Eric Seymour, Ph.D.


Assistant Professor

Ph.D. Urban and Regional Planning, University of Michigan; Master of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Florida; B.A. American Literature & History, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University

Contact
  • Room 359, Civic Square Building
  • (848) 932-2862
  • eric.seymour [at] rutgers.edu
  • Twitter: @EricCSeymour
Research Interests
  • community development
  • housing
  • informatics
  • statistical research methods
  • GIS


Eric Seymour, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School in July 2019. He was most recently a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University’s Population Studies and Training Center, where he worked on the spatial demography of urban population loss. Prior to that, he received his PhD from the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Michigan. Eric’s primary research interests include housing and neighborhood dynamics under conditions of chronic job and population losses, including the role of urban policy in influencing the location and pace of disinvestment. His current research examines transformations in “post-crisis” housing markets and their implications for the health and housing insecurity of low-income and minority groups. This work looks at investors in formerly foreclosed single-family housing and their business practices, including the use of problematic home sale arrangements like land contracts and the expansion of rental property holdings by exploitative landlords. Eric is also engaged in ongoing research on evictions, focusing on the intersection of opportunistic property investment and the constrained housing options of low-income renters.

Complete Curriculum Vitae (C.V.)

View all course offerings and related syllabi
Graduate
  • Housing Economics and Markets
  • Methods of Planning Analysis
  • Principles of Housing

View publications on Google Scholar
Recent Publications
  • 2022: Eric Seymour (2022) Corporate Landlords and Pandemic and Prepandemic Evictions in Las Vegas, Housing Policy Debate, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2022.2125335
  • 2022: Eric Seymour (2022) The impact of current and former REOs across owner types: the case of Detroit, Housing Studies, DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2022.2101621
  • 2021: Seymour, E., & Akers, J. (2021). “Decline-induced displacement: the case of Detroit” Urban Geography, DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2021.2008716
  • 2020: Seymour, E., & Akers. J. (2020). “Our customer is America”: Housing insecurity and eviction in Las Vegas’s post-crisis rental markets. Revise and resubmit with Housing Policy Debate. doi: 10.1080/10511482.2020.1822903.
  • 2020: Seymour, E., Endsley, E. A., Franklin, R. (2020). Differential drivers of rent burden in growing and shrinking cities. Applied Geography, 125. doi: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102302.
  • 2020: Eisenberg, A., Seymour, E., Hill, A. B., & Akers, J. (2020). Toxic structures: Speculation and lead exposure in Detroit’s single-family rental market. Health & Place, 64. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102390.
  • 2020: Bagchi-Sen, S., Franklin, R., Rogerson, P., & Seymour, E. (2020). Urban inequality and the demographic transformation of shrinking cities: The role of the foreign born. Applied Geography, 116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2020.102168
  • 2020: Seymour, E. (2020). From REO to ruin: Post-foreclosure pathways and the production of decline in Detroit. Housing Policy Debate, 30(3), 431-456.
  • 2020: Seymour, E. (2020). Book review: Legacy cities: Continuity and change amidst decline. Journal of the American Planning Association. doi: 1080/01944363.2020.1803634.
  • 2019: Seymour, E., & Akers, J. (2019). Building the eviction economy: Speculation, precarity, and eviction in Detroit. Urban Affairs Review. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087419853388
  • 2019: Seymour, E., & Akers, J. (2019). Portfolio solutions, bulk sales of bank-owned properties, and the reemergence of racially exploitative land contracts. Cities, 89, 46-56. doi: https://doi-org.revproxy.brown.edu/10.1016/j.cities.2019.01.024
  • 2019: Akers, J., Seymour, E., Butler, D. and Rathke, W. (2019). Liquid tenancy: ‘Post-crisis’ economies of displacement, community organizing, and new forms of resistance. Radical Housing Journal, 1(1), 9-28: https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2019/liquid-tenancy/
  • 2018: Akers, J. and Seymour, E. (2018). Instrumental exploitation: Predatory property relations at city’s end. Geoforum, 91, 127-140. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.02.022
  • 2018: Deng, L., Seymour, E., Dewar, M., & Manning Thomas, J. (2018). Saving strong neighborhoods from the destruction of mortgage foreclosures: The impact of community-based efforts in Detroit, Michigan. Housing Policy Debate, 28(2), 153-179. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2017.1331366
  • 2015: Dewar, M., Seymour, E., & Druță, O. (2015). Disinvesting in the city: The role of tax foreclosure in Detroit. Urban Affairs Review, 51(5), 587-615. doi: 2F1078087414551717

Areas of Expertise:  Community Development, Housing, Informatics, Statistical Research Methods, GIS