REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Brooklyn Law School

November 2, 2017

The Case for Prepaying your Mortgage

By David Reiss

Christi R. Wann has posted The Case for Prepaying your Mortgage to SSRN. The abstract reads, Households that already contribute sufficiently to tax-deferred retirement accounts often believe that the tax break from interest expense deduction is more beneficial than prepaying a … Continue reading

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November 2, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments

November 1, 2017

Understanding Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI)

By David Reiss

LendingTree quoted me in Guide to Understanding Private Mortgage Insurance (That’s PMI). It opens, Part I: Basics of private mortgage insurance (PMI) What is PMI? If you’ve ever purchased a home without a large down payment, you may have faced … Continue reading

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November 1, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments

October 26, 2017

Mortgage Servicing Since The Financial Crisis

By David Reiss

Standard & Poors issued a report, A Decade After The Financial Crisis, What’s The New Normal For Residential Mortgage Servicing? It provides a good overview of how this hidden infrastructure of the mortgage market is functioning after it emerged from … Continue reading

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October 26, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments

October 23, 2017

Improving the 30-Year Mortgage

By David Reiss

Wayne Passmore and Alexander von Hafften have posted Improving the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage to SSRN. The abstract reads, The 30-year fixed-rate fully amortizing mortgage (or “traditional fixed-rate mortgage”) was a substantial innovation when first developed during the Great Depression. However, it … Continue reading

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October 23, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments

October 17, 2017

Evidence and Innovation in Housing

By David Reiss

Lee Anne Fennell and Benjamin Keys have posted the Introduction to their new book, Evidence and Innovation in Housing Law and Policy, to SSRN. It opens, No area of law and policy presents more important and pressing questions, or ones more … Continue reading

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October 17, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments

September 28, 2017

Equifax and Your Mortgage

By David Reiss

HouseLoan.com quoted me in How Will The Equifax Data Breach Affect Your Ability To Get A Mortgage? It opens, Like throwing a stone into a pond, the Equifax data breach has long-lasting repercussions. Already, because of what’s being considered one … Continue reading

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September 28, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments

September 27, 2017

Fannie, Freddie and Climate Change

By David Reiss

The Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute issued its September 2017 Housing Finance At A Glance Chartbook. The introduction asks what the recent hurricanes tell us about GSE credit risk transfer. But it also has broader implications regarding … Continue reading

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September 27, 2017 in mortgage | Permalink | No Comments