During the last financial crisis, when the private-label mortgage securitization market started to freeze, mortgage lenders could not  market to avoid regulatory complexity and the financial, compliance, and reputational costs associated with default servicing and foreclosure. 2 The data are Federal Reserve Board staff calculations based on Recursion Co. (2020), Agency Mortgage Market Monthly Update, November.
Obviously, the major factor behind the reduction has been the drought, but the weaker world economy has also had an effect at the margin. On the other hand, the fact that house-building is now forecast to continue to expand for a longer period has pushed the forecast up somewhat.