Patterns of Change in Housing Market Activity in Revitalizing Neighborhoods

Abstract This study represents an initial attempt to identify whether or not private market reinvestment in twelve revitalizing neighborhoods progressed through a clearly identifiable sequence of change. The central finding is that the trends observed in the revitalizing neighborhoods differ in many ways from the descriptions of the process contained in the various “stage” descriptions of revitalization. Changes in property renovation, sales prices, sales volume, speculation, and the conversion of rental properties to owner occupancy were often discontinuous and abrupt. Furthermore, many of the changes occurred simultaneously, rather than in an orderly sequence where changes in one indicator predictably preceded changes in other indicators. Much of the fluctuation in housing market activity and the often parallel changes observed in the indicators appear to reflect the influence of the nationwide housing recession of the mid-1970s.