The number of risky loans is wildly overestimated
The assessment that more than half of US residential mortgages were risky in 2008 is much higher than other investigators have estimated.
Wallison notes that default rates on residential mortgages were much higher than investors had expected.  He attributes the high rate of default to the large number of risky loans, as estimated by Pinto.  But Pinto's estimate is much higher than other analysts.  (For example, it is 5 times the count estimated by the GAO.) 

Defenders may claim that the Wallison/Pinto estimates are in fact more accurate than the others, and that if buyers had clearly understood the risks they were taking then a crisis might have been avoided.  But this claim is not justified by later events.  The loans that are risky according only by Pinto did not go into default at the same rate as loans generally considered risky.
CONTEXT(Help)
-
The Global Financial Crisis »The Global Financial Crisis
Long-term causes of the financial crisis? »Long-term causes of the financial crisis?
Unintended consequences of earlier public policy choices »Unintended consequences of earlier public policy choices
US policies to encourage home ownership promoted risky lending »US policies to encourage home ownership promoted risky lending
Many risky loans originated with intent to sell to Fannie or Freddie »Many risky loans originated with intent to sell to Fannie or Freddie
The number of risky loans is wildly overestimated
+Comments (0)
+Citations (1)
+About