Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
The recent crisis has underlined the importance of the interaction of financial innovations and the housing market. We consider five major innovations relevant to housing finance. These are (i) mortgages; (ii) specialised housing finance institutions; (iii) government interventions in housing finance in the US during the Great Depression; (iv) covered bonds; and (v) securitised mortgages. The history of these innovations and their positive and negative aspects are discussed. Future innovations to help the stability of the housing market are also suggested.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the excellent assistance provided by Nan (Annie) Zhang, a research assistant at the Milken Institute. We also thank an anonymous referee for very helpful comments.
This paper is based on our book, Fixing the Housing Market, Wharton School Publishing-Milken Institute, 2012, and our paper Allen, Barth and Yago (2013).