Empirical investigations that examine mortgage default tend to frame studies with theory that emphasizes individual financial factors and minimizes ecological factors, which may influence defaulters' opinions of their homes as investments. While recent qualitative work has elucidated the emotional and psychological impacts of foreclosure, these investigations have not focused on the ways that neighborhood characteristics may affect these trends. This study of two neighborhoods in Nashville, TN addresses these gaps. A Ward's cluster analysis grouped high-foreclosure census tracts into neighborhoods with distinct foreclosure risk-factors based on structural characteristics and environmental stressors. Interviews with defaulters from the two neighborhoods with the highest differences in risk-factors illuminate informants' opinions of homeownership as an investment and further solidify how the distinct attributes of these neighborhoods relate to individual and collective opinions about local housing markets. The idea of an ecology of despair and ethnocentric attitudes are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11282010-223918 |
| Date | 10 December 2010 |
| Creators | Greer, Andrew Louis |
| Contributors | Susan Saegert, Marybeth Shinn |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11282010-223918/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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