LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST, 2020 PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY By the late 1960s and early 1970s, reeling from a wave of urban uprisings, politicians finally worked to end the practice of redlining. Reasoning that the turbulence could be calmed by turning Black city-dwellers into homeowners, they passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and set about establishing policies to induce mortgage lenders and the real estate industry to treat Black homebuyers equally. The disaster that ensued revealed that racist exclusion had not been eradicated, but rather transmuted into a new phenomenon of predatory inclusion. Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners. The federal government guaranteed urban mortgages in an attempt to overcome resistance to lending to Black buyers – as if unprofitability, rather than racism, was the cause of housing segregation. Bankers, investors, and real estate agents took advantage of the perverse incentives, targeting the Black women most likely to fail to keep up their home payments and slip into foreclosure, multiplying their profits. As a result, by the end of the 1970s, the nation's first programs to encourage Black homeownership ended with tens of thousands of foreclosures in Black communities across the country. The push to uplift Black homeownership had descended into a goldmine for realtors and mortgage lenders, and a ready-made cudgel for the champions of deregulation to wield against government intervention of any kind. Narrating the story of a sea-change in housing policy and its dire impact on African Americans, Race for Profit reveals how the urban core was transformed into a new frontier of cynical extraction.

The central role of the housing market in the recent recession raised a series of questions about similar episodes throughout economic history. Were the underlying causes of housing and mortgage crises the same in earlier episodes? Has the onset and spread of crises changed over time? How have previous policy interventions either damaged or improved long-run market performance and stability? This volume begins to answer these questions, providing a much-needed context for understanding recent events by examining how historical housing and mortgage markets worked—and how they sometimes failed. Renowned economic historians Eugene N. White, Kenneth Snowden, and Price Fishback survey the foundational research on housing crises, comparing that of the 1930s to that of the early 2000s in order to authoritatively identify what contributed to each crisis. Later chapters explore notable historical experiences with mortgage securitization and the role that federal policy played in the surge in home ownership between 1940 and 1960. By providing a broad historical overview of housing and mortgage markets, the volume offers valuable new insights to inform future policy debates.

Over the past decade, a new mortgage market offering loans at low interest rates and for little or no money down has given low-income people an opportunity to pursue the American dream of homeownership. The resulting wave in home buying promised to stabilize neighborhoods and families, boost the economy, and reduce crime. In many ways, the optimists were correct, but now, less than fifteen years later, the subprime mortgage market is collapsing, threatening to take the rest of the housing sector along with it.Subprime Mortgages: America's Latest Boom and Bust analyzes how the subprime market emerged, why it is in crisis, and how we can reform public policy to avert disaster. An attendant examination of the rental market also offers recommendations for shoring up what may be the best housing option for some families.

This book provides readers with a basic understanding of the principles that underlie real estate development. A brief historical overview and an introduction to basic principles are followed by examples from practice. Case studies focus on how cities change and respond to the economic, technological, social, and political forces that shape urban development in North America. It is important to have a framework for understanding the risks and rewards in real estate investing. In measuring return, consideration must be given to both investment appreciation and the cash flow generated over the life of a project. In addition, metrics are presented that can be useful in assessing the financial feasibility of a real estate development proposal. This book also provides an overview of the forces of supply and demand that gauge the potential market for a new project. In determining the size of “residual demand”, estimates for population growth, family formation, and new development are important. All development projects fall under the auspices of one or several jurisdictions. Though every jurisdiction has different rules and procedures, basic knowledge of the planning process is critical to the success of all development projects regardless of location. Furthermore, all projects have a legal component. Basic issues of land ownership, property rights, property transfer, and land registration are reviewed, all of which need to be considered when a property is sold or purchased. This book also provides a primary on the design and construction process. In constructing a building, a team of experts is first required to design the architectural, structural, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for a building. An overview is provided of each building system: wood, concrete, and steel. Critical to a successful real estate development, project management principles for the processes of design, bidding, and construction are explored, with close attention given to budgeting, scheduling, and resource management. Essential reading for anyone involved in the development of our built environment, this is a must-read introduction for students and professionals in architecture, urban planning, engineering or real estate seeking an approachable and broad view of real estate development and finance.

The recent global crisis highlighted the risks stemming from real estate booms. This has generated a growing literature trying to better understand the sources and the risks associated with housing and credit booms. This paper complements and supplements the previous work by (i) exploiting more disaggregated data on credit allowing us to dissociate between firm-credit and household (and in some cases mortgage) credit, and (ii) by taking into account the characteristics of the mortgage market, including institutional as well as other factors that vary across countries. This detailed cross-country analysis offers new valuable insights.