Prior research has found that job loss, as proxied for by regional unemployment rates, is a weak predictor of mortgage … important determinants of mortgage default. Households with an unemployed head are approximately three times as likely to … financial shocks are important drivers of mortgage default, our analysis shows that the vast majority of financially distressed …

) wealth (including unsecured debt, liquid, and illiquid assets) play in default decisions. In sharp contrast to prior studies … that proxy for individual unemployment status using regional unemployment rates, we find that individual unemployment is … the strongest predictor of default. We find that individual unemployment increases the probability of default by 5 …

analysis of household-level employment, income, and expense shocks to mortgage default decisions than has been possible before … to default on a mortgage than have been found in previous studies that were based on crude proxies for household …

Using new household-level data, we quantitatively assess the roles that job loss, negative equity, and wealth … proxy for individual unemployment status using regional unemployment rates, we find that individual unemployment is the … strongest predictor of default. We find that individual unemployment increases the probability of default by 5 - 13 percentage …