Subprime Cities

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).

"Aalbers has edited a commendable volume that makes a strong case for the centrality of urban processes in crisis formation. It has implications for a number of subfields in political science—including urban politics, economic and housing policy processes, race and ethnicity, politics and history, and federalism and intergovernmental relations—and should be read by scholars seeking to pinpoint the urban origins of the global financial crisis, as well as by those with an interest in learning more about the unavoidable and deepening connection between the fate of cities and the fate of nations."  (Perspectives on Politics, 1 September 2013)“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) "Aalbers has edited a commendable volume that makes a strong case for the centrality of urban processes in crisis formation. It has implications for a number of subfields in political science—including urban politics, economic and housing policy processes, race and ethnicity, politics and history, and federalism and intergovernmental relations—and should be read by scholars seeking to pinpoint the urban origins of the global financial crisis, as well as by those with an interest in learning more about the unavoidable and deepening connection between the fate of cities and the fate of nations." (Perspectives on Politics, September 2013) “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)

• List of Figures vii List of Tables viiiNotes on Contributors ixForeword: The Urban Roots of the Financial Crisis xiiiDavid HarveySeries Editors’ Preface xxAcknowledgments xxiPart I Introduction 1Subprime Cities and the Twin Crises 3Manuel B. AalbersPart II The Political Economy of the Mortgage Market 231 Creating Liquidity Out of Spatial Fixity: The Secondary Circuit of Capital and the Restructuring of the US Housing Finance System 25Kevin Fox Gotham2 Finance and the State in the Housing Bubble 53Herman Schwartz3 Expanding the Terrain for Global Capital: When Local Housing Becomes an Electronic Instrument 74Saskia Sassen4 Building New Markets: Transferring Securitization, Bond-Rating, and a Crisis from the US to the UK 97Thomas Wainwright5 European Mortgage Markets Before and After the Financial Crisis 120Manuel B. Aalbers6 The Reinvention of Banking and the Subprime Crisis: On the Origins of Subprime Loans, and How Economists Missed the Crisis 151Gary A. DymskiPart III Cities, Race, and the Subprime Crisis 1857 Redlining Revisited: Mortgage Lending Patterns in Sacramento 1930–2004 187Jesus Hernandez8 The New Economy and the City: Foreclosures in Essex County New Jersey 219Kathe Newman9 Race, Class, and Rent in America’s Subprime Cities 242Elvin Wyly, Markus Moos, and Daniel J. HammelPart IV Conclusion 29110 Subprime Crisis and Urban Problematic 293Gary A. DymskiGlossary 315Index 324