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Recent Publications

A recent report, by Sharon Cornelissen PhD and Austin Harrison PhD, investigates the substantial barriers that FHA loan recipients face in Massachusetts, reflecting broader national issues. It highlights the stigmatization of FHA loans in competitive markets, noting how this stigmatization affects buyers—predominantly first-time and minority individuals—by limiting their access to desirable neighborhoods, thereby perpetuating socio-economic and racial segregation in housing.

The report offers crucial policy recommendations to mitigate these challenges, such as enforcing anti-discrimination laws regarding financing, revising FHA appraisal standards, and enhancing real estate professionals’ understanding of FHA loans. These measures aim to create a fairer housing market and support FHA buyers in overcoming the systemic hurdles that currently hinder their ability to compete effectively in high-demand areas.

Over the last decade the American single-family rental (SFR) market experienced consequential financialisation. The American SFR industry was once dominated by more local, smaller ‘mom-and-pop’ landlords. Despite this, little is known regarding the different types of SFR investors, what types of properties different investor types buy, and what types of neighbourhoods are targeted by different investor types. This article examines a majority-Black American city, Memphis, Tennessee. A city impacted significantly by the subprime mortgage crisis and this subsequent rise in SFR investors in the years that followed. Using multivariate statistics, we find institutional investors are less likely to buy a property in relatively poorer condition than categorically smaller investors. Moreover, institutional actors are more likely to purchase an SFR if it is newer, lower-valued, and located in a neighbourhood with relatively large Black or Hispanic populations and a lower-poverty rate. These findings challenge some of the existing SFR investor literature and have implications for urban planning, research, and policy.

Since 2020, Memphis saw unprecedented growth in its housing market. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, home values in some neighborhoods increased over 500 percent. The housing market cooled as mortgage interest rates caught up to price appreciation, but rents and other everyday items continued to increase due to inflation. As an update to 2020’s Rising to Respond to Crisis, the 2023 State of Housing report asks – “what’s going on beneath the headlines of Memphis housing?” To answer that, we have to dig into the structural and systemic foundations of Memphis’ (urban America’s) housing system. At its core, this report seeks to create a space for critical discussions of the most pressing housing priorities in Memphis. It foregrounds justice and equity with an intent to be actionable toward the change we need to see in our city. We cannot develop our way out of the ongoing housing crises and local government alone cannot adequately address the biggest issues. It will take a groundswell of committed groups and individuals to work in concert to see the desired changes in housing policy and practice. 

Other previous research can be found on my Google Scholar page or in my CV.

Background Photo Credit - Andrea Morales, MLK50, 2024

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