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Precarious Housing in Detroit

A City After the Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis

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Learning from the Slums for the Development of Emerging Cities

Part of the book series: GeoJournal Library ((GEJL,volume 119))

Abstract

Detroit has lost population and employment since World War II and has experienced loss of demand for housing and other real estate. As of 1950, slums characterized areas to the east and west of downtown. Urban renewal through the early 1970s removed some slums, but population decline, job loss, and disinvestment continued. As property values rose somewhat in the 1990s, many residents refinanced their homes with mortgages with unfavourable terms. When homeowners could not pay, mortgage holders foreclosed on large numbers of homes in middle- and working-class areas. Many residents moved out of the city leaving vacancies in previously intact neighbourhoods. The vacancies introduce blight and weaken neighbourhood housing markets. In middle-class neighbourhoods, residents and community organizations have responded by working to restore confidence in the future so that neighbourhoods again become ones where many people choose to live. In low-income areas, where disinvestment and abandonment have continued for decades, residents have taken over neglected land to enhance quality of life.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Margaret Dewar

Authors
  1. Margaret Dewar
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Correspondence to Margaret Dewar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jean-Claude Bolay

  2. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jérôme Chenal

  3. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Yves Pedrazzini

Case Study: Detroit Centre, Detroit, USA

Case Study: Detroit Centre, Detroit, USA

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Dewar, M. (2016). Precarious Housing in Detroit. In: Bolay, JC., Chenal, J., Pedrazzini, Y. (eds) Learning from the Slums for the Development of Emerging Cities. GeoJournal Library, vol 119. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31794-6_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31794-6_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31792-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31794-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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