Working Paper #670
The Great Capital Strike
Peter Linneman · Man Cho
Housing & Residential Investing Mortgages
The growth of the market for residential mortgage-backed securities in the United States has been spectacular: from zero in the early 1980s to multi-trillion annual originations by 2006. Residential mortgage underwriting standards declined for a variety of reasons, including incentives created by the Federal Reserve. This led to the creation of non-transparent mortgage products, many of which were loans to speculative “flipper” homebuyers. The future of securitization remains murky, but will include simpler and more transparent instruments. A necessary condition for a sustainable securitization system is the existence of an “investment community” filled with seasoned and informed investors equipped with proper tools for measuring, managing and trading underlying mortgage risks.