Posts Tagged ‘blockbusting’

What is Blockbusting?

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

Over time, there have been many techniques used to keep certain streets reserved for certain races or minorities. Blockbusting was one of the most prevalent techniques used. The practice of blockbusting is no longer seen as an acceptable practice in today’s real estate market. These next few paragraphs will help you realize exactly what it is, and why.In the beginning, the practice of blockbusting was used as a way to increase the movement of economically successful minorities into neighborhoods outside the inner city ghettos that they were currently housed in. To be sucessful in their endeavors, the following tactics were often used.To begin with, families that were already living in the neighborhood were often deceived by agent provocateurs, or people, often of a minority race to fool the mostly white residents that blacks, or other minority races were moving into their neighborhood, and therefore devaluing the assessment of their home.



One technique used by previous real estate agents was to hire a minority woman to push a baby stroller through the streets of a predominately white area, and encourage the idea of the area becoming more racially diverse in the future. As soon as the family living in the subburb was suitably alarmed, the real estate agent would move in and offer to buy their home, at a lower price of course. Then the home would be sold to a eager minority family at a much higher asking price. At that point, the real estate company would then use the fact that a minority family has moved in as “evidence” that the neighborhood was being taken over by blacks, or some other minority, something which at the time was seen as fearful and problematic by many in the white community. At this point, real estate developers would send out thousands of flyers and mailers into the neighborhood offering a quick cash solution to the problem of the neighborhood becoming more racially diverse. .



Billings MT homes, Golden Colorado real estate, or anywhere else in the states, it’s almost always the same: Another scenario used was for homes to be bought up by developers and then not occuppied. Eventually the houses would fall in disrepair, and help to depreciate the value of the neighborhood. The strategies presented here were often used in conjunction with the social feelings about race by real estate developers to not only buy properties at a reduced price, but also to resell them at a considerable profit..



During the mid to late 1960s, a number of legal and media driven occurances changed the entire landscape. Exposure of the practice through the media eventually led to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the Supreme Court decision of Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co (1968) effectively made it illegal for real estate agents to claim that minorities were moving in to devalue the properties.. These new laws and procedure changes that are now common throughout the industry not only offered a way for minorities to regain the value of their home, but also has led to more diverse and racially heterogenous neighborhoods.



More information: Highlands Ranch CO real estate