Law Commons^™

Non-Debt And Non-Bank Financing For Home Purchase: Promises And Risks, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article explores the phenomenon of the NDNBs in home purchase and finance that has gained a growing presence in the mortgage marketplace since the 2008 crisis. Part II offers a deeper discussion of the risk-prone practices leading to the 2008 housing crisis and the regulatory and industry responses for recovery. Parts III and IV describe the emerging new models of home purchase. Part IV explores some of the apparent and hidden risks in these transactions. Part VI concludes with suggestions for assessing and managing risks and for reforms.

Testing Fannie Mae's And Freddie Mac's Post-Crisis Self-Preservation Policies Under The Fair Housing Act, Shelby D. Green

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Beginning in the 1930s, the federal government adopted programs and policies toward safe and decent housing for all. The initiatives included the creation of the Federal Housing Administration that, among other things, spurred mortgage lending by guaranteeing mortgage loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers. The creation of the secondary mortgage market by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (“GSEs”) helped provide more liquidity for loan originators. However, somewhere along the way, these GSEs lost their way, as they pursued profitability without regard to risk and heedlessly bought mortgages without considering quality.

The overabundance of poor quality mortgages led to the housing …

Side By Side: Revitalizing Urban Cores And Ensuring Residential Diversity, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

Fifty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed a hope that someday people of all races would “live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” Residential patterns in America today, however, remain highly segregated by race and income. The Fair Housing Act outlawed overt housing discrimination and unjustified discriminatory impacts, but zoning laws and housing finance structures have continued to impede housing integration, leaving communities nearly as racially homogenous as they were in the mid 20th century. These separate neighborhoods are far from equal. The majority of people who reside in financially distressed city-center neighborhoods are …

The Unfinished Business Of Dodd-Frank: Reforming The Mortgage Contract, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

The standard residential mortgage contract is due for a reappraisal. The goals of Dodd-Frank and the CFPB are geared toward creating better stability in the residential mortgage market, in part, by mandating more robust underwriting. This is achieved chiefly through the ability-to-repay rules and the “qualified mortgage” safe harbor, which call for very conservative underwriting criteria to be applied to new mortgage loans. And lenders are whole-heartedly embracing these criteria in their loan originations — in the fourth quarter of 2015 over 98% of all new residential loans were qualified mortgages, thus resulting in a new wave of credit-worthy homeowners …

Comment On The Fhfa's Small Multifamily Subgoal, David J. Reiss, Jeffrey Lederman

David J Reiss

As the FHFA sets the housing goals for 2015-2017, it should focus on maximizing the creation and preservation of affordable housing. Less efficient proposed subgoals should be rejected unless the FHFA has explicitly identified a compelling rationale to adopt them. The FHFA has not identified one in the case of the proposed small multifamily subgoal. Thus, it should be withdrawn.

Eminent Domain: The Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis Or Overstepping Government Boundaries, Anne T. T. Jensen

Richmond Journal of Global Law & Business

No abstract provided.

Laudable Goals And Unintended Consequences: The Role And Control Of Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

The United States is struggling to emerge from an era of loose mortgage underwriting standards – lapses in credit analysis that led to origination and securitization of toxic loans. The fallout has been crippling, costing borrowers their homes, investors their money, and the government its taxes.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act) passed last summer was the first comprehensive effort to address the problems in the system that led – in sequence – to the subprime crisis, the housing crisis, and the financial crisis. The Dodd-Frank Act, which contains over 2,300 pages of legislation, …