REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Cornell Law School

January 26, 2018

Trump and the Regulation of Real Estate

By David Reiss

I have posted my article, The Trump Administration and Residential Real Estate Finance, which just came out in Westlaw Journal Derivatives to SSRN (and also to BePress). The abstract reads, An executive order titled “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs” … Continue reading

November 20, 2017

FHA Annual Check-up

By David Reiss

The Department of Housing and Urban Development released its Annual Report to Congress Regarding the Financial Status of the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. The MMIF fund is the FHA’s main vehicle for insuring mortgages. As we saw last week, … Continue reading

November 15, 2017

The FHA’s Ailing Reverse Mortgage Program

By David Reiss

The Fiscal Year 2017 Independent Actuarial Review of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund: Cash Flow Net Present Value from Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Insurance in Force has been released. It has some bad news: FHA provides reverse mortgage insurance through the HECM … Continue reading

November 10, 2017

How Important Is Skin in The Game?

By David Reiss

Haoyang Liu has posted a paper to SSRN that challenges the effectiveness of skin-in-the-game market discipline: Does Skin-in-the-Game Discipline Risk Management? Evidence from Mortgage Insurance. The abstract reads, Many mortgage reform proposals suggest replacing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) … Continue reading