not however provide any significance in relation to mortgage rates and the number of children in the household.

2007年美國爆發次級房貸違約潮造成了其經濟、房市和股市的不景氣，也波及到持有美國房貸證券化商品的各國，使其承受重大的損失，因此房屋抵押貸款違約的影響因素和金融資產證券化機制對貸款違約風險的影響又再度成為不動產與金融市場上之重要議題。而以往針對美國次貸危機的研究多指出道德風險是造成此次危機的原因之一，但是較缺乏實證研究的支持。 有鑑於此，本研究以我國的台北市和新北市的房屋抵押貸款市場作為研究對象，探討逆選擇和道德風險這兩個資訊不對稱的問題對貸款違約率的影響。研究結果顯示「貸款成數高、貸款利率高、搭配信貸和設定二胎的貸款比較容易違約」，證實逆選擇和道德風險問題確實存在於房屋抵押貸款市場，而且會增加貸款違約的機率。為了降低違約機率，從降低資訊不對稱的角度來看，本研究建議：一、建立全國房貸資料庫；二、將信貸的金額納入房貸的貸款成數中考慮，以降低款人的道德風險。 再者，本研究認為造成次貸危機的根本原因是不當政策導致的保證機制浮濫，以及高風險的房貸證券化商品的氾濫。為了避免我國發生類似次貸危機的事件，從減少資訊不對稱的角度切入，本研究建議我國的金融資產證券化機制應該：一、將道德風險內部化，消除創始機構自利的動機以減少道德風險；二、使用外部信用增強的方式，以確實發揮分散證券風險的作用。 / The 2007 subprime mortgage crisis has severely struck the stability of the worldwide financial markets. Some researches indicate that moral hazard problems are the main factors causing the crisis. However, few studies support asymmetry problems existing in a mortgage market by empirical evidences. First, using the mortgage samples from Taipei City and New Taipei City this study would like to understand if the mortgage market are information asymmetry problems, adverse selection and moral hazard, and conduct the empirical analysis for these factors’ impact on mortgage default. The results show that mortgage default is influenced significantly by the Loan-to-Value （LTV） ratio, contract interest rates, the existence of second liens and credit loans, and jobs. It shows that adverse selection and moral hazard actually exist in the mortgage market. According to the empirical results, secondly, this study proposes suggestions for mortgage lending and financial asset securitization to reduce adverse selection and moral hazard problems and enhance the regulation environment and market’s stability. It is expected that the results of this study will be applied to avoid the occurrence of similar crisis in Taiwan.