Post-crisis investment in single-family homes in Fulton County, Georgia

Abstract

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have witnessed shifts in the dominant modes of the provision of mortgage finance in response to crises of liquidity and devaluation of mortgage-related assets. The political economy of housing in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007 has been marked by the emergence of institutional single-family landlords. This thesis analyses these shifts in the financial use of single-family homes against Fligstein and McAdam's (2012) theory of strategic action fields, urban political economists' theories of capital circulation, and Cedric Robinson's (1983) elaboration of racial capitalism. Using empirical data from Fulton County, Georgia, I find that patterns of residential segregation perpetuated by various paths of mortgage finance provision and the institutionalization of single-family rental persist into 2017. This is due to shifts in the racial politics of the assignment of financial risk, and the historical context within which these politics play out.