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The Role of Home Equity Lending in the Recent Mortgage Crisis

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  • Michael LaCour-Little
  • Wei Yu
  • Libo Sun

Abstract

type="main"> Home equity lending grew rapidly from 2000 to 2008 with balances more than tripling. In this article, we examine the role this phenomenon may have played in increasing aggregate default risk during the mortgage crisis. We also document a relationship between growth in home equity lending and high house price depreciation and first mortgage default during the downturn of 2006–2009. Line of credit growth is shown to be associated with large increases in nonowner-occupied property purchases, suggesting that home equity lines of credit were tapped to fund such investments, exacerbating default rates during the market downturn.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael LaCour-Little & Wei Yu & Libo Sun, 2014. "The Role of Home Equity Lending in the Recent Mortgage Crisis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 42(1), pages 153-189, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:42:y:2014:i:1:p:153-189
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1540-6229.12029
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sheng Guo, 2022. "What Did Homeowners Do with Home Equity Borrowing? Contemporaneous and Long‐Term Effects," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(8), pages 2445-2475, December.
    2. Stephanie Moulton & Donald Haurin & Samuel Dodini & Maximilian D. Schmeiser, 2016. "How Home Equity Extraction and Reverse Mortgages Affect the Credit Outcomes of Senior Households," Working Papers wp351, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    3. Kuo‐Shing Chen & J. Jimmy Yang, 2020. "Housing Price Dynamics, Mortgage Credit and Reverse Mortgage Demand: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(2), pages 599-632, June.
    4. Samuel Dodini & Donald R. Haurin & Stephanie Moulton & Maximilian D. Schmeiser, 2015. "How House Price Dynamics and Credit Constraints affect the Equity Extraction of Senior Homeowners," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-70, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

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