Subprime Mortgage Lending

Pew has several new initiatives to conduct research, analysis and public education aimed at advancing common-sense solutions to help Americans save for tomorrow and manage debt today.

Home ownership is part of the American dream, providing not just a place to live, but also a way to acquire wealth and financial security.  But families’ home equity and even the very ownership of their homes are being threatened by abusive practices in the sub-prime mortgage market.  A mix of risky mortgage products, loose underwriting standards and weakening home prices is producing a record volume of foreclosures and defaults.

Pew is supporting the Center for Responsible Lending, which aims to champion specific and practical policy solutions to curb abusive subprime home loans by strengthening underwriting and disclosure standards.  The center is vigorously promoting proposed new federal regulations on subprime lending, which would require banks and depository institutions to verify a borrower’s income and evaluate the ability to repay the debt at the fully indexed rate.

In the absence of federal leadership, states have been experimenting with stronger regulation of lending practices, refinance programs, homeowner counseling and other actions. Pew’s Center on the States and Health and Human Services program have teamed up to provide the first-ever comprehensive look at what states have been doing to address the foreclosure crisis. Defaulting on the Dream: States Respond to America’s Foreclosure Crisis showcases state approaches in two principal areas: (1) helping borrowers avoid foreclosure and keep their homes; and (2) preventing problematic loans from being made in the first place.