IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uct/uconnp/2013-05.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Using Eminent Domain to Write-Down Mortgages: An Economic Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas J. Miceli

    (University of Connecticut)

  • Katherine A. Pancak

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

A handful of economically distressed cities and counties are considering using their power of eminent domain to write down the principal of underwater mortgage loans. Analogous to the condemnation of tangible real estate for public use, the city would “take” intangible mortgage loans from the lenders or investors holding the loans. According to the proposed idea, the underwater mortgage loans would be acquired for less than their stated face value, and then written down, refinanced, and sold to investors. This article reviews the legal basis and economic impact of such government forced write-down and refinancing. We develop a model of negative equity mortgage default both with and without government takings, to determine if the use of eminent domain is socially desirable from a policy perspective. We find a trade-off between the immediate benefits of avoiding current mortgage defaults and longer term costs of increased interest rates. The weighting of this trade-off is impacted by the determination of just compensation.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas J. Miceli & Katherine A. Pancak, 2013. "Using Eminent Domain to Write-Down Mortgages: An Economic Analysis," Working papers 2013-05, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2013-05
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://media.economics.uconn.edu/working/2013-05.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miceli,Thomas J., 2011. "The Economic Theory of Eminent Domain," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107005259, January.
    2. Brueckner, Jan K, 2000. "Mortgage Default with Asymmetric Information," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 251-274, May.
    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. Brett Christophers & Christopher Niedt, 2016. "Resisting devaluation: Foreclosure, eminent domain law, and the geographical political economy of risk," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(3), pages 485-503, March.

    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. Jevgenijs Steinbuks & Gregory Elliehausen, 2014. "The Economic Effects of Legal Restrictions on High-Cost Mortgages," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 47-72, July.
    2. Moon, Byunggeor, 2018. "Housing investment, default risk, and expectations: Focusing on the chonsei market in Korea," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 80-90.
    3. Soumendu Sarkar, 2022. "Optimal mechanism for land acquisition," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 26(1), pages 87-116, March.
    4. Danny Ben-Shahar, 2008. "Default, Credit Scoring, and Loan-to-Value: a Theoretical Analysis under Competitive and Non-Competitive Mortgage Markets," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 30(2), pages 161-190.
    5. Jan K. Brueckner & Paul S. Calem & Leonard I. Nakamura, 2016. "House‐Price Expectations, Alternative Mortgage Products, and Default," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1), pages 81-112, February.
    6. Wojakowski, Rafal M. & Ebrahim, M. Shahid & Shackleton, Mark B., 2016. "Reducing the impact of real estate foreclosures with Amortizing Participation Mortgages," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 62-74.
    7. Joung Oh Park & Jinhee Choi & Guy Ngayo, 2023. "Predicting the Non-Return of Chonsei Lease Deposits in the Republic of Korea," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-14, October.
    8. Soumendu Sarkar, 2017. "Mechanism design for land acquisition," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 46(3), pages 783-812, August.
    9. Paul Pecorino, 2013. "Compensation for Regulatory Takings with a Redistributive Government," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 80(2), pages 488-501, October.
    10. Lanot, Gauthier & Leece, David, 2010. "The Performance of UK Securitized Subprime Mortgage Debt: ‘Idiosyncratic’ Behaviour or Mortgage Design?," MPRA Paper 27137, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Thomas J. Miceli & Kathleen Segerson, 2011. "Regulatory Takings," Working papers 2011-16, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    12. Michael E. Staten & John M. Barron & Andrew B. Chong, 2004. "The Emergence of Captive Finance Companies and Risk Segmentation of the Consumer Loan Market:Theory and Evidence," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 584, Econometric Society.
    13. Ambrose, Brent W. & Pennington-Cross, Anthony & Yezer, Anthony M., 2002. "Credit Rationing in the U.S. Mortgage Market: Evidence from Variation in FHA Market Shares," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 272-294, March.
    14. Calem, P. & Cannon, M. & Nakamura, L.I., 2011. "Credit Cycle and Adverse Selection Effects in Consumer Credit Markets – Evidence from the HELOC Market," Other publications TiSEM c539362f-1a52-4613-b93c-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Brueckner, Jan K. & Calem, Paul S. & Nakamura, Leonard I., 2012. "Subprime mortgages and the housing bubble," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 230-243.
    16. Miceli, Thomas J. & Pancak, Katherine & Segerson, Kathleen, 2017. "Using eminent domain to refinance underwater mortgages: A welfare analysis," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 12-22.
    17. Gary-Bobo, Robert J. & Larribeau, Sophie, 2003. "The Bank's Market Power and the Interest Rate Elasticity of Demand for Housing: An Econometric Study of Discrimination on Frenc," CEPR Discussion Papers 3745, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Jan K. Brueckner & James N. Conklin & N. Edward Coulson & Moussa Diop, 2023. "Default Costs and Repayment of Underwater Mortgages," CESifo Working Paper Series 10755, CESifo.
    19. William D. Larson & Andrew B. Martinez, 2024. "House Prices, Debt Burdens, and the Heterogeneous Effects of Mortgage Rate Shocks," Working Papers 2024-002, The George Washington University, Department of Economics, H. O. Stekler Research Program on Forecasting.
    20. Sengupta, Rajdeep, 2014. "Lending to uncreditworthy borrowers," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 101-128.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Default; eminent domain; mortgages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K11 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Property Law
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:uct:uconnp:2013-05. 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: Mark McConnel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuctus.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.