Mortgage
Fordham Law Review
Volume 76 | Issue 5 Article 1
2008
Home Ownership Risk Beyond a Subprime Crisis: The Role of Delinquency Management
Melissa B. Jacoby
Recommended Citation
Melissa B. Jacoby, Home Ownership Risk Beyond a Subprime Crisis: The Role of Delinquency Management, 76 Fordham L. Rev. 2261 (2008). Available at: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol76/iss5/1
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Fordham Law School Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized administrator of The Fordham Law School Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu.
ESSAY HOME OWNERSHIP RISK BEYOND A SUBPRIME CRISIS: THE ROLE OF DELINQUENCY MANAGEMENT
Melissa B. Jacoby* A surge in delinquency among risky subprime home mortgages has produced calls for front-end regulatory fixes as well as emergency foreclosure avoidance interventions. Whatever the merit of those interventions, this Essay calls for home mortgage delinquency management to be conceptualized as an enduring component of housing policy. The Essay identifies and evaluates a framework for the management of delinquency that is not limited to formalforeclosure law and includes other debtor-creditorlaws such as bankruptcy, industry loss mitigation efforts, and third-party interventionssuch as delinquency housing counseling. The Essay also proposes that delinquency management be evaluated through the lens of objectives commonly used to justify public investment in home ownership and home mortgage markets: to build household wealth and economic self-sufficiency, to generate positive social-psychologicalstates, and to develop stable neighborhoodsand communities. Because those ends are not inexorably linked to ownership generally or owning a particular home, a system of delinquency management that honors these objectives should strive to provide fair, transparent, humane, and predictable
Volume 76 | Issue 5 Article 1
2008
Home Ownership Risk Beyond a Subprime Crisis: The Role of Delinquency Management
Melissa B. Jacoby
Recommended Citation
Melissa B. Jacoby, Home Ownership Risk Beyond a Subprime Crisis: The Role of Delinquency Management, 76 Fordham L. Rev. 2261 (2008). Available at: http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol76/iss5/1
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Fordham Law School Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Law Review by an authorized administrator of The Fordham Law School Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact tmelnick@law.fordham.edu.
ESSAY HOME OWNERSHIP RISK BEYOND A SUBPRIME CRISIS: THE ROLE OF DELINQUENCY MANAGEMENT
Melissa B. Jacoby* A surge in delinquency among risky subprime home mortgages has produced calls for front-end regulatory fixes as well as emergency foreclosure avoidance interventions. Whatever the merit of those interventions, this Essay calls for home mortgage delinquency management to be conceptualized as an enduring component of housing policy. The Essay identifies and evaluates a framework for the management of delinquency that is not limited to formalforeclosure law and includes other debtor-creditorlaws such as bankruptcy, industry loss mitigation efforts, and third-party interventionssuch as delinquency housing counseling. The Essay also proposes that delinquency management be evaluated through the lens of objectives commonly used to justify public investment in home ownership and home mortgage markets: to build household wealth and economic self-sufficiency, to generate positive social-psychologicalstates, and to develop stable neighborhoodsand communities. Because those ends are not inexorably linked to ownership generally or owning a particular home, a system of delinquency management that honors these objectives should strive to provide fair, transparent, humane, and predictable