Mortgage Meltdown: Default Sensitivity to Declining Home Values and Loan-to-Value Ratios

Abstract

The current study investigates the recent mortgage crisis to determine whether deteriorating aggregate loan-to-value (LTV) ratios resulted in more acute default responses to depreciating home prices. We find evidence that default rates did not behave erratically or disproportionately to falling housing values during the subprime crisis, but we found some proof that the aggregate LTV ratio was associated with increased foreclosure rate volatility.