Homeownership Built to Last: Balancing Access, Affordability, and Risk after the Housing Crisis

Publication Date

June 2014

Author(s)

Adam J. Levitin, Janneke Ratcliffe, Mark R. Lindblad, Roberto G. Quercia, William M. Rohe

Read the Publication

Center researchers contribute three chapters to a new book that reexamines the goals, risks and rewards of homeownership in the wake of the housing bubble and subprime lending crisis.

The ups and downs in housing markets over the past two decades are without precedent, and the costs – financial, psychological, and social – have been enormous. Yet Americans overwhelmingly still aspire to homeownership, and many still view access to homeownership as an important ingredient for building wealth among historically disadvantaged groups.

Eric S. Belsky, Christopher E. Herbert, and Jennifer H. Molinsky assembled a team of specialists, including researchers at the UNC Center for Community Capital, to reexamine the goals, risks and rewards of homeownership in the wake of the housing bubble and subprime lending crisis.

Chapters co-authored by center researchers are:

• Reexamining the Social Benefits of Homeownership after the Housing Crisis, by center research director Mark Lindblad with William M. Rohe.
  
• Access and Sustainability for First-Time Homebuyers: The Evolving Role of State Housing Finance Agencies, by center director Roberto G. Quercia with Stephanie Moulton.
  
• Rethinking Duties to Serve in Housing Finance by center executive director Janneke H. Ratcliffe with Adam J. Levitin.
  

Read a center commentary on the findings presented on those chapters.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Eric S. Belsky, Christopher E. Herbert, and Jennifer H. Molinsky

Low-Income Homeownership at a Crossroads
Jennifer H. Molinsky and Eric S. Belsky

Making the Case for Home Ownership as a Policy Goal

1. Homeownership, Wealth, and the Production of Racialized Space
   John A. Powell and Kaloma Cardwell
2. Is Homeownership Still an Effective Means of Building Wealth for Low-Income and Minority Households? Was It Ever?
   Christopher E. Herbert, Daniel T. McCue, and Rocio Sanchez-Moyano
3. Reexamining the Social Benefits of Homeownership after the Housing Crisis
   William M. Rohe and Mark Lindblad

Supporting the Home Buying Process

4. To Buy or Not to Buy? Understanding Tenure Preferences and the Decisionmaking Processes of Lower-Income Households
   Carolina Reid
5. Developing Effective Subsidy Mechanisms for Low-Income Homeownership
   J. Michael Collins
6. Filling the Void Between Homeownership and Rental Housing: A Case for Explaining the Use of Shared Equity Homeownership
   Jeffrey Lubell

Balancing Affordability, Access, and Risk

7.  Underwriting Standards, Loan Products, and Performance: What Have We Learned?
Marsha J. Courchane, Leonard C. Kiefer, and Peter M. Zorn

   8.  Access and Sustainability for First-Time Homebuyers: The Evolving Role of State Housing FinanceAgencies
Stephanie Moulton and Roberto G. Quercia

9.  Mortgage Default Option Mispricing and Procyclicality
Andrew Davidson, Alex Levin, and Susan Wachter

The Government’s Role in the Evolving Mortgage Market

10. Rethinking Duties to Serve in Housing Finance
    Adam J. Levitin and Janneke H. Ratcliffe
11. Market Channel Segmentation, Its Patterns and Effects: What Role Has the Government Played in Creating a Dual Mortgage Market in the Past and How Likely Is One to Emerge in the Future?
    Raphael W. Bostic
12. The Role of Mortgage Finance in Financial (In)Stability
    Mark Calabria

Sustaining Homeownership

13. Protecting Homeowners, Post-Purchase: Lessons Learned from Engaging Distressed Homeowners
    Mark Cole
14. The Home Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Lessons Learned
    Patricia A. McCoy