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-------CANCELLED------Precision accumulation? The intersection of big capital and big tech in the US housing market

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Department of Geography & GIS
Location
2049 Natural History Building
Date
Nov 4, 2022   3:00 pm  
Speaker
Dr. Desiree Fields, UC Berkeley
Cost
This event is free and open to public
Registration
Registration
E-Mail
geography@illinois.edu
Views
34
Originating Calendar
Geography and Geographic Information Science

In this talk, I draw on theories of property, financial power, and the asset economy to analyze the intersection of big tech and big capital in the US housing market. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a market landscape already altered significantly by post-2008 depredations of financial actors wielding enhanced digital tools sustained new rounds of investor-fueled growth and record-breaking appreciation. I examine three interrelated examples of how the digital and the financial are jointly reconfiguring relations of inequality: the expansion of iBuyers; a major new wave of investment backing institutional-scale landlords in single-family rental, and; the growth of business models that offer a path to homeownership through renting or provide non-professional investors exposure to the home rental market. I also consider the implications of changing macroeconomic conditions for such market strategies and for inequalities of wealth and affordability.

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