The mortgage and tax foreclosure crisis of the past decade has reshaped Detroit’s low-income housing markets. The majority of Detroit households are renters now, and they’re becoming increasingly reliant on corporate landlords.
New research by Joshua Akers of the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Eric Seymour of Rutgers University outlines the housing policies and other factors that have allowed speculative buyers to contribute to neighborhood instability and blight in Detroit.
The study—which analyzed property records from 2005 to 2015—found corporate landlords buying in bulk are more likely than “mom and pop” landlords to weaken already-weak housing markets by allowing houses to fall into disrepair and eventually be demolished at the public’s expense.
