Blockbusting
Definition of "Blockbusting"
Blockbusting is a despicable and illegal racist business practice.
Here’s how Blockbusting happens: a real estate agent, or someone posing as one, comes to a homeowner and instills him (or her) with fear of racial minorities, saying and showing bogus stats that a large number of whatever minority the homeowner prejudicially feared was moving into their neighborhood in large numbers. Because of that, the homeowner would sell the property for a lower market price, and, in turn, the alleged real estate agent would sell at a higher market price to the exact minority the original owner feared.
The practice of blockbusting has been done to White, Black, Jews, and Foreign people, but the most notorious blockbusting practices were done with White and Black, after 1910 when over a million African American from the rural southern states of the United States of America moved north to industrialized cities in need of workers due to the World War I, which recruited many workers to serve in the US Army. The scars of Civil War and Slavery were still open, so profiteers would take advantage of that, and even hire “actors” to create a sense of overwhelming presence of black people in traditionally white neighborhoods.
Blockbusting practices were nationally exposed in the 1960’s with the civil rights movement. Because of it, stricter federal real estate laws were conceived, which made blockbusting harder. For instance: door-to-door real estate solicitation got restricted in several states to avoid blockbusting. The most important measure against blockbusting, however, was 1968’s Fair Housing Act which made (by law) religion, race, and ethnicity of a neighborhood’s inhabitants part of what a real estate agent can’t tell a home buyer client when showing a house.
Work only with credible real estate agents! Find one at The OFFICIAL Real Estate Agent Directory®.
Popular Real Estate Terms
The right to allow livestock to graze on a certain range or grazing lands. Grazing rights can be obtained through a lease or by contractual agreement stipulating the period of time and the ...
People often need help understanding the difference between offeror vs offeree in real estate. A rhythm sets the stage from the first step in real estate transactions. It's the interaction ...
Edifice constructed on the to floor of a building usually occupying less than 1/2 the roof area. A penthouse is used for two purposes; one or more luxury apartments directly accessed by a ...
List of architectural design items needing to be corrected and resolved prior to finalizing a building design. ...
Increase in the value of property arising from holding it. The gain is realized only when the property is sold at which time it is taxable. An example is the increase in the appraised value ...
A statistical procedure using a body of measurable independent variables to compute an equation that successfully measures and forecasts the variance in another variable, the dependent ...
Type of flooring, made up of tiles of colored stone or marble that is set in concrete. ...
Time interval between buying a real estate investment and selling it. A sound way to determine the return from a real estate investment is over its life. For example, if land was bought on ...
A relatively unknown term, laches or the” doctrine of laches,” means failure to assert one’s rights or a claim in a given matter in time. Failing to take action on a ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.