Most mortgages in the United States are securitized through the agency mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) market. These … liquidity, leading to lower borrowing costs for households. Evaluation of potential reforms to the U.S. housing finance system …

Fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) dominate the U.S. mortgage market, with important consequences for household risk … freezes, the share of FRMs is sharply higher among mortgages eligible to be securitized through the still-liquid agency MBS … rate risk embedded in these loans. We highlight policy implications for ongoing reform of the U.S. mortgage finance system. …

adjustable-rate mortgages that have experienced large rate reductions over the past years and are largely immune to these …

' monthly mortgage payments for a large sample of prime adjustable-rate mortgages. Applying a 26 percent average monthly payment … conforming adjustable-rate mortgages with loan-to-value ratios above 80 percent declines by 3.8 percentage points. If we assume … per dollar of balance for mortgages that refinance under HARP. …

We describe a set of six design principles for the reorganization of the U.S. housing finance system and apply them to …