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
A public officer given the right to authenticate a document, accept a person's oath, administer depositions, and to conduct other activities in commercial business. An official seal is used ...
Statement made verbally. It is better legally to have a written statement because verbal ones without witnesses may be denied. ...
Same as term yield: The income earned on an investment, typically stated as a percentage of the market price ...
Reconsideration of the value of real property. An example is getting property appraised each year to determine its current value for tax or purposes of determining whether to sell ...
Giving of a promise or guarantee to the receiver to instill confidence. ...
Amount of money paid for some form of property. In real estate, the price paid for property is usually the market price; however, in the case of a forced sale, as in a foreclosure sale, the ...
Amount of money that must be charged or invested in the initial stage of a business transaction to demonstrate good faith as well as to help offset some expenses. For example, the customary ...
Refurbishing or rebuilding a property, such as a house, back to its original or earlier condition. ...
The units are used as commercial offices. The purchaser of an office condominium owns the title to the individual office unit and not to the property. Maintenance fees are assessed to each ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.