Basics of Mortgage-Backed Securities (Frank J. Fabozzi Series)
The purpose of Basics of Mortgage-Backed Securities is to provide readers with a fundamental understanding of mortgage securities as an integral part of investment in fixed-income securities. The second edition of this MBS classic provides the latest information on the U.S. residential mortgage market, adjustable-rate mortgages and mortgage pass-throughs, relative value analyses and performance characteristics.
Dr. James Hu discusses the major changes within the mortgage market that may affect the fundamentals of mortgage securities. Some of these are: the recovery of the REMIC market after its collapse; the flourish of private-label securities; the growth of equity loan-backed securities and its establishment as a member of the fixed-income securities family. Also included are additional historical data for all exhibits. Mortgage pre-payment, dollar rolls, and private-label mortgage-backed securities are also addressed.
Customer Review: Great intro.but don’t read it by itself if you want to really understand this subject
This book was a great introduction to the basics of mortgage-backed securities, exactly as the title professes. It is loaded with graphs and tables to help readers understand the quantitative sections.
If you really want to understand this subject though, read Fabozzi and Modigliani’s “Mortgage and Mortgage-Backed Securities Markets” as well as (or even in lieu of) this book. It dates back to the 80s, but together with this book you will have a firm grasp of the fundamentals, and you can easily understand recent developments.
Customer Review: Good Overview of Mortgage Backed Securities
Anyone interested in learning the basics of MBS will benefit from this book.
Author Dr. Joseph Hu does a fine job of examining the following topics in 12 chapters: residential mortgages, US residential mortgage market, pass-throughs, prepayment, basic mortgage math, ARMs, multiclass pass-throughs, private labels, HELOC-backed securities, dollar rolls, relative value analysis and historical performance of MBS.
Some data is dated (1990’s). Then again, the book has a 2001 copyright. Nevertheless, the fundamental concepts of MBS are comfortably examined in 168 pages.
Hu did a fine job elaborating on mortgage prepayment and the primary reasons for it (refinancing and housing turnover). I also benefited from Chapter 7’s focus on multi-class pass throughs, where CMOs, PACs, Floaters, IOs and POs are briefly discussed.
There are more illustrative graphs than confusing formulas in this book. All in all, I found “Basics of Mortgage-Backed Securities” to be quite readable. Overall, I give this book a 3 1/2 star rating. Readers interested in getting much more detail about MBS should consider “Salomon Smith Barneys Guide to Mortgage Backed and Asset Backed Securities” (Hayre).