Because the 1983 SCF immediately followed the Garn-St. Germain Act, we think of these
terms as representative of mortgage terms at the time of the reform. To check whether they
are typical for the period prior to the reform as well, we examined trends in average mortgage
terms before 1983, as reported in the Federal Home Loan Bank Board’s Monthly Interest Rate
Survey. This survey covers single-family homes only; hence, it is more restrictive than the
SCF. This survey reports stable loan-to-value ratios from 1963, the first available observation,
until 1982. Thus, the average initial equity share from the 1983 SCF of 0.2275 appears to be
a good estimate for the pre-reform period. In contrast to the stability of the loan-to-value
ratio, the average repayment period increased from 85.2 quarters in 1963 to 102.4 in 1982.
This increase indicates that average mortgage duration in 1983 was higher than the typical
duration for the period of interest. Hence, we adjust the 85.5 quarters measure from the
1983 SCF downwards by subtracting half of that increase. The resulting loan period is 76.9
quarters