In the wake of the U.S. housing crisis, what has happened to the substantial stock of foreclosed or real estate–owned (REO) properties is only beginning to be understood. The eventual outcomes of these properties are central to our understanding of the varied impacts of the foreclosure crisis, including its contribution to enduring and emerging patterns of uneven development. This article considers the scope and potential impacts of investor purchases of foreclosures in diverse neighborhoods in the Los Angeles region. Overall, findings suggest that very different patterns of investment emerged in the urban core, the postwar inner‐ring suburbs, and the exurbs. In addition, investors’ purchases and strategies varied significantly according to neighborhood racial composition and, to a much lesser extent, neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics. These patterns highlight two major issues: a sharp divide in investment between the relatively similar urban/inner‐ring suburban core and the newer exurbs; and the enduring relationship between race and capital investment in neighborhoods in the wake of the housing crisis.
It is well documented that the foreclosure crisis was experienced unevenly in metropolitan regions nationwide. Yet it is still unclear how the long-term impacts of the foreclosure crisis manifested within the American metropolis. This paper identifies where the long-term negative impacts of the housing crisis were most acute by locating where foreclosed (REO) properties were more likely to remain vacant in the Los Angeles-Inland Empire area, a highly diverse region with high foreclosure rates. Foreclosure vacancies were concentrated in neighborhoods with larger Black and Latino populations, in older urban and inner-ring suburban neighborhoods, and in poorer neighborhoods with poorly performing schools. These patterns illuminate the enduring and emerging sociospatial inequalities that contribute to contemporary neighborhood decline and will likely shape the Los Angeles region's future, further solidifying longstanding neighborhood and other social inequalities.
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