"The American housing bubble of the 2000s caused the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression. In this definitive account, Adam Levitin and Susan Wachter pinpoint its source: the shift in mortgage financing from securitization by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to "private-label securitization" by Wall Street banks. This change set off a race to the bottom in mortgage underwriting standards, as banks competed in laxity to gain market share....

"Underwater is a fresh perspective on the financial crisis that shows how it is still reverberating more than a decade later, casting doubt on the notion that homeownership is crucial to the American dream and inspiring a massive bet by the country's richest real-estate investors that it's not. In a dispassionate, yet deeply personal story that zips between Wall Street and Main Street-or, to be more precise, Audubon Drive in Alabama-Ryan Dezember...