IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reesec/v49y2021is2p461-489.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Jumbo rates below conforming rates: When did this happen and why?

Author

Listed:
  • Lynn M. Fisher
  • Mike Fratantoni
  • Stephen D. Oliner
  • Tobias J. Peter

Abstract

We show that jumbo mortgage rates were above conforming rates before the financial crisis, consistent with previous studies, and that the spread between them widened during the crisis. However, the spread turned negative in 2013 and remained so through 2019, with jumbo rates about a quarter percentage point below conforming rates. A rise in the government‐sponsored enterprise (GSE) guarantee fees appears to be the main reason for the change. Increased bank supply of jumbo loans also may have played some role, though the evidence is weak. With the onset of the Covid‐19 pandemic, we estimate that the jumbo‐conforming spread increased enough to move slightly above zero.

Suggested Citation

  • Lynn M. Fisher & Mike Fratantoni & Stephen D. Oliner & Tobias J. Peter, 2021. "Jumbo rates below conforming rates: When did this happen and why?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S2), pages 461-489, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:49:y:2021:i:s2:p:461-489
    DOI: 10.1111/1540-6229.12337
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.12337
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1540-6229.12337?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James Vickery & Joshua Wright, 2013. "TBA trading and liquidity in the agency MBS market," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 19(May), pages 1-18.
    2. Steve Sharpe & Shane Sherlund, 2016. "Crowding Out Effects of Refinancing on New Purchase Mortgages," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 48(2), pages 209-239, March.
    3. Marco Di Maggio & Amir Kermani & Christopher J Palmer, 2020. "How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(3), pages 1498-1528.
    4. Brent W. Ambrose & Michael LaCour‐Little & Anthony B. Sanders, 2004. "The Effect of Conforming Loan Status on Mortgage Yield Spreads: A Loan Level Analysis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 541-569, December.
    5. Gillian Burgess & Wayne Passmore & Shane M. Sherlund, 2005. "The effect of housing government-sponsored enterprises on mortgage rates," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2005-06, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Anthony A. DeFusco & Andrew Paciorek, 2017. "The Interest Rate Elasticity of Mortgage Demand: Evidence from Bunching at the Conforming Loan Limit," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 210-240, February.
    7. Wayne Passmore & Shane M. Sherlund & Gillian Burgess, 2005. "The Effect of Housing Government-Sponsored Enterprises on Mortgage Rates," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 33(3), pages 427-463, September.
    8. Alex Kaufman, 2014. "The Influence of Fannie and Freddie on Mortgage Loan Terms," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 472-496, June.
    9. McKenzie, Joseph A, 2002. "A Reconsideration of the Jumbo/Non-jumbo Mortgage Rate Differential," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2-3), pages 197-213, Sept.-Dec.
    10. Christopher Mayer & Karen Pence & Shane M. Sherlund, 2009. "The Rise in Mortgage Defaults," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 27-50, Winter.
    11. Stephen Matteo Miller, 2018. "The recourse rule, regulatory arbitrage, and the financial crisis," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 195-217, October.
    12. Elena Loutskina & Philip E. Strahan, 2009. "Securitization and the Declining Impact of Bank Finance on Loan Supply: Evidence from Mortgage Originations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 861-889, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alexei Alexandrov & Thomas S. Conkling & Sergei Koulayev, 2024. "Changing the Scope of GSE Loan Guarantees: Estimating Effects on Mortgage Pricing and Availability," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 409-451, October.
    2. Wu, Di & Deng, Nanxin, 2024. "Beyond origination charges: The pass-through of GSE upfront fee adjustments in 2022," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen D. Oliner & Tobias Peter & Lynn M. Fisher & Mike Fratantoni, 2019. "Jumbo rates are below conforming rates: When did this happen and why?," AEI Economics Working Papers 1025444, American Enterprise Institute.
    2. Olsen, Edgar O. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2015. "US Housing Policy," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 887-986, Elsevier.
    3. Zhao, Yunhui, 2016. "Got Hurt for What You Paid? Revisiting Government Subsidy in the U.S. Mortgage Market," MPRA Paper 81083, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 Aug 2017.
    4. Alexei Alexandrov & Thomas S. Conkling & Sergei Koulayev, 2024. "Changing the Scope of GSE Loan Guarantees: Estimating Effects on Mortgage Pricing and Availability," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 409-451, October.
    5. Neil Bhutta & Daniel R. Ringo, 2017. "The Effect of Interest Rates on Home Buying : Evidence from a Discontinuity in Mortgage Insurance Premiums," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-086, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. W. Scott Frame & Andreas Fuster & Joseph Tracy & James Vickery, 2015. "The Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 25-52, Spring.
    7. James Vickery & Joshua Wright, 2013. "TBA trading and liquidity in the agency MBS market," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 19(May), pages 1-18.
    8. W. Scott Frame & Diana Hancock & Wayne Passmore, 2012. "Federal Home Loan Bank Advances and Commercial Bank Portfolio Composition," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44(4), pages 661-684, June.
    9. Serafin J. Grundl & You Suk Kim, 2019. "The Marginal Effect of Government Mortgage Guarantees on Homeownership," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2019-027, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Ma, Chao, 2020. "Per-customer quantity limit and price discrimination: Evidence from the U.S. residential mortgage market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    11. W. Scott Frame, 2009. "The 2008 federal intervention to stabilize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2009-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    12. John M. Quigley, 2006. "Federal credit and insurance programs: housing," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 88(Jul), pages 281-310.
    13. Robert Eisenbeis & W. Frame & Larry Wall, 2007. "An Analysis of the Systemic Risks Posed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and An Evaluation of the Policy Options for Reducing Those Risks," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 31(2), pages 75-99, June.
    14. Andreas Fuster & Aurel Hizmo & Lauren Lambie-Hanson & James Vickery & Paul S. Willen, 2021. "How Resilient Is Mortgage Credit Supply? Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," NBER Working Papers 28843, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Andreas Fuster & David Lucca & James Vickery, 2023. "Mortgage-backed securities," Chapters, in: Refet S. Gürkaynak & Jonathan H. Wright (ed.), Research Handbook of Financial Markets, chapter 15, pages 331-357, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    16. Alex Kaufman, 2014. "The Influence of Fannie and Freddie on Mortgage Loan Terms," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 472-496, June.
    17. Xudong An & Raphael Bostic, 2008. "GSE Activity, FHA Feedback, and Implications for the Efficacy of the Affordable Housing Goals," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 207-231, February.
    18. Elena Loutskina & Philip E. Strahan, 2009. "Securitization and the Declining Impact of Bank Finance on Loan Supply: Evidence from Mortgage Originations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 64(2), pages 861-889, April.
    19. Andreas Lehnert & Wayne Passmore & Shane Sherlund, 2008. "GSEs, Mortgage Rates, and Secondary Market Activities," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 343-363, April.
    20. Sumit Agarwal & Yongheng Deng & Jia He & Yonglin Wang & Qi Zhang, 2023. "Lenders’ pricing strategy: Do neighborhood risks matter?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1011-1047, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:reesec:v:49:y:2021:i:s2:p:461-489. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/areueea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.