Neighborhoods, the blameless victims of the subprime mortgage crisis : hearing before the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, May 21, 2008.

Neighborhoods, the blameless victims of the subprime mortgage crisis: hearing before the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, second session, May 21, 2008.

Analyzes the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis on urban neighborhoods in Mass. Explores the topic using a data set that matches race and income info. with property-level, transaction data. Much of the subprime lending in the state was concentrated in urban neighborhoods and that minority homeownerships created with subprime mortgages have proved exceptionally unstable in the face of rapid price declines. Subprime lending did not, as commonly believed, lead to a substantial increase in homeownership by minorities but instead generated turnover in properties owned by minority residents. The particularly dire foreclosure situation in urban neighborhoods actually makes it somewhat easier for policymakers to provide remedies. Illus.

Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects, the third in a series, sets out to inform policymakers, practitioners, and scholars about the effectiveness of select policy approaches, reforms, and experiments in addressing key social and economic problems facing cities, suburbs, and metropolitan areas. The chapters analyze responses to five key policy challenges that most metropolitan areas and local communities face: • Creating quality neighborhoods for families • Governing effectively • Building human capital • Growing the middle class • Enlarging a competitive economy through industry-based strategies • Managing the spatial pattern of metropolitan growth and development Each chapter discusses a specific topic under one of these challenges. The authors present the essence of what is known, as well as its likely applications, and identify the knowledge gaps that need to be filled for the successful formulation and implementation of urban and regional policy.