Race, space, and America’s subprime housing boom

Abstract

Background: While the Great Recession (2007-2009) has largely been framed as a national phenomenon, its impact varied greatly across different localities within the United States, likely reshaping social and economic inequality between places and across broader geographic areas. Yet the extent and character of such changes remain little understood, as do the factors that differentiated the recession’s impacts across places. This article is about a rapidly changing and incredibly diverse region in Southern California that was at the heart of a subprime induced housing boom and subsequent crash.