The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was passed in response to both the global pandemic’s immediate negative and expected long-lasting impacts on the economy. Under the Act, mortgage borrowers are allowed to cease making payments if their income was negatively impacted by Covid-19. Importantly, borrowers were not required to demonstrate proof of impaction, either currently or retrospectively. Exploring the economic implications of this policy, this study uses an experimental design to first identify strategic forbearance incidence, and then to quantify where the forborne mortgage payment dollars were spent. Our results suggest strategic mortgage forbearance can be significantly reduced, saving taxpayers billions of dollars in potential losses, simply by requiring a 1-page attestation with lender recourse for borrowers wishing to engage in COVID-19 related mortgage payment cessation programs. Additionally, we demonstrate the use of these forborne mortgage payments range from enhancing the financial safety net for distressed borrowers by increasing precautionary savings, to buying necessities, to equity investing and debt consolidation.

针对全球大流行对经济的直接负面影响和预期的长期影响，通过了《冠状病毒援助，救济和经济安全（CARES）法案》。根据该法案，如果抵押贷款借款人的收入受到Covid-19的不利影响，则允许抵押贷款借款人停止付款。重要的是，无论当前还是追溯，都不需要借款人证明有影响力的证据。为了探讨该政策的经济意义，本研究使用实验设计首先确定了战略容忍的发生率，然后量化了花在哪里的抵押抵押贷款美元。我们的结果表明，可以大幅减少战略抵押的承受能力，为纳税人节省数十亿美元的潜在损失，只需向希望参与COVID-19相关抵押贷款停止计划的借款人要求提供一页纸质证明，并注明出借方资源。此外，我们演示了这些抵押抵押贷款付款的使用范围，包括通过增加预防性储蓄来提高不良借款人的财务安全网，购买必需品，进行股权投资和债务合并。