Kenneth Snowden

Mortgage Rates and American Capital Market Development in the Late Nineteenth Century

Substantial regional differentials in mortgage rates persisted throughout the postbellum period. I find that these differentials reflected not only variations in lending risk, but also the costs incurred in transferring funds between markets and unexplained regional premia. The results are consistent with the traditional interpretation that capital markets were at least partially segmented throughout the late nineteenth century. The effects on home and farm mortgage rates in the South and West were substantial and suggest that market segmentation could have had a substantial impact on the regional pattern of urbanization as well as agricultural development.

The Anatomy of a Residential Mortgage Crisis: a Look Back to the 1930s

Looking back to the 1930s provides the opportunity to examine one severe mortgage crisis as we live through another. This paper examines the development of the residential mortgage market during the 1920s, the institutional disruptions that occurred in the 1930s and the policy response of federal and state governments. The crisis reshaped the structure and development of the residential mortgage market and led to a postwar system in which portfolio lenders dominated both local and interregional markets. Some pre-1930 innovations--mortgage insurance and high-leverage, affordable loans--were written into federal programs and became part of the new system. But early experiments and proposals for securitization did not survive the 1930s and the implementation of this innovation was delayed for forty years.

Historical returns and security market development, 1872–1925

Abstract Annual holding returns are reported for a broad range of the assets available to investors in the security market between 1872 and 1925. A generally favorable picture of asset performance is revealed when these returns are compared to those on similar investments in the modern era. Two changes in the patterns of returns around 1900 occurred—a decline in inflation adjusted debt returns and an increase in the volatility of stock returns (especially industrial stock). The structure of asset returns after 1900 was distinctly modern and has persisted to the present. The emergence of the modern structure of returns is linked to institutional changes in the security market between 1890 and World War I, and to the process of industrial capital formation.

Mortgage Lending and American Urbanization, 1880–1890

The connection between the spatial pattern of the urban growth spurt of the 1880s and the mortgage market is an aspect of the familiar capital market segmentation hypothesis that has received little attention. Although mortgage lending expanded most rapidly in the smaller western cities during the decade, I conclude that an underlying pattern of segmentation impeded urbanization in these areas at least until 1890. The initial advantage that segmentation conferred on borrowers in the East was reduced to some extent by binding usury ceilings along the Atlantic seaboard.

American stock market development and performance, 1871-1929

Abstract The American stock market played a central role in the allocation of investment funds during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During the same period the market underwent profound institutional change. Tests of market efficiency are employed to characterize the markets performance, and to ascertain what specific institutional features affected that performance. The market receives mixed reviews. At no time was evidence of substantial market inefficiency apparent. However, money market instability before World War I, and the absence of federal regulation after 1900 did cause stock prices to wander modestly from their “efficient market” values. In both cases intervention by the federal government appears to have improved market performance.

Covered Farm Mortgage Bonds in the United States During the Late Nineteenth Century

Covered mortgage bonds have been used successfully in Europe for two centuries, but failed in the United States when introduced as farm mortgage debentures in the 1880s. Using firm-level data and a sample of loans made by one Kansas mortgage company, I find that debenture programs grew out of established loan brokerage operations and were used to fund mortgages that were difficult to broker because of size, term, or risk characteristics. Debentures broadened access to the interregional mortgage market and facilitated an expansion of western farm mortgage debt before the innovation failed in the mortgage crisis of the 1890s.“[T]he availability of affordable mortgage financing is essential to turning the corner on the current housing crisis …. One option we have looked at extensively is covered bonds, which … have the potential to increase mortgage financing, improve underwriting standards, and strengthen U.S. financial institutions ….†Secretary of Treasury Henry PaulsonJuly 28, 2008