The Future of Housing Finance Restructuring the U.S. Residential Mortgage Market

by Baily, Martin Neil

• ISBN13: 9780815722083
• ISBN10: 0815722087
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-10-07
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Summary

Although there was no single cause for the financial crisis of 2008, fundamental flaws in the U.S. housing finance market certainly contributed to the near collapse of this nation's financial system. There is broad bipartisan agreement that given their role in the financial crisis, government housing policies need to be reevaluated. In response, the Obama administration has recommended reducing the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in housing finance, with the ultimate goal of replacing these government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) with a private market that would become the primary source of mortgage credit and bear the burden of risk. In The Future of Housing Finance, Martin Neil Baily and his contributors discuss the issues and options that policymakers face as they reassess the government's role in the U.S. residential mortgage market. Will Congress agree, and if so, how fast will it move? Can the already weak housing market survive without some kind of an explicit government backstop? Who will protect consumers against risk? Will thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages become a thing of the past? Can consensus be reached? Specific topics addressed include the introduction of a new system that reduces the incentives for excessive risk taking and includes a limited government role in providing credit guarantees for qualifying mortgage securities; the gradual withdrawal of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the housing finance system; new approaches to regulating mortgage securitization, with the primary goal of financial stability; and the introduction of government-backed guarantees through institutional structures designed to limit moral hazard. The volume also includes remarks by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the Obama administration's strategy for reforming the nation's housing finance markets and a keynote address delivered by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.

Author Biography

Martin Neil Baily is the Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Development and a senior fellow and the director of the Initiative on Business and Public Policy in the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution. He was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton administration (1999-2001) and one of three members of the council from 1994 to 1996.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Federal Role in Housing Finance: Principal Issues and Policy Proposals	p. 1
The Cycle in Home Building	p. 21
Toward a Three-Tier Market for U.S. Home Mortgages	p. 26
Government's Role in the Housing Finance System: Where Do We Go from Here?	p. 66
Eliminating the GSEs as Part of Comprehensive Housing Finance Reform	p. 92
Catastrophic Mortgage Insurance and the Reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac	p. 111
The Economics of Housing Finance Reform	p. 146
Contributors	p. 199
Index	p. 201
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