Fannie Mae Working Papers
In Fannie Mae's publications series, our analysts explore key trends and data, mining them for insights into market developments and potential outcomes. The authors also engage with industry partners who share their research expertise on robust, in-depth studies. The analyses and other views in these materials represent the views of the author(s) as of the date indicated and do not necessarily represent the views of Fannie Mae's Economic & Strategic Research Group, Fannie Mae or its management.
Mortgage Performance and Home Sales for Damaged Homes Following Hurricane Harvey
May 29, 2024
We analyze loan performance and property transactions following Hurricane Harvey using a novel dataset with property-specific flood insurance and claim information. Using insurance claims to proxy for damages we find that both short-term delinquency and forbearance take-up are positively associated with damages. Loan modification is positively correlated with damages of up to 50 percent of property value and negatively correlated thereafter, suggesting that, for severely damaged homes with flood insurance, loan modifications are not an attractive remedy for delinquency concerns.
Read more»
Multifamily Investors Expected to Stay Focused on South Florida Despite Climate Challenges
May 7, 2024
Despite climate-related challenges, as well as other external factors, including elevated interest rates, higher construction costs, and sky-rocketing property insurance premiums, both residents and real estate investors have a positive longer-term outlook on the southeastern region of the Sunshine State, especially for the multifamily sector.
Read more»
The Impact of 2019 Changes to Texas' Flood Disclosure Requirements on House Prices
February 21, 2024
This paper examines the impact of a 2019 change to Texas' real estate disclosure law that introduced requirements to disclose when a property is in a moderate risk flood zone and increased the prominence of all flood-related disclosures.
Read more»
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program: A Comprehensive Review
January 23, 2024
This review explores literature assessing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. As the primary subsidy for affordable housing production and preservation in the U.S., there is a growing policy and research interest in this program.
Read more»
Low Balance Lending Economics: The Role of the Spec Pay-up
December 8, 2023
Fannie Mae introduces a new methodology that estimates and decomposes lender revenue for Fannie Mae guaranteed loans and illustrates how the specified pay-up supports access to credit for underserved borrowers.
Read more»
Who Owns a Home? Householders and Homeownership
May 25, 2023
Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Fannie Mae jointly estimates models of headship and homeownership as a function of demographics, income, and wealth.
Read more»
An Alternative Approach to Estimating Foreclosure and Short Sale Discounts
February 13, 2023
This Fannie Mae working paper investigates whether large price discounts for foreclosures and short sales were due to omitted variables bias.
Read more»
December 22, 2022
Getting a home mortgage is the single largest financial transaction most households will ever undertake. Making a good loan choice is not easy. The typical borrower faces a dozen or more individual cash charges and an interest rate that will determine the amount of the loan payments. The mortgage market is a negotiated market, prices are not fixed. The borrower’s inexperience versus the skill and experience of lenders, realtors, and title and settlement agents gives a negotiating advantage to better-informed side. Some borrowers end up with good deals, and some with not-so-good. This paper studies how the cost of a mortgage varies with loan and borrower characteristics, such as loan amount, borrower race, credit score, borrower income and education, geography, type of lender, whether the borrower was a first-time homebuyer, and more.
Read more»
Next to Kin: How Children Influence the Housing and Mobility Decisions of Older Adults
June 1, 2022
This Fannie Mae working paper explores the residential mobility of older adults, with a focus on the influence of distance to children on those decisions.
Read more»
Mortgage costs as a share of housing costs—placing the cost of credit in broader context
March 9, 2022
Fannie Mae’s latest working paper focuses on the different components of housing costs to show the contribution of each expense to overall housing costs, specifically focusing on a breakdown of mortgage costs.
Read more»
January 20, 2022
Fannie Mae's latest research evaluates appraisal values of homes owned by Black and white borrowers refinancing their homes.
Read more»
Barriers to Entry: Closing Costs for First-Time and Low-Income Homebuyers
December 2, 2021
Fannie Mae's latest research on affordable housing solutions shows that closing costs are a meaningful obstacle to sustainable homeownership for first-time and low-income first-time homebuyers, including Black and Hispanic borrowers.
Read more»
Solar at High Noon: Solar Home Premiums in a Rapidly Maturing Market
July 2, 2021
In this Fannie Mae working paper, we explore how current premiums have changed over time, particularly in relation to changes in solar replacement costs and energy savings.
Read more»
Seeking Alpha in the Housing Market
June 15, 2021
This Fannie Mae working paper examined short term trades in the housing market over the period 2000–2013 using nationally representative data across multiple U.S. housing markets.
Read more»
Adverse Selection and Climate Risk
March 30, 2021
This Fannie Mae working paper investigated the 2019 findings of Ouazad and Kahn and found no evidence that mortgage lenders change their loan origination, approval, and securitization practices in areas affected by major hurricanes.
Read more»
Density Control, Home Price Appreciation, and Rental Growth in the United States
December 23, 2020
This Fannie Mae working paper investigates density control in the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas using National Longitudinal Land Use Survey (NLLUS) data from 1994, 2003, and 2019.
Read more»
When Appraisers Go Low, Contracts Go Lower: The Impact of Expert Opinions on Transaction Prices
October 8, 2020
Using home purchase loan application data, this Fannie Mae working papers studies buyer responses to the uncommon occurrence of the appraised value coming in below the contract price (i.e. a low appraisal), which sharply raises the probability of downward price renegotiation.
Read more»
Impediments to Post-Great Recession Recovery of Homeowner Mobility
September 1, 2020
This paper introduces a novel data set of Fannie Mae proprietary loan and market transaction observations to document the current experience and historical context of homeowner mobility. We find that homeowner mobility, measured as a move within five years of purchase loan origination, declined during the housing crisis, and while it has recovered recently, it has not reached its pre-crisis level.
Read more»
Flood Damage and Mortgage Credit Risk: A Case Study of Hurricane Harvey
July 21, 2020
Using a unique, loan-level database that combines post-disaster home inspection data, flood zone designations, and loan performance measures in the area impacted by Hurricane Harvey, this Fannie Mae working paper examines the link between property damage, flood insurance, and mortgage credit risk.
Read more»
Flood Risk and the U.S. Housing Market
February 1, 2019
This Fannie Mae working paper synthesizes existing research on flood risks, flood insurance, and their impacts on the U.S. housing market, focusing on the single-family market segment, as primary residences tend to be the largest category of wealth for most households.
Read more»
The Influence of Contract Prices and Relationships on Appraisal Bias
July 31, 2018
This Fannie Mae working paper introduces a new measure to analyze the mechanism and extent of appraisal bias of residential property.
Read more»
July 18, 2018
In this Fannie Mae working paper, we show results from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) survey that oversampled people who took out mortgages in completely rural counties in 2014, contrasting the characteristics, experiences, and loan terms of mortgage borrowers in completely rural counties to those of borrowers in metropolitan and other non-metropolitan areas.
Read more»
Home Equity Conversion Mortgages: The Secondary Market Investor Experience
October 20, 2017
In this Fannie Mae working paper, we analyze Fannie Mae's experience with the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, the FHA-insured, non-recourse version of reverse mortgages, accrual notes of indeterminate maturity secured by home equity.
Read more»
Foreclosure Timelines and House Prices
July 31, 2017
A new Fannie Mae Housing Working Paper studies the effect of lengthening foreclosure timelines on local market home prices.
Read more»
How Much Do U.S. Households Know About Qualifying for a Mortgage?
May 31, 2017
A recent Fannie Mae Housing Working Paper reports on the level of consumer knowledge about qualifying for a home purchase mortgage loan.
Read more»
Credit Risk of Low Income Mortgages
May 17, 2017
A new Fannie Mae Housing Working Paper studies the relationship between underwriting standards, housing market environment, and default risk for low and moderate income homebuyers.
Read more»
Opportunities to Improve the Value of Appraisals
October 28, 2016
In two papers from Fannie Mae, we consider the issues of appraisal integrity and borrower protection.
Read more»
Rural Mortgage Lending Over the Last Decade
October 27, 2016
Data provides insights into the rural single-family conventional mortgage market, including the key differences between urban and rural borrower attributes, property attributes, and loan characteristics.
Read more»
Business Partners
Homebuyers, Owners, & Renters
- Educational Resources
- Credit Basics
- HomeView Homeownership Education Course
- HomePath - Search for Homes
- Make Your Rent Count