Nara Yanit

Over time, there have been many techniques used to keep certain streets reserved for certain races or minorities. One of the most common was known as blockbusting. In the next few paragraphs, you will learn what this former practice was, and why the real estate industry sees it as highly unethical, and illegal practice that is no longer practiced today.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. The following steps were often undertaken by the real estate industry in the past to accomplish this goal.In the begining, the families living in the chosen suburban neighborhood was fooled into thinking that their neighborhood was being taken over by minorities moving in. This was accomplished by the real estate agents hiring blacks and other minority races to act as agent provocateurs. .



Once technique included hiring a black woman to push a carriage through a “white” neighborhood, and therefore plant the idea that an unwelcomed race was moving into the area. 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. Next, the real estate industry would use the instance of a minority family moving into the neighborhood as “proof” that the previous white neighborhood was being overrun by minority families. This scare tactic was very effective in convincing the white community to move out of the area. In order to encourage the white families to move out of the area, and sell their homes at a loss, real estate agents would flood the area with postcards, and flyers offering a quick sale solution..



Billings MT real estate, Golden CO real estate, or somewhere else, it inevitably works the same way: Another common tactic was for developers to buy houses, and leave them unoccupied, and uncared for to make the neighborhood seem more like a slum. These and other tactics, as well as the predominate culture during the time encouraged white families to move out, and allowed real estate developers to buy the homes for very little money. These same homes were then turned around and sold at a higher price to waiting minority families..



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.. This provided the minorities, which were often sold properties at highly inflated prices to rescind the land contracts and get a fairer deal.



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Tags: blockbusting, ethics, real estate

This entry was posted on Monday, February 21st, 2011 at 11:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.