Definition of blockbusting
: profiteering by inducing property owners to sell hastily and often at a loss by appeals to fears of depressed values because of threatened minority encroachment and then reselling at inflated prices.
What is a blockbusting example?
An example of blockbusting would be a real estate agent hiring a Black woman to walk her dog in an all-White neighborhood. They then place their real estate card in all the mailboxes on the block, offering to buy the house right away at a discounted price.
What is blockbusting and redlining?
STUDY. Blockbusting. An illegal practice in which licensees or others encourage homeowners to sell because of an influx or expected influx of minorities into the area. Redlining. The practice of a lender to refuse to lend in a specific area, often based on the minority makeup of the area.
What is blockbusting in sociology?
Blockbusting refers to the practice of introducing African American homeowners into previously all white neighborhoods in order to spark rapid white flight and housing price decline. Real estate speculators have historically used this technique to profit from prejudice-driven market instability.
Where did blockbusting happen?
The term blockbusting might have originated in Chicago, Illinois, where real estate companies and building developers used agents provocateurs. These were non-white people hired to deceive the white residents of a neighborhood into believing that black people were moving into their neighborhood.
When did blockbusting take place?
Blockbusting was a real estate practice that took place in the US during the late 20th century, particularly after the end of World War II. This practice was triggered first by the 1917 Supreme Court decision in Buchanan vs. Warley, which made racially segregating residential laws illegal.
Does blockbusting still exist?
Strictly speaking, blockbusting is illegal. The practice hasn’t been much seen since the 1980s. Research shows, however, that brokers match minority and white home-buyers with particular properties and neighborhoods.
What does blockbusting cause?
Blockbusting. Next. Blockbusting. Letter and Restrictive Covenant, 1929. “Blockbusting” refers to the efforts of real-estate agents and real-estate speculators to trigger the turnover of white-owned property and homes to African Americans.
When was blockbusting invented?
As early as 1900 when African Americans sought to move into residential areas outside of those racial zones created by states, real-estate agents and real-estate speculators stoked further racial fears as a business strategy for acquiring and selling properties.
What is blockbusting anthropology?
Blockbusting is the practice of real estate brokers convincing homeowners to sell their houses for low prices for fear that a neighborhood’s socioeconomic demographics are changing and will decrease home values.
Is profit a factor in blockbusting?
(b) In establishing a discriminatory housing practice under this section it is not necessary that there was in fact profit as long as profit was a factor for engaging in the blockbusting activity.
