REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Brooklyn Law School

January 22, 2015

Kroll on Mortgage Performance

By David Reiss

The Kroll Bond Rating Agency has issued an update of its residential mortgage-backed securities model methodology, Residential Mortgage Default and Loss Model. Before the financial crisis, ratings models seemed to be very reliable, data-driven models of probity and caution. We … Continue reading

September 30, 2014

Cool Mortgage Tool

By David Reiss

The Urban Institute has created a cool interactive tool to map mortgages in the United States. Enterprise describes the tool as follows: it maps 12 years of data on more than 100 million mortgage originations throughout the U.S. by race … Continue reading

July 23, 2013

Shadowed by the Shadow Inventory

By David Reiss

My former colleague at Seton Hall, Linda Fisher, has posted Shadowed by the Shadow Inventory:  A Newark, New Jersey Case Study of Stalled Foreclosures & Their Consequences on SSRN. The paper presents the findings of a small, but interesting empirical … Continue reading

July 8, 2013

State of the Nation’s Housing 2013: Build It and They Will Come

By David Reiss

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released The State of the Nation’s Housing 2013.  As always there is much of interest in this annual report. I was particularly intrigued by Figure 21 on page 20, “The Government … Continue reading

February 22, 2013

Do Foreclosures Cause Crime?

By David Reiss

The Furman Center says yes.  The Center conducted an empirical study in New York City and found that “foreclosure activity appears to be linked to subsequent crime” if “there have been three or more foreclosure notices issued on a blockface.” … Continue reading

February 20, 2013

Asset Quality Misrepresentation in RMBS Market

By David Reiss

Piskorski, Seru & Witkin have posted Asset Quality Misrepresentation by Financial Intermediaries:  Evidence from RMBS Market, in which they “identify misrepresentations by comparing the characteristics of mortgages in the pool that were disclosed to the investors at the time of … Continue reading

February 14, 2013

Misleading CoreLogic Report on Qualified Mortgage Rules

By David Reiss

The Wall Street Journal reported (behind its paywall) uncritically on a recently released CoreLogic report about the supposed impact of the new Qualified Mortgage rules issued last month by the CFPB on the mortgage market.  The report is very flawed. … Continue reading