Housing and the Credit Crunch

I had the pleasure of attending an Academic Symposium presented by The George Washington University School of Business’ Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis, among others. Some of the papers written that were discussed included: Stability in Consumer Credit Scores: Level and Direction of FICO Score Drift as a Precursor to Default and Prepayment, Causes of Default: Economic Conditions, Underwriting and Moral Hazard, and the presentation I enjoyed the most The Credit Rating Agencies, by Lawrence J. White of the Stern School of Business, New York University.

Just imagine sitting in a room filled with academics, businessmen, public sector officials, and students and listening to some very smart academic types explain the empirical work they’ve done regarding the housing crisis. Best part of all, the speakers were interesting and engaging, not boring as one might expect when listening to professors discuss empirical information.

Bottom line, a lot of information is being, and will continue to be analyzed, regarding the present housing debacle that this country is facing. At least part of the housing mess may have been predictable if certain data was properly analyzed. Fraud, as you might guess, played a part in the housing and credit crisis too. Not too hard to believe when you consider the prevalence of no documentation loans that existed a few years ago.

The amount of energy that was on GW’s campus, even with school not being in session, was tremendous. Today made me proud of my GW degrees.

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