This study examines how applicants identified as Asian, Black or Hispanic differ in mortgage closing outcomes compared to the remaining applicants. First, the findings show that minority applicants are somewhat less likely to close a loan for purchase, but equally likely to close a loan for...

After allowing applicants to "lock" the interest rate, mortgage originators are concerned with protecting themselves from adverse outcomes due to interest-rate changes. One may expect applicants would strive to close applications when rates rose, while letting themselves fall out when rates...

This research examines the implications of contingent-claims models for empirical research on default. We focus on the probability of default over a short horizon given the current state of the world, "i.e.", the conditional probability of default, which more closely resembles the estimates of...