Potential homeowners save for equity through informal
savings accounts that allow rotating lump-sum draws.
Contingent on the size of their down payment, a mezzanine
fund provides funding at closing. The return on
the fund is from a premium over the conventional prime
mortgage rate and either an equity position or a lookback
second mortgage with no payment. The homeowner
receives an interest in the mezzanine fund. The intention is
to securitize the mezzanine fund, leading to tradable home
equity, the last large illiquid asset in wealth.
The program combines the community ties of informal
savings accounts with formal safeguards from a tradable
mezzanine equity fund. This monitoring and lower leverage
reduces the default risk while retaining the low prepayment
risk of these borrowers.
The housing market is oriented toward debt as opposed to
equity. This system leads to high and effectively nondeductible
interest rates. Wealth is even more unequally distributed
than income. From the Survey of Consumer Finances of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 2010,
the two lowest quintiles of the income distribution where
non-homeowners are concentrated have either zero or
negative liquid wealth. Low-income borrowers must resort
to informal mechanisms to obtain down payments that lack
transparency and are open to fraud.
The tax subsidies to homeownership lead to the prices of
houses being bid up to capitalize the benefits. Unless the
capitalization of these benefits is at a zero marginal tax rate,
house prices are higher for low-income households. There
is a tax-induced house price difference between high- and
low-income neighborhoods. A clientele effect is created
that makes homeownership more expensive for those with
low incomes. The effect persists even if housing is available
in small and divisible units, which typically is not the case.
In existing mortgage contracts borrowers pay a series of
cash flows. Equivalently, the mortgage interest rate is the sum
of a bond interest rate, servicing fee, and guarantee fee. The
mortgage interest rate depends on the credit quality of the
applicant, particularly with automated underwriting systems.
These computerized systems immediately accept or reject
applicants. Lower-quality borrowers face higher interest rates,
partly because they must leave markets with either direct or
indirect federal government guarantees. The borrower pays
for mortgage insurance, tiered by loan-to-value ratio.