Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets

The study of mortgage markets has traditionally been the domain of economists. During historic times of turmoil and change, however, social scientists of various stripes are often called upon to shape our understanding of ways mortgage markets function. We are presently experiencing an episode of severe turmoil and change. How did we get here? Subprime Cities: The Political Economy of Mortgage Markets presents a collection of works from social scientists that offer important insights into what is happening in today′s mortgage market including the causes, effects, and aftermath of the "subprime" mortgage crisis. In addition to shedding light on how the current housing crisis has spread to other sectors of the economy, readings address the mortgage market itself and how problems have spread throughout mortgage and housing markets. Various chapters address changes that have resulted in the subprime mortgage crisis; others focus on the structural changes in the mortgage market, rather than on the crisis itself. Documentation of the geographical, social, and institutional inequalities associated with the crisis reveals how the recent mortgage boom created “subprime cities,” and how the victims of the crisis are the product of deep structural inequalities. This book is a provocative wake–up call for us to reconsider the structures of housing finance and housing policy if we are to avoid another crisis.

List of Figures vii List of Tables viii Notes on Contributors ix Foreword: The Urban Roots of the Financial Crisis xiii David Harvey Series Editors’ Preface xx Acknowledgments xxi Part I Introduction 1 Subprime Cities and the Twin Crises 3 Manuel B. Aalbers Part II The Political Economy of the Mortgage Market 23 1 Creating Liquidity Out of Spatial Fixity: The Secondary Circuit of Capital and the Restructuring of the US Housing Finance System 25 Kevin Fox Gotham 2 Finance and the State in the Housing Bubble 53 Herman Schwartz 3 Expanding the Terrain for Global Capital: When Local Housing Becomes an Electronic Instrument 74 Saskia Sassen 4 Building New Markets: Transferring Securitization, Bond–Rating, and a Crisis from the US to the UK 97 Thomas Wainwright 5 European Mortgage Markets Before and After the Financial Crisis 120 Manuel B. Aalbers 6 The Reinvention of Banking and the Subprime Crisis: On the Origins of Subprime Loans, and How Economists Missed the Crisis 151 Gary A. Dymski Part III Cities, Race, and the Subprime Crisis 185 7 Redlining Revisited: Mortgage Lending Patterns in Sacramento 1930–2004 187 Jesus Hernandez 8 The New Economy and the City: Foreclosures in Essex County New Jersey 219 Kathe Newman 9 Race, Class, and Rent in America’s Subprime Cities 242 Elvin Wyly, Markus Moos, and Daniel J. Hammel Part IV Conclusion 291 10 Subprime Crisis and Urban Problematic 293 Gary A. Dymski Glossary 315 Index 324

Manuel B. Aalbers is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is the author of Place, Exclusion and Mortgage Markets (2011) and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Urban Studies (2010).

“So its reading will benefit not only economic geographers, but also sociologists, political scientists and, dare we say, economists.”  ( Political Studies Review , 8 January 2014) “The book will be extremely useful for advanced courses in economic geography, housing policy and related topics. It should be widely cited in the ongoing debates over the subprime crisis as well as in discussions of mortgage and housing markets more generally.”  ( International Journal of Housing Policy , 20 June 2013) “Overall, the book is a must–have for not only those interested in the economics, geography, and politics of the subprime crisis or mortgage markets, but also those more broadly interested in economic geography more broadly, especially as it concerns finance. The book will be extremely useful for advanced courses in economic geography, housing policy, and related topics. It should be widely cited in the ongoing debate over the subprime crisis as well as in discussions of mortgage and housing markets more generally.”  ( International Journal of Housing Policy , 2012)