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Due to the rise in foreclosure filings, policymakers are increasingly concerned with helping families in financial distress keep their homes. This paper tests the extent to which distressed mortgage borrowers benefit from three types of state foreclosure polices: (1) judicial foreclosure proceedings, (2) statutory rights of redemption, and (3) statewide foreclosure-prevention initiatives. Based on an analysis of borrowers in default who reside in 22 cross-state metropolitan statistical area pairs, state policies generally have weak effects. Both judicial foreclosure proceedings and foreclosure prevention initiatives are associated with modest increases in loan modification rates. Using a matching procedure, a lender's letter promoting mortgage default counseling was associated with increases in loan modifications, decreases in loan cures, and decreases in foreclosure starts. The effects of the letter were also stronger in states with judicial proceedings. (Contains 6 tables and 5 footnotes.)

This article examines older adults' housing circumstances in the United States, including household composition, housing tenure, physical and financial aspects, geography and neighborhood characteristics, and residential mobility. Older adults' housing situations are not well-suited to their needs: homes lack accessibility features, many homes are unaffordable, and a majority of older adults live in low-density locations where transportation options are few and service delivery is difficult. As there is considerable variation among older people in their housing circumstances and preferences, a range of policy interventions is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owning a home has the potential to provide older adults with higher levels of financial security, housing stability, and housing quality. Given that a large majority of older adults own their homes, whether and for whom these benefits are realized is an important question for policy makers: how can they craft interventions to make positive outcomes more likely? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decade-long decline in the homeownership rate in the United States has generated substantial discussion over its future path. In the face of continued uncertainty, this Article seeks to assess what we know and do not know about the sources of the decline and the likely trajectory of the homeownership rate in coming years. The analyses use the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey for 1985 to 2015 to examine the determinants of changes in the homeownership rate, using shift-share analyses to measure the extent to which changing demographics explain the observed changes. The results show that demographic trends--aging of the population, increasing racial/ethnic diversity, delayed marriage and childbirth, and related factors--explain only a small portion of the housing market's boom and bust. Instead, the homeownership rate's rise and fall have been due to broader changes in the economy, credit conditions, and housing markets. This Article then presents homeownership projections for 2015 to 2035, describing three scenarios that define a range of homeownership outcomes. The low and high scenarios presented in this Article produce a range for the national homeownership rate of 60.7% to 64.8% by 2035. The analyses describe the implications of each scenario for growth in the number of homeowner households, as well as the distributional implications of lower versus higher homeownership rates for homeownership outcomes by age, race/ethnicity, and family type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]