A Little Knowledge Is a Good Thing: Empirical Evidence of the Effectiveness of Pre-Purchase Homeownership Counseling

For the past three decades homeownership counseling has been an integral part of affordable lending in the United States. Myriad benefits have been attributed to these programs. Its advocates believe, for example, that counseling better prepares borrowers to recognize and accept the responsibilities of owning a home. By getting households into homes they can afford, and afford to keep, homeownership counseling is attributed with stabilizing families and neighborhoods and reducing default risk to lenders…