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
When you hear a real estate agent talking about a client that's an empty nester, it means said client suffers from empty nest syndrome. But what is Empty nest syndrome? Empty nest ...
The "frost line" is a critical concept in real estate and construction, especially in regions with cold climates. But what exactly is the frost line, and why does it matter? Let’s ...
Landlord's right to receive the value of the tenant's property to pay for unpaid rents or for damages to the leased premises. ...
The definition of gross sales price in real estate refers to the combined cost of a property or listing before subtracting the real estate agent’s commission, sales tax and other ...
The depreciation method where an equal amount of depreciation expense is allocated to each full period of the asset's useful life. The amount of depreciation is computed as follows; Annual ...
Average of what savings institutions in the 11th district of the Federal Home Loan Bank System ( California, Arizona, and Nevada) are paying in interest to depositors and other sources of ...
Legal obligation to pay for a benefit received as if a contract has actually occurred. This may arise in a few cases so that an equitable situation occurs. An example is when a homeowner ...
Unit of metric are measurement where one hectare is equivalent to 2.471 acres or 107,637 square feet. For example, a 3 hectare parcel of property is equivalent to 7.413 acres or 322,911 ...
An opening with a hinged cover allowing access from one level to another in a structure. Often installed in a roof or the floor of a building to allow the entrance of people and materials ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.