Mortgage Database

The National Mortgage Data Repository is making its data available to a select group of applicants to conduct mortgage resarch. The Repository is a joint project of the National Consumer Law Center and the University of Connecticut School of Lawand includes data from 750 loans made in 10-15 states between 1994 and 2007. While the database isn't as comprehensive as HMDA or Loan Performance, it has a unique collection of data and the data are free. For each loan, the researchers have gathered the loan application, the truth in lending disclosure, the good faith estimate, the HUD-1 Settlement Statement, and the loan note. These are the core documents in a mortgage origination, making this a great dataset to study the costs of mortgage credit and underwriting decisions.

Research proposals of 2 single-spaced pages are due by March 31, 2009. Submissions are welcome not only from academics but also from advocates, attorneys, and other professionals interested in mortgage issues. (Having teamed up with guest blogger Tara Twomey for our Mortgage Studyof bankruptcy and homeownership, I encourage my scholarly colleagues to consider the many virtues of collaborating on research with attorney/practitioners). Authors whose projects are selected will present their work at a symposium in Spring 2010 at Valparaiso University School of Law. The full call for papers is here: Download Investigating Lender Practices in the Subprime Mortgage Market . Thanks to former guest blogger Pat McCoy for sharing this opportunity with Credit Slips.