Regaining the Dream

In Regaining the Dream, UNC Center for Community Capital researchers Roberto G. Quercia, Allison Freeman and Janneke Ratcliffe tell what really caused the foreclosure crisis and recommend how to rebuild the U.S. housing finance system to ensure broad access to mortgage credit while minimizing risk.

The book shares the findings of a decade-long study of 46,000 low-income homeowners who received traditional 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages with a small down payment.

Today, 95% of those homeowners are still paying their mortgages and staying in their homes.

These 46,000 working families tell a tremendous success story, and the data points to a way out of the housing crisis and toward a stronger economy. Correctly structured, home loans to low-income households perform quite well, leading to both sustainable homeownership and sound business opportunities for lenders. By expanding opportunities for sustainable homeownership, working families can move up the economic ladder, create mobility in the housing market and providing jobs and economic growth.

Authors

Roberto G. Quercia Director UNC Center for Community Capital		Janneke Ratcliffe Executive Director UNC Center for Community Capital		Allison Freeman Senior Research Associate in Housing and Asset-Building UNC Center for Community Capital

If you are a reporter seeking an interview to discuss the book or issues of housing finance, please e-mail co-authors Roberto Quercia, Janneke Ratcliffe, or Allison Freeman directly or call office manager Mary Woytowich at (919) 843-2140 for assistance reaching them.

Brookings Institute Press
Paper Text, 125 pages
978-0-8157-2172-7, $19.95

Table of Contents
Sample Chapter