Daniel R. Ringo

On the Effect of Student Loans on Access to Homeownership

This paper estimates the effect of student loan debt on subsequent homeownership in a uniquely constructed administrative data set for a nationally representative cohort aged 23 to 31 in 2004 and followed over time, from 1997 to 2010. Our unique data combine anonymized individual credit bureau data with college enrollment histories and school characteristics associated with each enrollment spell, as well as several other data sources. To identify the causal effect of student loans on homeownership, we instrument for the amount of the individuals student loan debt using changes to the in-state tuition rate at public 4-year colleges in the students home state. We find that a 10 percent increase in student loan debt causes a 1 to 2 percentage point drop in the homeownership rate for student loan borrowers during the first five years after exiting school. Validity tests suggest that the results are not confounded by local economic conditions or non-random selection int o the estimation sample.

Credit Availability and the Decline in Mortgage Lending to Minorities after the Housing Boom

This note sheds light on the factors contributing to the disproportionate decline in lending to minorities since 2006.

Changing FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums and the Effects on Lending

This note explores the effect of changes in Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) on mortgage borrowing activity. Reacting to changing conditions in the mortgage market as well as the state of its own balance sheet, the FHA has adjusted its pricing rules a number of times in the wake of the financial crisis.

Effects of the Ability to Repay and Qualified Mortgage Rules on the Mortgage Market

In this note, we use recently released loan level data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) to examine how the new ability-to-repay (ATR) rules may have affected mortgage lending activity in 2014.

Parental Credit Constraints and Child College Attendance

Parents in the United States frequently supplement the student loans available to their children by cosigning on a loan, borrowing against their home equity, or with unsecured debt in their own names. This paper investigates whether some students are constrained from attending and completing college by their parents’ lack of access to credit markets by linking individual parental credit scores to their childrens educational attainment. I find that good parental credit significantly improves the childs probability of attending college. Suggestive evidence is provided that the estimated relationship may be causal and not biased by omitted factors, such as unobserved ability or other personality characteristics.

The Effect of Interest Rates on Home Buying: Evidence from a Discontinuity in Mortgage Insurance Premiums

We study the effect of interest rates on the housing market by taking advantage of a sudden and unexpected price change in a large government mortgage program. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures most mortgages to lower-downpayment, lower credit score borrowers, including a majority of first-time homebuyers. The FHA charges borrowers an annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP), and in January, 2015 the FHA abruptly reduced the MIP, and thus FHA borrowers’ effective interest rate, by 50 basis points. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the MIP reduction increased the number of home purchase originations among the FHA-reliant population by nearly 14 percent. The response to the premium cut was negatively correlated with borrower income, with no observable response among relatively high income borrowers. We trace part of the jump in home buying to the MIP reduction helping ease binding debt payment-to-income ratio limits thus allowing more applications to be approved. Finally, we find no evidence that the MIP reduction increased house prices.

Student Loans and Homeownership

We estimate the effect of student loan debt on subsequent homeownership in a uniquely constructed administrative dataset for a nationally representative cohort. We instrument for the amount of individual student debt using changes to the in-state tuition rate at public 4-year colleges in the students home state. A

Are Rising Home Values Restraining Homebuying for Lower-Income Families

1,000 increase in student loan debt lowers the homeownership rate by about 1.5 percentage points for public 4-year college-goers during their mid 20s, equivalent to an average delay of 2.5 months in attaining homeownership. Validity tests suggest that the results are not confounded by local economic conditions or changes in educational outcomes.

The Decline in Lending to Lower-Income Borrowers by the Biggest Banks

Since bottoming out in 2012, house prices in the U.S. have recovered rapidly. According to Zillow, the median home value has been growing about 6 percent per year. While incomes have also been recovering, they have not quite kept pace with home prices. This note uses data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), along with income data from the ACS, and house price data from Zillow, to explore whether families in such areas, particularly lower-income families, are being priced out of homeownership as a result.

Refinancing, Default and the Community Reinvestment Act

Data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reveal that the largest banks have significantly reduced their share of mortgage lending to low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in recent years.