Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/272817 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. WP 2023-02
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Abstract: 
We study the impacts of blockbusting, i.e. large-scale racial turnover of urban neighborhoods orchestrated by real estate professionals using aggressive and discriminatory practices. In a panel of census tracts across large cities in the postwar United States, we compare tracts subjected to blockbusting activity to similar neighboring tracts not subjected to blockbusting. We find that blockbusting caused substantially lower house values over the next few decades. To understand the mechanisms behind this effect, we analyze property-level data in one neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. We find that new residents that purchased their properties through blockbusters were charged higher prices and had higher foreclosure rates than new residents that purchased directly from existing property owners.
Subjects: 
blockbusting
wealth gap
housing finance discrimination
JEL: 
N22
N92
G21
R23
R51
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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