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Journal Article
Estimating the Impact of Fast-Tracking Foreclosures in Ohio and Pennsylvania
All the signs in the housing market seem to be pointing the right way, except the amount of time loans are spending in the foreclosure process. Foreclosure fast-tracks for vacant homes in foreclosure may help reverse that trend.
Journal Article
Ohio and Pennsylvania: Two Approaches to Judicial Foreclosure Alternatives
As the number of foreclosures continues to rise across the country, many policymakers are creating alternatives to foreclosure. Two counties in the Federal Reserve's Fourth District?Cuyahoga County in Ohio, which encompasses Cleveland, and Allegheny County in Pennsylvania, encompassing Pittsburgh?have developed mediation and diversion programs aimed at mitigating the externalities associated with foreclosure, such as reduced property values and increased crime rates in surrounding neighborhoods.
Working Paper
The effect of local housing ordinances
The housing and economic crises have exerted a strong and lingering impact on housing markets across the nation. In this paper, we assess the degree to which local anti-blight policies have infl uenced housing market outcomes following the crises. The analysis is performed for cities in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. We measure outcomes that characterize market distress and that may be influenced by local housing ordinances including foreclosure, bulk sales, flipping, vacancy, and tax delinquency. Using matching procedures on linked data containing property, loan, and transaction characteristics, we ...
Monograph
Applying Research to Policy Issues in Distressed Housing Markets: Data-Driven Decision Making
A compilation of research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on housing markets experiencing foreclosure and/or a large number of vacant properties which sheds light on a wide range of housing markets. It provides possible policy solutions applicable to both regional and national policy discussions.
Working Paper
The impact of vacant, tax-delinquent, and foreclosed property on sales prices of neighboring homes
In this empirical analysis, we estimate the impact of vacancy, neglect associated with property-tax delinquency, and foreclosures on the value of neighboring homes using parcel-level observations. Numerous studies have estimated the impact of foreclosures on neighboring properties, and these papers theorize that the foreclosure impact works partially through creating vacant and neglected homes. To our knowledge, this is only the second attempt to estimate the impact of vacancy itself and the first to estimate the impact of tax-delinquent properties on neighboring home sales. We link vacancy ...
Journal Article
How well does bankruptcy work when large financial firms fail? Some lessons from Lehman Brothers
There is disagreement about whether large and complex financial institutions should be allowed to use U.S. bankruptcy law to reorganize when they get into financial difficulty. We look at the Lehman example for lessons about whether bankruptcy law might be a better alternative to bailouts or to resolution under the Dodd-Frank Act?s orderly liquidation authority. We find that there is no clear evidence that bankruptcy law is insufficient to handle the resolution of large complex financial firms.
Working Paper
False security: how securitization failed to protect arrangers and investors from borrower claims
The future of housing finance is in a state of flux. In February 2011, the Obama Administration released a proposal outlining three plans for the future of housing finance. In all three plans, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be phased out over a period of years and replaced with a private securitization market, which may be backed, in whole or in part, by a government guarantee. Whether the final plan relies upon government-guaranteed securities or private-label securities, Congress will have to resolve a range of complex legal aspects of securitization, from the bankruptcy remoteness of ...
Working Paper
Who’s afraid of good governance? State fiscal crises, public pension underfunding, and the resistance to governance reform
Much attention has been paid to the significant underfunding of many state and local employee pension plans, as well as efforts by states and cities to alleviate that underfunding by modifying the benefits provided to workers. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the systemic causes of such financial distress?such as chronic underfunding that shifts financial burdens to future taxpayers, and governance rules that may reduce the likelihood that a plan?s trustees will make optimal investment decisions. This article presents the results of a qualitative study of the funding and ...
Journal Article
Overvaluing residential properties and the growing glut of REO
Swelling REO inventories are the latest fallout of the housing crisis, costing lenders money and contributing to neighborhood blight. Yet lenders could avoid taking on so much REO if they could more accurately estimate the value of the homes they foreclose on, especially in weak housing markets. Correcting this apparent misunderstanding of the market could speed the clearing of REO inventories, save lenders money, and help stabilize housing markets.
Journal Article
Making financial markets safer for consumers: lessons from consumer goods markets and beyond
In the wake of the mortgage meltdown, policymakers are discussing how best to protect consumers in financial product markets.