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Commercial Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Property Law and Real Estate

2011

Chapter 13

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Full-Text Articles in Commercial Law

In Or Out Of Mortgage Trouble? A Study Of Bankrupt Homeowners, Melissa B. Jacoby, Daniel T. Mccue, Eric M. Belsky Dec 2010

In Or Out Of Mortgage Trouble? A Study Of Bankrupt Homeowners, Melissa B. Jacoby, Daniel T. Mccue, Eric M. Belsky

Melissa B. Jacoby

We examine the determinants of missed payments and foreclosure initiation among a national sample of homeowners who filed for personal bankruptcy in 2007, using a rich dataset from the 2007 Consumer Bankruptcy Project.

Credit access had a significant effect on keeping mortgages current across all of our models: access to, and reliance on, credit cards reduced the chance of missed payments and default, increasing the likelihood that bankruptcy could produce a fresh start. Missed mortgage payments also were associated with a substantial drop in income and with the use of a mortgage broker. The probability of foreclosure initiation was lower …