Risky Business: Race, Risk and Real Estate in the Development of the Home Ownership State.

Abstract

The project consists of three papers that examine the role of attributions about racial economic risk in the development of the home ownership state. By “home ownership state,” I mean a national state that intervenes in mortgage markets, promoting expanded access to home ownership as a means of addressing internal and external challenges to market democracy. By “racial economic risk”, I mean the notion that, as actual and prospective property owners, African Americans pose higher levels of risk to lenders, to mortgage underwriters, and to White property owners.