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
Capitalization rate used to convert the expected income derived from a property into its estimated asset value. The estimated asset value may be computed by dividing the annual income ...
One-time charge assessed by a bank or other financial institution at the closing of buying real property. The fee increases the effective cost to the borrower. One discount point translates ...
Marketable title that is free of encumbrances and disputed interests. Clear title is essential in order to convey a general warranty deed in a transaction. ...
Projecting what the total cost would be to construct a structure. Costs include material, labor, and lawyers' fees. ...
In real estate, Attractive Nuisance is how insurance companies classify something that is inherently dangerous and particularly enticing to children. A hazard located within a property that ...
A zero lot line is a term in residential real estate that refers to houses that are either very close to or at the edge of the property line. These houses are also called zero lot line ...
A legal procedure to sell a mortgage property to the highest bidder in order to satisfy a mortgage claim from a mortgagee against the value o the property. A foreclosure sale can occur from ...
Storage of inactive items, including automobiles, for a certain period. Normally, a storage facility, charging a fee, provides dead storage of items. To prevent deterioration, dead ...
Special tax incentive for the continued use and rehabilitation of historical buildings and old structures in an effort to arrest urban decay. Developers receive a credit based on a ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.