This volume presents a descriptive analysis of the historical development of land banks and land banking programs in the United States, the legal framework for the creation of land banks, and the range of their operational strategies and activities.

Land banks are quasi-governmental not-for-profit organizations that acquire, manage, and dispose of abandoned, vacant, foreclosed, and tax-delinquent properties. Local governments view land banks as an improvement to the municipal management of foreclosed property in declining cities and a tool to provide community programs that support social equity. However, land banks have been criticized for wielding too much power, concentrating demolitions in poor and minority neighborhoods, and having unfortunate parallels to the flawed, top-down policies of mid-century urban renewal. Examining land banks through a lens of social equity, this research explores the question, 'To what extent do land banks promote the well-being of those with the least.' Interviews with land-bank leaders, property acquisition and disposition data and spatial analyses are used to create comparative case study of four land banks in New York state communities. While land-bank leaders show an awareness and desire to address historic inequities in marginalized communities, social equity is generally viewed as a secondary goal to their tax-base generation and "blight" removal missions. Stable funding sources to ensure more staff resources, greater community engagement efforts, more partnerships with community-based non-profits, and alternative approaches to demolition would ensure a more socially just land-banking policy.

Why are house prices in many advanced economies rising faster than incomes? Why isn’t land and location taught or seen as important in modern economics? What is the relationship between the financial system and land? In this accessible but provocative guide to the economics of land and housing, the authors reveal how many of the key challenges facing modern economies - including housing crises, financial instability and growing inequalities - are intimately tied to the land economy. Looking at the ways in which discussions of land have been routinely excluded from both housing policy and economic theory, the authors show that in order to tackle these increasingly pressing issues a major rethink by both politicians and economists is required.