Book Review: Jen Jack Gieseking, A Queer New York: Geographies of Lesbians, Dykes, and Queers

Abstract

The first chapter provides an overview of some of the neighborhoods discussed in the book, how they are racialized by market professionals and the housing market dynamics that shape them. Korver-Glenn makes a convincing case for why Houston is a great case for this study. It is both highly racially diverse and highly racially segregated, while also being a relatively affordable housing market. The city therefore provides opportunities to look at racism’s direct effects on housing outcomes. The second chapter looks at the role of developers in shaping racialized space. This is a particularly innovative section of the book, as housing developers have been especially understudied in the urban sociology literature. It demonstrates how developers support racial segregation and racial inequality through their choices of where to build and who to build for. Most developers, especially White developers, consciously choose to build in White neighborhoods in an effort to appeal to White buyers. Some developers also engage in a practice Korver-Glen calls “reverse blockbusting” where they target homeowners of color when buying land, encouraging them to sell their homes quickly on terms that were favorable to the developers, a practice that likely contributes to gentrification. “Brokering Sales,” the third chapter, investigates how real estate agents rely on personal networking to build their clientele and connect to other kinds of housing professionals, and those networks were highly racialized, with White real estate agents in particular seeking White clients and excluding nonWhite professionals from their networks. They then maintain these networks by tolerating the racism of their clients and offering their own racially charged opinions about neighborhoods and schools. The fourth chapter, “Lending Capital,” demonstrates how mortgage lenders imprint their racial ideas on to the housing process. White mortgage lenders work to sustain racially segregated networks of buyers, agents, lenders, and loan opportunities. They also apply a racist market rubric when using their discretion to evaluate the risk of buyers and homes, which advantage White buyers and homes in White neighborhoods and disadvantage buyers of color and homes in neighborhoods of color. Chapter 5, “Appraising Value,” interrogates the role that appraisers play in furthering racial inequality in the housing market and demonstrates that racial inequality in appraisals is produced not just by historical legacies but through the active application of racist rubrics by contemporary appraisers. The concluding chapter presents innovative solutions for intervening in this racially structured market. By studying all four types of housing market professionals, KorverGlenn is able to offer suggestions for how federal, state, and local governments could audit and enforce fair housing practices for developers, appraisers, and lenders in addition to real estate agents. She argues for a more systemic approach to fair housing which would include intervening in racialized housing market routines, including racially segregated industry networking and racial logics in appraisals. Some creative proposals coming out of this approach are implementing penalties for “pocket listings,” the practice of real estate agents showing homes to their networks that are not publicly listed, and ending the neighborhood-based sales comparison approach to appraisals. These policy solutions hold a lot of promise, because they are based on such a fine-grained analysis of the racialized patterns of these influential actors. Both urban scholars and policy professionals should take note of these ideas.