PROMOTING HOMEOWNERSHIP
THROUGH REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE:
A STUDY OF URBAN EDGE
by
John B.
Wilbur III
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the requirements for the
Joint Bachelor of Science and
Master of City Planning Degree
at the
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
August,
Signature of Author__________
Departme
1976
of Urban Stud
nd 1
______
mning, August,
1976
Certified byLawrence Ellot Sussnd
thesis SuperVisor
Accepted by
Chairperson, Departmental Committee on Graduate Students
Rotch
SEP 20 Ii
In recent years a -number of community groups have
taken steps to promote or maintain integrated residentOne strategy often
ial patterns in their neighborhoods.
used by such organizations is direct participation in
the real estate market. Urban Edge, Inc., a non-profit
real estate firm in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston
is one such group. Urban Edge relies on the real estate
market as its forum for change and its basis of survival.
Here the two year history of the firm is analysed to help
understand the potential for this type of organization.
Urban Edge has made progress toward its goals, but two
First, their measures of
major problems have arisen.
success are not shared by members of the Boston community.
Because there are different views of successful integration, success on Urban Edge's terms is not likely to
be regognized by others. Secondly, the organization has
only limited resources to commit to change, because do
much of its time is spent on survival. Much of their
time is spend providing services for people who would
be well served by a traditional real estate broker.
(i)
Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to many people who made my involvement with this study rewarding and enjoyable.
It would not have been possible without the support and
cooperation of the board and staff at Urban Edge.
Ron Hafer,
Luis Beato, Idalmis Garcia and John Rowse deserve special thanks
because they each contributed a great deal to this thesis.
enjoyed working with them this Summer.
I
I also want to thank the
other people in Jamaica Plain community who offered their time and ideas to this study.
I am indebted to Lawrence Susskind, my academic and thesis
advisor.
His ideas and advice have provided a much needed context for
my studies during these three years at M.I.T.
Nutt-Powell
and
The comments Tom
Langley Keyes offered on earlier drafts have improv-
ed this work immensely.
Finally, I want to thank Margaret, who did her best to.make
me appear literate.
I hope I can be as supportive over the next
four years as she has been over the last five.
(ii)
Table of Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgements
List of Maps
List of Tables
(i)
(ii)
(iv)
(v)
Introduction
p..1
Chapter One--Community Organizations
p. 4
1.1
1.2
p. 4
p. 5
Organization and Community Change
Communities and Racial Change in Neighborhood
Chapter Two--Introduction
2.1
2.2
2.3
to Urban Edge
p. 12
Urban Edge
The Context--Jamaica Plain
The Context--Real Estate Brokerage
p. 12
p. 16
p. 29
Chapter Three--Goals, Strategies, Dilemmas,
Expectations, and Tests
p. 39
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
39
42
47
51
54
Chapter Four-Outcomes
p.
67
Chapter Five--Understanding Success
p. 91
5.1
5.2
5.3
p. 91
p. 94
p. 98
Goals
Strategies and Policies
Dilemmas of Action
Expectations
Tests
Considering Success
Outstanding Issues
Monitoring and Future Research
Appendices
Appendix I--A look at the literature on
segregation and integration
Appendix II--Demographics of Jamaica Plain
Appendix III--Data by Collection Scheme
Appendix IV-Real Estate Activity by Sub-market
(iii)
p. Al
p. AlO
p. A15
p. A19
Listing of Maps
Chapter Two
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
Boston Neighborhoods
Location of Bromley Heath and Southwest Corridor
Cohesive Neighborhoods (BRA)
Cohesive Neighborhoods (Hodas)
Ethnic Neighborhood
Sub-markets
Sub-markets--Sale Prices
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
p.
17
20
22
23
25
27
34
p.
p.
p.
p.
74
76
79
81
Chapter Four
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
Property Transfers
Listings and Property Transfers
Sales and Houses Under Agreement
Recent Listings and Property Transfers
Appendix II
A2.1
p. All
Census Tracts
(iv)
Listing of Tables
Chapter Two
2.1
Mortgage Data
p. 35
Chapter Three
3.1
Goals, Strategies, Expectations,
Tests, and Data Needs
p. 60
Chapter Four
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
Urban Edge's Listings by Price
Urban Edge's Listings, Encounters,
and Sales by Price
Owner-occupancy in Jamaica Plain
Comparison of Urban Edge Sales
and All Residential Sales
Urban Edge Listings
p. 68
p. 69
p. 71
p. 71
p. 80
Appendix III
A3.1 Analysis of Encounter Forms 3/1/76
to 5/15/76
p. A15
A3.2 Sales Information by Neighborhood
A3.3 Information on Urban Edge Activities
(v)
p. A17
p. A18
Introduction
During the 1960's, Congress passed legislation designed to eliminate
discrimination in
the housing market.
Yet after ten years,
remains the most striking attribute of our cities.
racial segregation
Advocates of housing integration
have continued to work at the neighborhood level to investigate and react to
those forces that continue to promote segregated neighborhoods.
have taken many forms, but their goals are the same.
Their efforts
They are all attempting
to challenge some basic ideas about the way neighborhoods change and evolve.
They want to show that patterns of racial, cultural, and sometimes economic
diversity in an area can be forged into a neighborhood as stable and livable
as other, more homogeneous, neighborhoods.
A number of organizations have focused on the family as the key decision
Several of these groups have intervened
unit affecting change in a neighborhood.
in the real estate market to affect the decisions of families and thereby
promote integrated living patterns.
These organizations claim that the
institutions which control the market now have been major contributors to the
current residential patterns.
One such organization is Urban Edge, a non-
profit real estate corporation working in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston.
Urban Edge operates a real estate brokerage and a housing rehabilitation
program.
The brokerage is one of a few programs for intervention which
promotes open housing by direct participation in the market; it is a real
estate brokerage and places itself in the environment to which other brokers
react.
By entering the real estate market completely, Urban Edge is testing
the limits of a real estate intervention strategy.
Urban Edge is competing with
other realtors to prove that the goals of economic survival, promotion of
community and the promotion of an open housing market need not be mutually
1
exclusive.
It has not used other strategies for promoting integration like
checking for racial steering or mounting community pressure to assure that
brokers deal fairly with all people interested in living in Jamaica:Plain.
Another thing which makes the Urban Edge effort unique is that Jamaica Plain is
more economically and culturally diverse than other communities where real
This requires
estate interventions to promote integration have been tried.
that it not only combat the conventional wisdom about racial change, but it
also challenge some notions about economically homogeneous neighborhoods.
Finally,
the environment created by recent court-ordered busing makes Boston a difficult
city in which to promote integration
at this time.
A case study of Urban Edge will provide a basis to look at several questions
dealing with this approach to open housing.
The questions to be addressed are:
What is the potential for intervention in the real estate market?
Is there room
in the competitive market for an organization which measures its progress not
in dollars but according to some idea of community well-being?
Will the forces,
ideas.and myths which are active in the real estate market today overwhelm such
an enterprise?
of these forces?
Finally, can an organization make a measurable impact in light
If an alternative real estate firm can make progress, it may
serve as a model for others wishing to promote or maintain integrated neighborhoods.
Also, this approach might be used to address other aspects of neighborhood
change and evolution.
The first chapter presents a review of the literature on community organizations as well as organizations which promote racial integration.
In the
second chapter, background on Urban Edge is provided, its history and the 2
contexts in which it works-Jamaica Plain and the business community.
The
third chapter focuses on Urban Edge's goals, strategies, the dilemmas faced
2
by the organization,
to monitor its
presented.
the impact board members expect to see, and tests designed
impact.
In
the fourth chapter, the results of the tests are
The final chapter includes recommendations to Urban Edge, and some
ideas about the generalizability of this approach to other areas or other problems.
3
Chapter One
Community Organizations
1.1
Organization and Community Change
Community organizations have received much attention in planning literature.
Heath describes the history of "community organizations" using the proceedings
of the National Conference of Social Welfare and its forebearers.
As early
ad 1887 the basics of "case work, group work and community organization--the
latter described as 'services
which benefit all
good
members of the community:
drainage, good schools, libraries, playgrounds, etc."' (Heath, p.16) were
established.
The case and group work developed through the early settlement
houses and were later adopted by government or social service agencies.
Mead
and Brown provide several cases of community organization which address the issues
of physical redevelopment, historic preservation and needed public services.
Organizations which focus on government services, social services and physical
redevelopment received governmental support through
Urban Renewal,
the Office
of Economic Opportunity, and the Model Cities program. (Frederickson, Hallman)
Hallman's Neighborhood Control of Public Programs provides case studies of
neighborhood organizations which deal or dealt with problems of poverty, methods
of decentralizing city services, juvenile delinquency, economic development
and questions raised by Urban renewal. (Hallman)
There is a question of the extent to which these kinds of organizations
promote change.
style work,
Some early social service organizations engaged in missionary-
carrying middle class values to working class neighborhoods.
4
(Cairo)
Rothman says that organizations in lower class neighborhoods gain more participation when they address working class issues rather than attempting to change
the attitudes of those participating. (Rothman)
Some organizations which promote
change are actually involved in changing a set of ideas in order to preserve
some valued aspect of community life.
are often focused on a place.
lining in their community.
The activities of these organizations
For example, a group may organize to fight red-
Their enterprise challenges some major assumptions
about the right of a bank to use its resources as it chooses.
is designed to change the way certain decisions are made.
is to preserve their neighborhood.
is issue-oriented.
Their effort
Their motivation
Another kind of organization is one which
An issue-oriented group may promote the status quo, as the
Klu Klux Klan did, or it may choose an issue which mandates change, as the N.A.A.C.P.,
C.0.R.E. and the Black Panthers have.
In the latter cases, the success of the
organization requires change; their ideas about change are not based on strategies
designed to maintain something or someplace.
1.2
Communities and Racial Change in Neighborhood
It is
not surprising that those community organizations in white neighbor-
hoods faced with racial change moved to preserve the status quo.
Community
groups faced with the prospect of racial change through the 1950's reacted by
excluding blacks from white areas.
Race restrictive covenants were monitored
by community groups in Chicago and St. Louis. (Abrams, Long and Johnson)
Molotch mentions that the Chicago South Shore organization began as a group
designed to keep the South Shore white.
And in the Hyde Park section of Chicago,
the Kenwood-Hyde Park Home-Owner's Association was responsible for bombing 58
houses which whites sold or rented to black families.(Abrams)
5
Abrams also
documents that neighborhood associations were instrumental in increasing racial
tensions in Los Angeles, Detroit, Miami, Washington D.C. and San Fransisco.
What is
surprising is
that organizations promoting integration in neighborhoods
also began as efforts to maintain certain elements of the status quo.
In
A Neighborhood Finds Itself, Abrahamson describes one community's attempt to
promote integration and,
retain its
describes.
Seattle,
(Beach)
Buffalo,
show that the neighborhood could
Articles or books have been published on
identity and character.
organizations in
Cleveland.
at the same time,
Chicago,
Philadelphia,
Detroit and
Denver,
A number of these groups are similar to the one Abrahamson
Their goals and strategies are designed to preserve some ideas
of community.
On Chicago's South Shore, the group accepted the goal of promoting
integration only after there were a substantial number of black residents.. (Molotch)
Other communities, such as Cleveland Heights and Shaker Hights, were also
spurred by large black migrations.
this case neighboring East Cleveland saw
In
the proportion of black population jump from 2% in
People in
1960 to 51% in
1970.
(Glazer)
these communities are concerned that their cities might become
extensions of the ghetto.
Their efforts are directed at encouraging white
families to stay or locate in
integrated neighborhoods.
become numerous enough that there is
called National Neighbors.
These groups have
now a nationwide organization
The track record of such groups is
of them
varied.
The
Shaker Heights Housing office claims that they have helped maintain stable
integrated neighborhoods for over ten years.
(Anderson)
South Shore was not successful and the South Shore is
The group on Chicago's
now predominantly black.
(Molotch)
Support for these enterprises comes from a variety of places.
In some
instances, foundations of voluntary contributions make up the bulk of the
6
organization's resources.
In others such as in 2 Cleveland suburbs-Cleveland
Heights and Shaker Heights, and a suburb of Chicago-Oakpark, the bill is paid
by the city government.
There is a third set, to which Urban Edge belongs,
that attempts to support itself in the private market.
These businesses to
promote racial integration exist in Hartford, Cleveland, Denver, Philadelphia,
(National Neighbors) and, of course, Boston.
These organizations operate or operated on a similar set of assumptions.
First, they feel that the neighborhood should react favorably to minority
entry.
Secondly, they believe that physical improvement of the neighborhood will
encourage white families to.either stay in the nieghborhood or locate there.
Thirdly, many believe that whites will not buy in areas which are largely
minority.
Finally, they feel that current patterns of segregation were fostered
by the institutions active in the real estate market
not only through the
mechanisms mentioned previously, but through the ongoing practice of racial
steering.
Groups have documented that realtors encourage minority families
to settle in integrated areas and warn white families away from these
neighborhoods. (Bromley) The organizations feel that these patterns can either
be broken by fair treatment of tenants and buyers, or that their nieghborhood can
serve
as an example that integrated housing patterns need not be followed by
expansion of the ghetta.
These organizations also employ similar strategies.
The first strategy
is to put pressure on the city to improve the physical environment. (Abrahamson,
Lauber, Molotch)
They encourage that building and occupancy codes be more
strictly enforced, and some communities have made efforts to attract urban renewal
or other government programs to serve the neighborhood. (Abrahamson)
is
There
also a good deal of social pressure placed on families to maintain or repair
7
deteriorating property.
Another strategy is to put pressure on surrounding communities to integrate
their neighborhoods. (Lauber)
Lauber mentions that this is
In a review of a program in suburban Chicago,
a key element of the program.
Lauber contends that
if minority families were distributed by income rather than by race, no suburb
would be more than 3% minority.
But other observers feel that pressure on other
communities is best exerted by an organization with a metropolitan constituency.
(Hecht)
A third strategy is to monitor the policies of real estate beokers.
In
Oakpark, the subject of Lauber's article, several firms were found to practice
steering. (Lauber)
Recent court decisions have awarded damages to victims of
steering in the Chicago area.
yielded mixed results:
In Cleveland Heights, the steering checking has
a 1/2 million dollar law suit is pending against 1 major
realtor accused of steering (Bromley); but the checking program has also led
to the passage of an anti-checking ordinance in neighboring Shaker Heights.
The last strategy is the use of a tenants referral service, an extension
of which is the brokerage business. (Abrahamson, Molotch, Lauber, Anderson,
Bromley, Hafer)
The modes of operation of such groups vary.
the object is to "reverse steer."
In several cases
Black families are shown homes in white areas
and white families are encouraged to locate in integrated neighborhoods.
traditional real estate firms are placing black families in
While
integrated areas,
the
referral service balances that by placing white families in the same neighborhood.
(Molotch, Lauber, Anderson, Bromley)
Some groups have added to this by
attempting bo cultivate different segments of the white market.
Cleveland, housing services have tried to tap the migrant market.
In Hartford and
They contact
businesses that might have employees transferred to the area, and attempt to
8
show those transfers homes in key neighborhoods.
Activity in the rental
market is an important element of this strategy.(Anderson, Bromley, Powell)
It allows these families to try out the neighborhood before making the important
decision to buy. (Anderson)
Some groups also employ a quota system, limiting
the number of minority families they are willing to place.
Oakpark attracted
public attention when it was proposed that the town's open housing
be suspended for areas which were 30% minority.
encourage whites to live in the area. (Lauber)
elsewhere.
ordinance
This would allow agencies to
Similar things are done informally
The director of the Shaker Heights Housing Office said that they
assist only white families looking for homes in integrated neighborhoods.
(Anderson)
The rise of racial quotas in other situations has been approved by the
Supreme Court. (Abrams)
Several authors have reluctantly supported such a
system, because the existence of a quota seemed to be the only mechanism which
maintained integrated neighborhoods. (Abrams, Lauber, Fishman)
The need for quotas is challenged by people who do not see themselves
as primarily promoting integrated living.
These are the groups which have
entered the real estate market to promote fair housing.
Their primary concern
is equal access to housing. (National Neighbors, Hafer)
At least one 'such
organization believes that this kind of open approach to real estate sales
will create integrated neighborhoods. (Hafer)
9
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter One
Abrahamson, Julia.
thers. 1959.
A Neighborhood Finds Itself.
Forbidden Neighbors.
Abrams, Charles.
Harper and Bro-
New York:
New York: Harper and Brothers.
1955.
Aldrich, Howard. "Ecological Succession in Racially Changing Neighborhoods:
A Review of the Literature." Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 3.
March 1975. pp. 327-45.
Anderson, Director of the Shaker Heights Housing Office.
5/76.
Phone Conversation,
Barresi, Charles. "Racial Transition in an Urban Neighborhood."
Change. July 1972. pp. 16-22.
Baum, David. Toward a Free Housing Market.
Miami Press, 1971.
Coral Gables:
Growth and
University of
Beach, Mark. Desegregated Housing and Interracial Neighborhoods:
graphic Guide. Philadelphia: National Neighbors. 1975.
A Biblio-
Bradburn, Norman et al. Side-by-Side:
Integrated Neighborhoods in America.
Chicago: Quadrangle Books. 1971.
Bromley, Chip.
Heights Community Congress.
Cairo, Robert.
The Power Broker.
New York:
Phone Conversation.
5/76.
Rand-McNally. 1975.
Caplan, Eleanor. Attitudes and Behavior in a Middle Class Biracial Neighborhood: A Situational Approach to a Relationship and Prediction. Cleveland: Bell and Howell. 1962.
Coleman, Richard.
1971.
Social Status in the City.
San Francisco:
Jossey Bass, Inc.
Fredrickson, George, ed. Neighborhood Control in the Seventies.
Chandler Publishing Co. 1973.
Glazer, Nathan.
New York:
Studies in Minority Housing and Minority Groups.
Gochel, Galen et al. "Community Organizations in Interracial Neighborhoods."
In Community Organizations Studies in Constraint, Irving Spergel, ed.
Beverly Hills: Sage Books, 1972. pp. 47-70.
Hafer, Ron.
Director of Urban Edge.
Conversations 4/76 and 5/76.
10
BIBLIOGRAPHY (con.)
Chapter One
Hallman, Howard. Neighborhood Control of Public Programs.
Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies. 1970.
Heath, Monna. Trends in Community Organizations.
Monograms. 1963.
Hecht, James. Because It Is Right:
Brown and Co. 1970.
New York:
Chicago:
Social Science
Integration in Housing.
Boston:
Lauber, Donald. "Integration Takes More Than a Racial Quota."
April - May 1974. pp. 14-17.
Mead, Margaret and Muriel Brown.
McNally.
The Wagon and the Star.
Little
Planning,
New York:
Rand-
Molotch, Harvey. Managed Integration: Dilemmas of Doing Good in the City.
Berkley: University of California Press. 1972.
. "Racial Change in a Stable Community."
of Sociology, Vol.75. January, 1969. pp. 226-38.
National Neighbors.
The Dual Housing Market.
American Journal
reprint.
Northwood, Lawrence and Ernest Barth. Urban Desegregation: Negro Pioneers
and Their White Neighbors. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
1969.
Powell, Yvonne.
Urban Edge Board Member.
Conversation. 6/76.
Rapkin, Chester and William Grigsby. The Demand for Housing in Racially
Mixed Areas: A Study of the Nature of Neighborhood Change. Berkley:
University of California Press.
1960.
Rothman, Jack. Planning and Organizing for Social Change.
umbia University Press. 1974.
New York: Col-
Varady, David. "White Moving Plans in a Racially Changing Middle Class
Community."
Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 40.
No. 5. September, 1974. pp. 360-70.
Wolf, Eleanor. "The Tipping Point in Racially Changing Neighborhoods."
Journal of the American Istitute Of Planners, Vol. 29. 1963. pp. 217-22.
Wolf, Eleanor and Charles Le Beaux. " Class and Race in the Changing City
Searching for New Approaches to Old Problems." Urban Research and Policy
Planning, editied by L.F. Schnore and H. Fagan, Beverly Hills: Sage
Publications. 1967.
11
Chapter Two
Introduction to Urban Edge
2.1
Urban Edge
Like many organizations, Urban Edge is as much a product of history as
design.
Many of the principals were involved with the Ecumenical Social Action
Committee (ESAC) in Jamaica Plain.
ESAC, an organization of several Jamaica
Plain churches, was started by clergy and lay people who were interested in
community action in the Model Cities area.
to deal with problems in Jamaica Plain.
ESAC developed a range of programs
One is a youth services program which
offers teen centers and rent-a-kid programs.
Another is a project for senior
citizens which provides a drop-in center, a hot lunch program and Meals-on-Wheels.
The Oficina-Hispana offers day care, prenatal care, English classes and job
Finally, ESAC
counseling to the Jamaica Plain Spanish-speaking population.
offered the Homeownership Program, which was the direct predecessor of Urban Edge.
The Homeownership Program was designed to help low and moderate income
families become homeowners.
mortgage assistance.
It offered rehab and maintainance counseling, and
Rehab subsidies were also available.
During its four-year
history, the program helped over 60 families find affordable houses.
As many
as 2/3 of the families helped by the program bought houses which required no
renovation, and a good number of these non-rehab purchasers were middle income
families looking for an alternative to housing in the suburbs.
Some of the
program's participants spoke Spanish as a first language and could find no
bilingual real estate services.
12
The funding for the program came from Model Cities and from foundations.
As Model Cities funding was pulled back, it became clear to those running the
program that it was desirable to develop a funding source that was not primarily
based on either charity or government sources.
Ron Hafer, director of the
Homeownership Program, felt that the complex interests and risks inherent in a
rehab and homeownership program had to be closely monitored by community
representatives.
Although ESAC has a wide constituency in Jamaica Plain, he
thought the program demanded a structure devoted solely to housing and real
estate.
The time seemed right for some sort of organizational change.
Those interested found a model for the reorganization in Hartford, Connecticut,
where a real estate firm, Urban Edge, is working to promote integration in
Hartford's neighborhoods.
The Hartford program began when a neighborhood in
that city underwent rapid racial transition.
The founders of the Hartford
program thought that the actions of the real estate community encouraged and
fostered racial transition rather than promoting integration.
They set
themselves up as a non-profit corporation and attempted to offer housing
services for Hartford's residents.
Ron Hafer and Luis Beato thought that the
Hartford approach could be modified to address some of the problems faced in
Jamaica Plain.
They thought that much of the counseling and assistance provided
by the Homeownership Program would be the base of a good brokering program.
They
also thought a large unmet demand for real estate services had been uncovered
by the Homeownership Program.
They wanted to adopt the Hartford model of a
non-profit corporation sponsored by a community group.
They borrowed the name
and asked ESAC to sponsor the new corporation.
Urban Edge of Jamaica Plain was incorporated in mid-1974.
According to the
organization's by-laws, it should be governed by a nine-person board.
13
It is
required that the board include white, black and hispanic members; no one
ethnic group may compose a majority of the board.
During the first 6 months,
Urban Edge worked for ESAC under a contract to wind down the Homeownership
Program.
The ESAC funding came from the Permanent Charities Board and from
Model Cities.
After this contract ran out a second contract, again from ESAC
and funded by Permanent Charities, accounted for half of Urban Edge's revenues
from January, 1975 to December, 1975.
were covered by commissions.
The other half of Urban Edge's revenues
During this time the program was staffed by two
full-time sales people, Hafer and Beato.
the Homeownership Program.
Both had extensive experience from
They continued to work out of the ESAC offices near
Egelston Square.
Since January of 1976 several changes have occurred which allowed Urban
Edge to expand, but which diverted manpower from the brokerage.
The firm attracted
support from the Urban Reinvestment Task Force, a program of the Federal Home
Loan Bank Board.
This program is designed to help those areas of the city which
are beginning to show signs of physical deterioration.
This money, combined
with Community Development Revenue Sharing (CDRS) funds from the city of Boston,
supports Urban Edge's Vacant Housing Program.
The aim of this program is
to
acquire and rehabilitate houses which have been left vacant in Jamaica Plain.
federal dollars provide seed money to staff the program, while the CDRS
subsidizes the rehabilitation of the program's buildings.
and the marketing of the houses.
directly
The federal money should
be re-couped when houses are sold, allowing the program to continue.
Beato devote 2/3 of their time to this new program.
The
Hafer and
They handle the financing
An additional staff member was hired to monitor
the design and construction phases of the Vacant Housing Program.
Presently, Urban Edge has 4 full-time staff members, Hafer, Beato, the
14
rehab specialist and an office manager; and three part-time people, two brokers
and a bookkeeper.
in
The firm has also moved from its space at ESAC to an office
Central Jamaica Plain.
assistance.
Urban Edge also utilizes legal and accounting
In order to pay for the brokering program (1/3 of the salespeoples'
salaries, the salaries of the part-time brokers and 1/3 of the office manager's
salary), Urban Edge must collect $29,000 in commissions.
If the program is to
expand, then even more commissions must be generated.
Urban Edge does not fit neatly into either the place or issue-oriented
categories developed in section 1.1
promote Jamaica Plain.
It
Much of the work done at Urban Edge is to
does this by direct reinvestment under the Vacant
Housing Program and by educating and counseling new homeowners.
It works to
promote homeownership among moderate income families so that both the family and
the neighborhood benefit.
The organization grew out of the ESAC experience.
The neighborhoods in the ESAC target area include those in which there is
meaningful economic and racial integration.
Urban Edge is
working to promote
values and characteristics that are common to those neighborhoods; it wants to
see those neighborhoods maintained.
By broadening its scope to include all of Jamaica Plain, Urban Edge takes
on the characteristics of an issue-oriented organization.
The ideas and valued
experiences which are a part of one neighborhood are not shared by other
neighborhoods.
promoted,
Unlike other communities where racial integration has been
there is
in Jamaica Plain.
no community-wide consensus about the prospects for integration
Therefore, Urban Edge is not viewed throughout the community
as an agent for positive change.
15
2.2
The Context--Jamaica Plain
To properly understand the activities of Urban Edge, we must focus our
attention on the community in which it operates.
Many people have said that the
city of Boston is more an aggregation of communities than a single imagable
place. (Keyes, Hodas, Boston 200)
If this is true, then, in at least one way,
Jamaica Plain is the perfect Boston community.
It, too, cannot be characterized
by a single well-defined image; rather it is the sum of its neighborhoods.
neighborhood is the critical unit of analysis.
Jamaica Plain is not a trivial task.
Here
Charting neighborhoods in
Several attempts have been made to do it.
One set of definitions provides the basis of analysis for a Boston Redevelopment
Authority (BRA) report on the district.
Another is the effort of a student
to operationalize and apply the definitions of neighborhood using Jamaica Plain
as a case study.
Yet another set of neighborhood divisions is used by Urban
Edge to chart developments in the housing market.
The question of neighborhood boundaries is a critical one, because it is
against the backdrop of neighborhood that the goals of promoting ehtnic and
economic diversity take on real meaning.
Compared to many other districts in
Boston, Jamaica Plain is already an integrated area.
Black residents make up
11% of the 46,220 people who live in the district; Spanish-speaking families
make up 7%.
*
Jamaica Plain.
Yet, most minority residents live in the northeastern portion of
People at Urban Edge are concerned about the response of people
in the real estate industry toward this segment of Jamaica Plain's population.
The firm is also worried about other institutional responses to the neighborhoods
*
The sum of black and Spanish populations overestimates the proportion of
minority residents in the community. Many hispanic people are from the West
Indies and are counted in both the black and Spanish-speaking groups.
16
I
BOSTON
NEIGHBORHOODS
MAP 2.1
EAST BOSTON
SOUTH BOSTON
ROXBURY
DORCHESTER
ROXBURY
HYDE PARK
in which minority families live.
A.
History and Physical Development
It is the physical development of Jamaica Plain which sets the stage for
the growth of its different neighborhoods.
Early development catered to
wealthy Bostonians who summered on the shores of Jamaica Pond in
Plain and neighboring Brookline.
both Jamaica
During this period, Jamaica Plain was also the
site of a number of very successful farms which provided much of the city's fresh
produce.
In 1835 the commuter rail connected Jamaica Plain to Boston.
Homes
were built for members of the upper middle class who wanted to escape the city
and could afford the train fare. (Warner)
is
now buried)
attracted
In the 1840's, the Stoneybrook
factories to the area.
(which
Breweries and machine manufac-
turing plants used the water and the water power available.
Like much residential
development of the early industrial period, houses were built for the workers
aro7 nd the factories.
Many of the streets in
carry names like Shiller St.
ethnics to settle
factories.
in
the Brookside neighborhood still
or Germania which serve as reminders that the first
the area were German immigrants who worked in
the nearby
At the turn of the century, extension of the now green line trolley
and the building of the Washington Street El lowered the commuting costs and
opened Jamaica Plain to middle class residents.
It is during this period that
most of the wood frame three deckers were built.
(Hodas,
Boston 200, Warner,
Boston Landmarks Commission)
The development of this area in
of housing types in
the district.
jumps and starts
has created a juxtaposition
Even other areas of Boston,
a city known
for erratic and incomprehensible building patterns, have more physical continuity.
Because the homes in
Jamaica Plain were originally designed for various income
and status groups, we still find a wide range of people are interested in
18
living there.
Current prices for homes start at $6,000 in the Hyde Square
area and reach $70,000 near the pond. (Suffolk County Transfer Directory)
Along with growing black and Spanish communities,
there is
an increase in
the
number of young white professionals drawn to the area. (Interviews with
principals of Urban Edge and other community people)
Since 1920 there have been two major changes in
in
Jamaica Plain.
the community.
Both were interventions which were beyond the control of
(Boston 200)
Heath Housing Project.
district;
the physical environment
The first
of these was the building of the Bromley
Bromley Heath dominates the northern portion of the
many people feel that the physical deterioration and social problems
of the project have spilled over into the surrounding neighborhood.
The second intervention was the proposal of, demolition for, and ultimate
stoppage of 1-95, the Southwest Expressway.
who feel that the owners in
the area stopped maintaining their buildings when
plans for the highway were made public.
build and the first
There are people in the community
demolitions.
Ten years separated the decision to
Then in
1972 plans for the highway were
dropped after community groups in Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, the South End, and
other inner communities pressed to have the project terminated.
the future of the cleared land is
still
unresolved.
Now in
1976
Twenty years of uncertainty
has taken its toll on neighborhoods near the highway site. (Lupo)
B.
Jamaica Plain Neighborhoods
As noted earlier,
one.
the problem of neighborhood definition is
a complex
In a recent thesis, Hodas applies six different definitions of neighborhood
to Jamaica Plain.
In this section I want to look at three types of neighborhoods:
cohesive communities, homogeneous communities and housing sub-markets.
neighborhoods are areas where residents have shown a willingness to work
19
Cohesive
urfan
JAMAICA PLAIN
BROMLEY
MAP 2.2
" EATH
POND
.4
ARNOLD
ARBORITU A
together to confront common problems.
The homogeneous neighborhood is an area
dominated by a particular cultural or ethnic group.
The sub-markets are areas
where a particular type of house is essentially interchangeable for another of
the same type.
Both the BRA report and the Hodas thesis measure neighborhoods by community
cohesiveness.
The BRA report defines a cohesive neighborhood by looking for
an active neighborhood organization and charting the bounds of its
concerns.
Hodas relies on interviews with informed people in the community to describe
a system of cohesive neighborhoods.
results.
The two approaches yield largely the same
Most of the major elements identified are the same,
but the boundaries
differ slightly.
The concept of community cohesiveness is important when considering the
efforts of Urban Edge.
One of the attributes of Jamaica Plain which a board
member found appealing is the ability of different types of people to work
together.
People on welfare, professionals, white, black and hispanic people
face community problems together.
if
This spirit of cohesiveness has to be preserved
economic and ethnic integration is
to be successful.
In his look at
neighborhood diversity, Gans worries that there will not be the basis for
consensus if a neighborhood is too diverse.
Urban Edge is working to allow
diverse places to exist so that points of consensus can be discovered.
The
development of a cohesive neighborhood is something which takes a great deal of
time; residents have to learn that they share problems and that collective
action will yield results.
When thinking about Urban Edge's success, we must
look to see whether or not neighborhoods continue to be or develop as cohesive
communities.
in Appendix II
The cohesive neighborhoods defined by the BRA and Hodas are used
as a base to describe the characteristics of Jamaica Plain's
21
urFaneqe
JAMAICA PLAIN
C HE;.-S I
N21GHB
HOODS
MAP 2.3.
A
HYDE SQUARE
JAMAICA
POND
JAMAICA
CENTRAL
POND
EGELSTON
SQUARE
JAMAICA HILLS
JAMAICA
SOUTH
ARNOLD
-ARD.ORITU A
Source:
Boston
Redevel.
Authority
urfano
JAMAICA PLAIN
e
COHESIVE
NEIGHBORHOOD
MAP
HYDE SQUARE -
2. 4
JAMAICA CENTRAL
MOSS HILL
JAMAICA
POND
F/
I
/
FOREST
ARNOLD
ARBOR ITU Jv
Source:
Hodas
Thesis
WHITE CITY
population.
According to the BRA report and the 1970 census, all of the neighbor-
hoods except Hyde Square and Egelston Square were predominantly white.
The
highest proportion of minority residents outside these areas lived in Stoneybrook,
which was 4% Spanish-speaking in 1970.
There had been a significant influx
of minority residents in Hyde and Egelston Squares between 1960 and 1970.
In
1960 only 2% of Hyde Square's population was black, and less than 1% of the
population in Egelston Square was black.
and 13% respectively.
In 1970 these numbers jumped to 15%
The hispanic population has also grown.
Hodas applied a standard for measuring socio-economic status to the various
neighborhoods she examined. (see Appendix II)
Overall, the socioeconomic
status of Jamaica Plain residents dropped between 1960 and 1970.
In the Jamaica
Pond and Jamaica Hill sections, the index rose and in Hyde Square it remained the
same.
dodas applied a standard of population homogeneity to Jamaica Plain by
collecting the opinions of various people in the community.
suprising.
The result is
Instead of finding that people delineated new areas with homogeneous
populations, she found that the lines which demarked neighborhoods of cohesion
were very similar to those which served as boundaries for the homogeneous
neighborhoods.
(see map 2.5)
It
is
important to point out that Hodas mentions
only that these areas have the appearance qf homogeneity.
However, the designation
of these areas as black or Spanish-speaking or white came through in my interviews with people involved in the real estate industry.
The idea that ethnic labels might be used to characterize a place in which
that ethnic group makes up only 15, liberally 25% of the population says something about the way in which people perceive the nature of neighborhood.
it indicates that neighborhoods are primarily described in physical terms.
24
First,
For
urFanc4e
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 2.5
ETHNIC
NEIGH BORHOOD
SPANISHSPEAKING
IRISH
IRISHGREEK
IRISHGREEK
IRISH
SPANISHSPEAKING
ARNOLD
'ARPBORITU 1'
SOURCE:
Hodas
Thesis
IRISH
example, Hyde Square remains an identifiable neighborhood whether it is 95%
white (as it
1970)(BRA),
was in
1960)(U.S.
Bureau of the Census,
64% white (as in
or as an area into which Spanish-speaking people are moving (as in-
dicated by recent interviews).
frames of reference.
The physical bounds of neighborhoods remain the
An area can be described as changing only because the
neighborhood has a definition exclusive of ethnicity.
in
1960),
This creates a situation
which portions of the neighborhood are described as having characteristics of
the entire neighborhood when few of those characteristics might be in evidence.
The other attitude indicated is that an area can be dominated by a group of
people even when that group makes up only a small part of the population.
has important implications for the process of neighborhood change.
This
If a
neighborhood is labelled as minority when relatively few minorities live there,
then white families are likely to be steered away at a time when prospects for
promc ing integrated living are good.
Bankers I spoke with perceived these areas
largely in accordance with the ethnic lines.
A number of community people
believe that the banks avoid lending in neighborhoods which are changing ethnically.
One person went so far as to say that banks,
in
anticipation of racial change,
stop lending in white areas before minorities enter.
In Jamaica Plain there is
a community organization active in monitoring the lending practices of banks.
They are now promoting a green-lining campaign;
their money in
they encourage people to place
two local banks that have portfolios which include many mortgages
in Jamaica Plain.
The last way of subdividing Jamaica Plain is
according to housing sub-markets.
In the literature, a sub-market is defined as an area where houses are essentially
the same;
a typical buyer is
house B in the same area.
likely to be indifferent about having house A or
Clearly the operation of the real estate market is
26
urfan ecf
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 2. 6
SUBMARKETS
.Zoo
JAMAICA
POND
Pond Side
Jamacia
Hills
I
/
ARNOLU
ARB3OR IT( .1ills
City)
White City
more complex than this simple definition of sub-market would imply, but the
concept has proven useful when trying to match buyers with houses.
When one purchases a house, he buys more than the house itself; he also buys
access to transportation, a neighborhood where children do or do not play in
the street, and a certain physical environment.
We expect that houses which are
similar and share environmental attributes will be similarly priced.
At Urban
Edge the sub-markets defined are used to help assess a fair price for a house.
They also offer the opportunity to draw attention to variations in the Jamaica
Plain neighborhoods described in the first two sections.
used by Urban Edge are shown on map 2.6.
The sub-markets
Jamaica Central and Egelston Square
are the two neighborhoods which are subc-divided most.
The reasons for this
separation can be illustrated by looking at the Atherton, Brookside and Parkside
North sub-markets.
All are part of the Egelston Square neighborhood.
The
use -f the Southwest Corridor land, the demolition of the Washington Street El
and the improvement of the shopping area along Washington Street are major
events which will affect all of these sub-markets.
futures of these neighborhoods are linked.
In these respects, the
However, the Atherton area consists
of one and two family houses, the streets are often tree-lined, and informants
say that residents have taken advantage of city programs designed to help
homeowners make improvements.
industrial uses.
The Brookside area has a mix of residential and
Many of the housing units are in
larger apartment buildings of
six to eight families; the rest of the residential buildings are mostly three
deckers.
The environment is quite different from the Atherton area.
area is Parkside North.
The third
Most of the buildings there are three deckers, but
a lack of industry and proximity to Franklin Park distinguishes this area
from Brookside.
If the same house were moved from one of these areas to another,
28
its price would certainly change.
There is another reason that smaller neighborhoods are useful when speaking
about Jamaica Plain.
Residents who were not heavily involved in community
organizations spoke of their neighborhood as the area within a block of their homes.
(Buyer interviews)
There are large forces which are changing the face of Jamaica
Plain, but the events which most directly affect the resident, the events which
draw his attention are those which occur close to him.
The influences which
affect the resident can best be monitored by watching small areas rather than
large.
Observing smaller areas allows one to understand the social dynamic of
a community.
Promoting integration successfully depends on the quality of social
interaction among residents;
this interaction must be monitored at the neighborhood
level.
2.3
The Context--Real Estate Brokerage
There is another environment in which Urban Edge is working--the business
community.
Plain.
There are two kinds of real estate offices operating in Jamaica
The first is based in the business district and may have other businesses
connected with it.
These brokers attract "off the street" clients who have no
specific knowledge of the community, as well as referrals from local residents.
The other is usually a service operated out of someone's home.
In this instance
that licensed person relies exclusively on referrals from friends.
There are
five brokers in Jamaica Plain who operate business district offices and two
brokers who operate from their homes.
All people who sell real estate for a
commission are licensed by the state.
There are two licensing categories:
is the salesman's license; the other is the broker's license.
one
Brokers over-see
the entire sales operation, while the role of a salesman is somewhat like that
29
of an apprentice.
The "realtor" is
yet another title
which is
used in
the
business.
"Realtor" is
The latter
two refer to the type of license granted by the state, while "realtor"
not an official designation like "broker" or "salesman".
is the copyrighted designation of the National Association of Realtors (formerly
the National Association of Real Estate Boards).
to a broker because it
The designation is
important
offers a certain legitimacy for his business.
Brokers
who are not realtors may not attract as much business,
because people look for
realtors when they think about buying or selling a home.
All brokers follow similar steps when selling a home.
the house.
First they must list
This involves getting the seller to agree that the broker can show
the house to prospective buyers.
broker gets from the seller.
There are two kinds of listings which the
The "exclusive" listing is
most desirable.
Such
an agreement usually runs sixty days, during which time the broker is the only
person who can sell the house.
Even if someone else finds a buyer during this
period, the broker with the exclusive listing is entitled to the commission.
The other kind of listing is
house.
an "open" listing, which allows anyone to sell the
A broker is only entitled to a commission if he is the one who brings
the buyer and seller together.
interested buyers to see it.
an offer.
Once a broker has listed a house he can take
If the house appeals to the buyer then he can make
An offer states that the buyer is willing to purchase the house for
a particular price subject to certain conditions.
makes the sale contingent on a certain mortgage.
be added to the offer.
The most common condition
Other conditions may also
If the seller finds the price and conditions reasonable,
then he accepts the offer.
If he considers the price too low or thinks the
conditions make the sale too risky, he may reject the offer.
is
When an offer
rejected the buyer can make another offer or look for another house.
30
r-
When an offer is
accepted the property is
"under agreement".
The terms of the
agreement specify a time period during which the agreement is in force.
this time the buyer and broker move to obtain financing for the house.
applications are made to banks.
get a mortgage.
Hopefully,
it
gets the deed,
If that bank rejects
Only in special cases will the buyer
and the broker attempt to go to a second bank.
sale goes to "closing".
Mortgage
only takes one application to
Usually a buyer goes to only one bank.
the mortgage the agreement is terminated.
During
Once financing is obtained the
At the closing the seller gets his money,
the buyer
and the broker gets his commission.
It is evident that much of the broker's time is spent assisting the buyer.
However, the broker is paid by the seller.
In order to survive, the broker must
attract listings, and the people who determine whether or not the broker gets
listings are the people who currently live in the community.
person I spoke with said that community support is
the business.
crucial to the survival of
Current residents are the broker's informants.
do not support the activities of
Every real estate
If these residents
the broker, then the broker will get few listings.
There are other ways in which brokers get listings besides direct negotiations
with the seller.
A common one is co-brokering.
cooperate on a sale.
In this instance two brokers
This usually happens when one broker has an-.exclusive
listing and another broker has a possible buyer.
facilitate co-brokering is
An institutional mechanism to
the Multiple Listing Service.
This allows all member
brokers to know about houses for sale throughout the region.
he can place an exclusively listed house in the service.
If a broker wishes
Then if a member broker
thinks he has a buyer for the property he can call the listing broker.
they negotiate a co-brokering arrangement.
Together
Co-brokering is an important avenue
for expansion into new areas.
;3
1
Another important aspect of the brokerage involves the broker's ability to
effectively deal with the banks.
When a mortgage application is
turned down
it is dissappointing to all the parties involved with the sale.
For the buyer,
the seller and the broker the entire process must be repeated.
It is important
for the broker to establish good relationships with lending institutions so
that he can advise buyers of where they can best obtain a mortgage.
This problem
is especially difficult for a broker working in an area in which banks are
suspected of red-lining.
Lack of mortgage money will stifle
any real estate
activity in a community.
The business environment in Jamaica Plain has changed over the past ten
One of my informants said that 6 to 8 real estate brokers had once operated
years.
offices along Centre St.
Two of these established firms,
Brennan Realty, moved to West Roxbury.
base( in
Jamaica Plain.
Fallon Realty and
Now there are only two established firms
One is Ask Mr. Fowler; the other is
Urban Edge and Kasas Realty have operated only a short time.
MacMillan Realty.
Several other
brokers work out of their homes or spend only a small portion of their time on
real estate.
None of my interviews revealed the nature of the decline in
the number of brokers in
the area, but part of the answer might be found by
reviewing the market trends of recent years.
price,
the high sales price,
and the number of transfers for residential properties
for each Jamaica Plain sub-market.
occupancy,
which is
Map 2.7 shows the average sales
I will also provide a figure on owner-
the perceiatage of all structures sold in
four months of 1976 which are now occupied by the purchasers.
shows owner-occupancy rates of 14% for Hyde Square,
for Jamaica Hills,
Egelston Square,
25% for Jamaica South,
20% for Stoneybrook,
1975 and the first
The BRA report
38% for Jamaica Pond,
28% for Jamaica Central,
and 18% for Woodbourne.
32
85%
23% for
But the figures
indicate the percentage of units which are owner-occupied.
Since many of
the
buildings in Jamaica Plain are two and three family homes, a much greater
percentage of Jamaica Plain families live in owner-occupied structures than
the figures suggest.
When observers say that they want to promote homeowner-
ship because it will impr6ve the neighborhood, they do not expect everyone to
be an owner.
Rather,
they feel that owner-occupants make better landlords
because they have a greater stake in the neighborhood and the quality of the
building than would an absentee owner.
properties sold in
1975-76 are now owner-occupied.
by asking telephone information if
property.
In Jamaica Plain, 64% of the residential
This figure was developed
buyers had phones at the address of the
The results were spot checked by walking through two neighborhoods
and looking at names on mailboxes.
One must always be careful when looking at trends signalled by real estate
trant fers.
If the number of transfers is small, as it is in several neighborhoods,
the prices indicate more about the individual houses than general trends.
However,
several things can safely be said about the real estate market in Jamaica Plain.
First, properties in
most areas are just about holding their 1964 purchase prices.
Only three sub-markets saw house prices keep pace with inflation:
Jamaica Pond and Parkside South.
*
Jamaica Hills,
Another indication that there may be problems
in the Jamaica Plain housing market is that there is a decreasing number of property
transfers in the district.
Almost all sub-markets saw fewer sales in 1975-76
The prices are not adjusted for inflation. The consumer Price Index rose
58% between 1964 and 1974, and 9% between 1974 and 1975.
There are two phenomena
we are concerned with when we look at housing value. The first is the accumulation
of wealth by families. Since equity in a house is a major form of savings, it
is important forthe family that the value of the house rise with the cost of
living. The second is the assessment of the risk involved when granting a mortgage.
This process should not require that the house appreciate in value, but only that
it return the same dollar price. Expected inflation is reflected in the interest
rate charged by lending institutions. The bank collects an amount monthly which
should limit their concern about whether or not the house gains value over time.
33
uranecle
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 2.7
SUBMARKETS
SALE PRICES
1964
1974
1975-76
(number of
transfers,
mean price,
high price)
CV,
JAMAICA
POND
e-
(59,18.5,22.0)
(5,24.5,27.05)
(36,26.3,40.0)
(19,40. 7,58.0)
(13,9.7,25.0)k
(10,212. 1,19. 5
cT
( 5 2 (8,14.1,16.0)
I 6(6,17.1,27.5
(8,12.6,22.0
(19,41.8,75.0)
18
(3,13.6,13.8)
11.9 17.5)
13,15.2,30.
(35,22.8,45.
(22,34.5,42.
(20,36.2,55.
(4
(13,11.5,23.0)
5~2
1
0)'
-.
~
(3,36.0,38.0) (1,19.0,19.0)
L7, 21. 2, 35.0) (8,13. 2, 35.0)
20. 05
,24.0)
,53. 0
If
(16,19 .6,42.0
(5, 16 .8, 20.0)
"(9,14
(9,19.:
(5,11.9, 20.0)
3.0)
.5)
.9)
ARNOL)
ARBOR ITUI M
(N. A.)
(N. A.)
(5,25.2,5
(25,18. 2,27.0)
(13,19.2,28.0)
(5,22.2,25.0)
During the 12 months of 1964, 247 residential properties changed
than in 1964.
hands,
while in
the 18 months of 1975-76,
there were only 181 residential transfers.
The availability of mortgage money is another indicator of market health.
It has already been mentioned that there is
combatting red-lining.
market?
a community group in
Jamaica Plain
Yet, what is happening in the Jamaica Plain mortgage
The mortgage information is taken from the Suffolk County Transfer
Directory.
The directory gives the names of both the buyer and the seller.
It
also lists the sale price, the mortgage amount and the name of the mortgage
lender.
Mortgages only appear if they are filed at the same time as the deed.
spot check was done using information from the Metropolitan Mortgage Bureau.
about 20% of the cases in which mortgage listings were not shown in
A
In
the Transfer
Directory, a mortgage was obtained after the deed was filed at the registry.
None of these additional mortgages were handled by banks; all were through private
individuals.
The Transfer Directory shows that there were 247 residential and
commercial sales in
Jamaica Plain during the last 18 months.
142 mortgages were
issued and 59 of those were issued by sellers who "took back" the mortgage.
Not
included in the 142 figure are 31 mortgages granted for properties without
buildirgs.
The following tabl& shows the percentage of residential sales which
had a recorded mortgage at the time of sale and the percentage of mortgages
granted which were given by banks.
Table 2.1
Mortgage Data
Area
Hyde Square N.E.
Hyde Square S.E.
Lamartine
Atherton
Brookside
Boylston West
Pond Side
Jamaica Hills
Mortgage
32%
50%
37%
40%
87%
73%
75%
36%
35
Bank Mortgages
50%
50%
50%
100%
43%
87%
80%
100%
Table 2.1
Mortgage Data--continued
Mortgage
Area
25%
28%
44%
33%
20%
20%
100%
50%
60%
Green
Sumner Hill
South St. West
South St. East
Stoneybrook
White City
Parkside North
Parkside South
Forest Hills
Bank Mortgages
50%
50%
100%
100%
100%
0
87%
50%
100%
All of these indicators show that the housing market in Jamaica Plain is
experiencing difficulties.
Both fewer property transfers and little interest
Urban Edge has chosen to deal in a
shown by banks cause problems for brokers.
difficult environment.
36
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter Two
Section 2.1 is based on conversations with the Urban Edge staff and board.
Board Members interviewed:
David Bernstien, chairperson
Margaret Hughes
Ancil Knight
Lorraine Morin
Yvonne Powell
Michael Rivas
Staff:
Ron Hafer, director
Luis Beato
Section 2.2
Boston Landmarks Commission.
A proposal for Historic Preservation.
1972.
Jamaica Plain: Background Information,
Boston Redevelopment Authority.
Planning Issues and Preliminary Neighborhood Improvement Strategies.
Boston: City of Boston. 1975.
Boston 200.
Gans,
Jamaica Plain.
Boston: Boston 200 Corp.
1976.
People and Plans: Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions.
Herbert.
New York: Basic Books. 1968. pp. 141-151, 166-182, 317-320, 360-364.
Locating Neighborhood Boundaries
Unpublished M.C.P. Thesis, M.I.T.
Hodas, Barbara. Neighborhood Analysis:
and Measuring Neighborhood Change.
1975.
Keyes,
The Rehabilitation Planning Game.
Langley.
Press. 1969.
Lupo,
Alan.
Rites of Way.
Boston:
Cambridge,
Little, Brown and Co.
Mass.:
M.I.T.
1971.
Suffolk County Transfer Directory. 1975 and 1976.
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Charactoristics of the PopTract Data for the Boston SMSA. Washington D.C.: Governulation:
ment Printing Office. 1960 and 1970.
.
ington D.C.:
Housing Characteristics:
Government Printing Office.
37
Boston Block Statistics. Wash-
1960 and 1970.
BIBLIOGRAPHY (con.)
Chapter Two
Section 2.2 con.
Warner, Samuel.
Streetcar Suburbs.
New York:
Athenteum. 1973.
Portions of the chapter are based on interviews with Urban Edge buyers and
community people.
Section 2.3 is based on conversations with the Urban Edge Staff and other
Jamaica Plain brokers.
Suffolk County Transfer Directory. 1975 and 1976.
38
Chapter Three
Goals, Strategies, Dilemmas, Expectations, and Tests
3.1
Goals
In order to better understand the goals of the Urban Edge program, I
interviewed members of the Board of Directors and the staff.
While each person
emphasized different goals, each mentioned or acknowledged the existence of other
goals which are listed here.
The goal which received the most unanimity of
emphasis is that of economic survival.
Without that, there is no opportunity
to pursue other goals.
Two of the goals of the Homeownership Program were carried forward to Urban
Edge's operation.
The first is to help those families purchase homes who would
otherwise remain renters.
The people at Urban Edge point to several benefits
of promoting homeownership; some accrue to the family, others to the neighborhood.
Building up equity is the major vehicle by which most Americans acquire wealth.
Owning a home is important to the status of a family; for many of those who do
not own, it is an important dream.
community at large.
Homeownership also offers advantages to the
Owners are likely to have made a long-term committment to
the neighborhood and will work toward community enterprises.
In addition, board
members feel that they can tell the difference between buildings which are
absentee-owned and those which are owner-occupied.
Owners are willing to add
details to their houses in ways reflecting personal tastes and contributing life
and flavor to the neighborhood.
They are more concerned that they attract
tenants who will keep the property in good repair.
39
Owners maintain their
buildings and are not only an asset to their neighbors, but they are also
landlords sensitive to their tenants' needs.
Urban Edge has also carried from the Homeownership Program a bit more of
an advocacy for the buyer than might be found in other real estate firms.
A
major goal of the program is to promote Jamaica Plain as an alternative to
inner city or suburban living.
The people at Urban Edge feel that the future
of the neighborhood depends on the people moving into it. They think the housing
in Jamaica Plain can best be preserved by assuring that buyers understand the
work, the time and the money that is necessary to maintain property.
If new
buyers are attracted who can afford to make necessary repairs, then not only
is the physical stock of the area improved, but these buyers are likely to be
committed to their residences and neighborhoods.
They will have invested not
only their money, but their time and imagination in the neighborhood.
the Homeownership Program,
During
one group of clients asking for assistance had been
sold older, worn-out homes in need of major repairs.
These owners had no
warning of these extra expenses and they lacked the resources, the skill and the
knowledge to deal with the problems.
that the realtor is
Urban Edge has tried to temper the idea
primarily the agent of the seller;
the problems and pitfalls
which may be encountered in
they attempt to explain
certain houses.
Several other goals were added to this list when the brokerage program was
devised.
Urban Edge wants to maintain the economic, racial and cultural diversity
found in some neighborhoods.
It also wants to facilitate the expansion of these
patterns into other portions of Jamaica Plain.
While the board agrees that
Urban Edge is working toward this goal, some greet the prospect with more
confidence than others.
Those enthusiastic about the potential of a diverse
neighborhood mentioned many of the attributes listed in the first chapter.
40
The
broadening influence of exposure to different lifestyles, the opportunity to
learn from one another, and improved attitudes toward people of other cultures
are all positive social outcomes seen by board members.
One went so far as to
say that the diverse areas of Jamaica Plain should provide prototypes for urban
living.
She sees the pattern of increased economic and ethnic segregation as
further dividing our society.
Ideally, she considers the expansion of the diverse
living patterns found in Jamaica Plain as the way to create a humane city.
At
the other extreme, another board member is worried about how children react to
life in a mixed neighborhood.
She feels that too often she has heard children
casting conflicts in racial terms.
And, though the children know intelligent
and thoughtful people of different races, she is not sure what reactions they
will carry with them as they grow older.
Other board members are concerned about
breaking the bonds of traditional housing patterns to give minorities meaningful
freedom of choice and to allow the gradual breakdown of stereotypes among white
people.
To create an environment where a cross-cultural experience is possible, the
people at Urban Edge feel they must combat those institutional practices which
promote segregation or operate according to signals which are based on race.
They
explained that, if realtors and bankers continue to believe that the pattern
of neighborhood evolution is necessarily succession from all white--to integrated-to all minority and that this transition is accompanied by a decline in property
values and quality of neighborhood, then the predictions of these institutional
actors will be self-fulfilling.
Those at Urban Edge believe that some of those
ideas about neighborhoods are largely artifacts of the early real estate and
lending practices discussed in Appendix I.
The people at Urban Edge realize that
a generation of Bostonians has watched the rapid racial transition of parts of
41
Dorchester and Mattapan, and the concurrent physical deterioration of these
neighborhoods.
They are also aware that fears of property value decline and
environmental damage are alive in the minds of white residents.
The board and
staff at Urban Edge believe that sensitive promotion of integration will not
start the expected sequence of transition.
However, they realize that for
integration to occur, other institutional actors must not exploit or contribute
to the transition process.
Urban Edge must build allies in these institutions
to maintain integration in mixed neighborhoods and facilitate it in other areas.
Finally, the brokerage should be self-supporting.
The board and staff do
not want to rely on government or foundation money to continue the program.
They
expect that by providing a good service their reputation will grow and they
will be able to operate on the commissions they generate.
Another reason they
want to be self-sufficient is that they must convince others that real estate
practices can be changed.
To change the practices of others, they must succeed
on the same terms as actors in the business community.
They must show that
survival is possible while promoting community goals and facilitating diverse
neighborhoods.
3.2
Strategies and Policies
The basic strategies of Urban Edge are deceptively simple.
First, through
its Vacant Housing Program it rehabilitates and sells houses that have been
left vacant.
By buying homes before they have been abandoned for a long time,
Urban Edge can act quickly to acquire and secure the house before vandals so
severely damage it that rehabilitation would no longer be economically feasible.
While this approach does address some of the goals presented, there need not
be any confusion between the results of this project and the brokerage program.
42
The impacts of the two programs can be clearly separated.
The most that the
Vacant Housing Program can do for the brokerage is enhance the reputation of
the firm.
The real estate brokerage deals only with the sales market and specializes
in selling to owner-occupants.
None of the brokers or sales people work on
a commission basis; they are all salaried by the corporation.
How can the
In this section, I will present the
activities of the firm address the goals?
policies and assumptions which support each goal.
A.
Help families purchase homes who would otherwise remain renters
Urban Edge actively attempts to list properties in all price categories.
It makes buyers aware of F.H.A. and V.A. programs which lower the downpayment
necessary.
This assures that they can serve clients looking for homes in lower
price ranges.
Urban Edge also attempts to reach out to those ethnic populations
which are largely renters.
It advertises in the Jamaica Plain Citizen, El Mundo,
and the Banner as well as in Boston's major Sunday papers.
The brokers spend
much of their time helping families assess their financial capabilities.
Since
the staff is salaried, there is no incentive for them to rush through this
preliminary financial counseling.
Many potential buyers realize that purchasing
a home with rental units will allow them to better afford a house.
The staff
tries to help the families judge their potential as landlords, and assist them
by explaining common landlord-tenant agreements.
The people at Urban Edge
realize that, for many of these families, their success as landlords will
determine their happiness as homeowners.
B.
Promote Jamaica Plain as an alternative to inner-city or suburban living
One of the major reasons the people at Urban Edge think it is possible to
promote the district as an alternative to suburbs is that Jamaica Plain's
43
environment is unique among city neighborhoods.
It is surrounded and crossed
by major urban parks, the Arnold Arboretum, the Jamaica and Wade Pond areas and
The area is also served by the MBTA, the green line trolley and
Franklin Park.
the orange line elevated over Washington Street.
Finally, the housing in
Jamaica Plain predates the mass production processes of housing construction.
Even the frame three deckers, built for working class people early in the century,
have architectural details impossible to find in more modern homes.
The
prizes in Jamaica Plain are, of course, the Victorian and post-Victorian homes,
which offer much more space than the typical suburban house.
The people at Urban Edge realize that Jamaica Plain homes must be adequately
maintained in
order to retain buyer interest.
Urban Edge encourages buyers to
have an engineer or contractor look at the house and report on its structural
This allows families to be sure they can afford
condition before the final sale.
any necessary repairs, and also assures that the buyer pays a price he feels
appropriate.
He or she has the most complete information about the house as
is practical.
C.
Maintain the economic, racial and cultural diversity in some neighborhoods;
facilitate the expansion of these patterns into other portions of Jamaica
Plain
Board and staff members feel that these goals can be pursued by dealing
honestly and openly with all people who are interested in buying homes in Jamaica
Plain.
Part of their reason for confidence lies in the nature of the Jamaica
Plain community.
people.
Jamaica Plain has a reputation as a neighborhood of diverse
Therefore, many people who are looking for homes in Jamaica Plain are
already looking for the kind of community Urban Edge is trying to promote.
the housing stock is quite varied.
Also,
The area was developed at different times
44
and for different groups of people.
There are clusters of housing types which
may continue only two or three blocks, an environment quite different from the
many acres of single class developments found in suburbia.
Houses which can
almost be described as mansions are only a short distance away from rows of
three deckers.
To promote the potential which this offers, Urban Edge finds
One of the
that it must challenge ideas about the nature of neighborhoods.
ideas that must be challenged is that the price of a house must fall within a
narrow range determined by the sales prices of surrounding homes.
Urban Edge
has found that banks place ceilings on home prices in a given neighborhood, and
that this action limits the possibility of economic diversity.
Middle income
clients cannot afford to invest in a house, no matter how unique, if the banks
determine the amount of a resale mortgage by looking at the price of surrounding
three deckers.
The other reason Urban Edge expects a passive strategy like real estate
brokerage to succeed is that they believe market-created mixed neighborhoods are
possible.
They reject the idea that "inevitable market forces" have created
the patterns of segregation seen in our cities.
Urban Edge hopes to serve as
an example for other real estate brokers, showing that the survival of a real
estate firm and the survival of the neighborhood do not depend upon the exclusion
of minority families.
They also try to get those institutions which control
financing, the banks and F.H.A., to rely less on the cultural designation of
residents as a key to the future of the neighborhood.
Successful competition,
without resorting to the traditional views about cultural and economic change
in a neighborhood, is the strategy Urban Edge follows in order to promote
integration.
Urban Edge understands that there are difficulties with this approach.
45
These
are troubled times in Boston, and those minority families who might have considered
moving into white areas may now be reacting more cautiously, out-bidding white
families for homes in the integrated neighborhoods.
This problem is one which
will be discussed in more depth later in this thesis.
In order to make Urban Edge's position on open housing clear, all of their
display adds in papers, except the Banner, carry the equal housing opportunity
logo.
The Banner is the newspaper of the black community, and the use of the
logo there seems unnecessary.
Even classified adds for Urban Edge in the major
Sunday newspapers carry the statement of their committment to open housing.
The
personal reputation of the brokers has served to attract white middle-class
buyers and young professionals to the office.
Urban Edge is currently considering
methods of better reaching the Spanish-speaking population in
D.
Jamaica Plain.
Combat those institutional practices which promote segregation or operate
according to signals which are based on race
The ideas and actions which support the goal above complement the efforts
to change institutional attitudes.
Here the strategy is to change the real
estate brokerage business by example.
negotiating with F.H.A..and the banks.
The brokerage provides the forum for
The more these institutions recognize
the differences between properties, the easier it will become to promote diversity.
E.
The brokerage should be self-supporting
Many practices used by other businesses are followed in order to attract
more customers to the brokerage.
on Centre Street.
They have an office in the business district
They advertise in neighborhood papers and major dailies.
Ron
Hafer is a member of the Broker's Institute; this allows Urban Edge to utilize
the designation "realtor," and offers attendant professional connections with
others in the Institute.
allows sellers who list
They are part of the multiple listing service which
exclusively with Urban Edge the opportunity to have their
46
houses known by realtors throughout the region.
Urban Edge has adopted most
of the formal strategies used by real estate people.
They have, however, left
behind complete advocacy of the seller's position and the informal indicators
of market trends which are based on race.
3.3
Dilemmas of Action
Whenever an organization has several goals of equal priority, the stage is
set for some form of goal conflict.
conflicts might arise.
in direct conflict.
There are several different ways that such
The first is that the social goals of the program are
An example of this is the conflict between promoting home-
ownership for people who might otherwise remain renters and promoting Jamaica
Plain as a stable community.
The people at Urban Edge feel that helping these
families become owners lowers the number of buildings which would be sold to
absentee landlords.
They think the neighborhood will be improved by decreasing
the number of buildings which are absentee-owned.
noted that different events might result.
But other observers have
Birch has hypothesized that a family
may aspire to a neighborhood and, by the very act of moving there, lower the
status of that neighborhood to the level of the one they left behind. (Hodas)
Several people I spoke with in the real estate and banking communities also
held this concern.
They feel that many of the people who are coming into Jamaica
Plain have a "tenant mentality," and do not understand the responsibility of
homeownership.
These observers feel that attempts by Urban Edge to educate these new
buyers are important to the community, but they also said that there is a segment
of the Jamaica Plain community which sees Urban Edge selling property to people
who are not ready for homeownership.
detriment to the community.
These new homeowners are perceived as a
Another example of this kind of conflict recently
47
arose at Urban Ldge.
A black family placed a home under agreement adjacent to an
integrated section of JamaicaPlain.
The competition for this house had been
exceptionally keen and two other families were out-bid.
The seller of a
nearby property was approached by a friend of one of the out-bid families.
The friend told the seller to stop listing the property with Urban Edge because
the organization is involved in blockbusting in Jamaica Plain.
Urban Edge
found by talking to this person that he uses the term "blockbusting" in
to any sale of property in a white area to a black family.
reference
The accuser felt
that the result of black family's moves into white neighborhoods is the same
regardless of the motivations of the realtor.
It is obvious that some of the
residents of Jamaica Plain do not think that promoting racial integration improves
or promotes Jamaica Plain.
These residents believe that the pattern of racial
change in inevitable; therefore, the introduction of a minority family into
a white neighborhood is a threat to, not a support of, the neighborhood.
For
these people, Urban Edge is not a positive force in the neighborhood.
A second kind of goal conflict occurs when the advancement of one goal
interferes with the achievement of another.
If Urban Edge were to engage in
reverse steering to promote and maintain integrated neighborhoods, then it
would sacrifice the goal of changing institutional attitudes about racial
change in a community.
If an organization has to bend over backwards to create
the kind of neighborhood it wants to see, then it is unlikely that other actors,
in the real estate industry will change their attitudes about the nature of
neighborhood.
Rather they might find support for their ideas about racial transition
by noting the extreme measures necessary to maintain integrated neighborhoods.
Goals need not interfere with one another so directly.
take time away from another.
One may simply
This question of time taken to deal with one goal
48
versus time taken with another is often reflected in the choice of organizational
strategies.
Urban Edge is now putting most of its resources into the Vacant
This advances the goals of encouraging owner-occupancy and
Housing Program.
promoting Jamaica Plain by improving its physical environment, but it does not
effectively address the goal of opening the housing market or the question of
changing institutional practices which affect the neighborhood.
The third kind of goal conflict occurs when the requirements for survival
overwhelm the actions which promote the social goals.
This conflict is different
than a conflict between social goals because survival has a greater immediacy;
not only must the organization survive to pursue the other goals, but information
about survival is more readily available than information about progress toward
the social goals.
At Urban Edge financial reports are compiled weekly and
reviewed monthly.
The financial condition of the firm is well known by the staff.
Actions which will improve that condition are well understood.
The instant
feedback quality of the survival indicators must be contrasted to the 4 to 5-year
time frames board members spoke of when thinking about the firm's other objectives.
This conflict came to the fore early in Urban Edge's operation.
A broker
who works extensively in the Pond Side and Moss Hill sections of Jamaica Plain
called Urban Edge and offered to co-broker a house in an all-white section of
Jamaica Plain.
The co-brokering situation was suggested because this broker
had the house under assignment, but felt that Urban Edge might know some buyers
who would be interested in this type of property.
The broker indicated that the
seller was not interested in showing the house to black families.
Clearly,
the broker acted in violation of the open housing law, but the offer stood.
By
refusing, Urban Edge risked the loss of a commission and possibly the loss of
an entry into neighborhoods where they have done little business.
49
In this case
Urban Edge turned down the opportunity.
Fortunately, the incident did not
severely damage the relationship between Urban Edge and this broker, as cobrokering opportunities are still being offered.
Another tact might have been
to report the incident to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination or
the state realty licensing board.
This would have completely destroyed the
potential for friendly relationships with area brokers.
Such a blatant situation need not exist when considering other goals.
If
sales people are spending too much time with individual customers to efficiently
sell houses, they might cut back on the time spent in homeownership counseling.
If there is more chance to make a sale because the buyer is not aware of some
defect in the house, then there is a possible conflict between the goals of
survival and the less immediate goals.
One of the crucial dilemmas of the brokerage
is that the people they thing are most important to the neighborhood are not the
ones who decide whether or not Urban Edge has any business.
It is the seller
whose decisions most directly affect the broker, not the buyer.
attempting to enlist a group
Urban Edge is
96 loyal house-seekers who will stay with the
firm because it deals fairly with buyers.
However, delivery of houses is the
heart of the business, and it is possible that the broker who is perceived as
too partial to the buyer will find he has no houses to sell.
A situation may also arise in which a policy designed to promote one goal
will be ineffective, and it will threaten the firm's survival.
selling a house in another section of Boston.
A family was
Several minority families had
been burned out of their homes in the immediate neighborhood.
There might be
reprisals against both the seller and the broker if the neighbors thought that
the house might be sold to a minority family.
house.
Urban Edge was asked to sell the
Given the history of trouble, it was unlikely a black family would want
50
to move there.
However, Urban Edge's policy is to run the equal housing
opportunity logo on their advertisements.
If Urban Edge used the logo there
was a possibility that there would be further conflict in the neighborhood.
In
this case, Urban Edge ran the advertisement with the equal opportunity logo(
3.4
Expectations
The conversations with the board and the staff also covered the topic of
their expectations; what they would ultimately like to see happen; what goals
they see as reachable; how successes could be recognized; and what preliminary
indicators might be used to chart the organization's progress.
One problem
with this kind of study is that people's expectations are colored by recent crises.
As the organization has grown, their ideas about the context and environment in
which they operate have changed; their image of the problems and possibilities
of the program are tempered by the progress or lack of progress that has been made
to date.
The shifting events in the neighborhood make it difficult to distin-
guish between the effects of the organization and the effects of other forces.
was hard to get people to speak of the ideal result of their enterprise.
board tended to make their expectations operational.
articulate some preliminary indicators of progress.
list fell into two categories.
It
The
They were better able to
The effects that they did
They are (i)neighborhood indicators, events which
might be seen in the neighborhoods and which indicate that positive things
are happening and (ii) process indicators, those which relate to the way in
which Urban Edge conducts its business.
All the board members agree that it would be difficult to catalog the effects
of Urban Edge's activities on the neighborhood.
They feel that Urban Edge is a
small enterprise dealing in an environment where much larger forces are operating.
51
Their time frames are long.
They expect that early results would be seen after
about 5 years, and several feel that, with the troubled climate in the city, Jamaica
Plain would do well to maintain its status quo.
There are some indicators of progress they feel are important.
maintainance of property values,
The
the improvement of the physical environment,
and more homeowners are all things they feel would create a healthier neighborhood.
One indicator that is
the comparison of owner-occupancy rates in
available is
neighborhoods in which Urban Edge has been involved, with owner-occupancy rates
in other parts of Jamaica Plain.
Another suggested indicator has to do with
committment to the neighborhood; fewer property turnovers would signal stability.
On the subject of stable integration, people at Urban Edge feel that an
integrated neighborhood is best defined by the attitudes of the people who live
there.
No one is
willing to describe his thoughts about successful integration
in terms of quotas or proportions.
indicator.
For example,
if
Fear, or lack of it, is considered a better
a resident is
uncomfortable walking to the local
drug store or to the corner to mail a letter, then the neighborhood is not
a successful living environment for him.
The board and staff think people of
various ethnic groups must feel comfortable in the neighborhood if integration there
is to be considered a success.
The process indicators deal largely with (i)
Urban Edge's ability to run
an office which respects the intent of the open housing law;
to effectively serve a population which needs assistance in
indication that the staff is
(ii)
their ability
finding homes;
(iii)
some
able to efficiently process a sale and effectively
deal with the important issues of the business; and (iv) the firm's ability to
obtain legitimacy in
the business and residential community.
On the first
issue, board members are certain that the staff tries its best to deal openly with
52
people who come into the office.
In situations described in
the last section,
they took actions which avoided the possibility of dealing unfairly with minority
families.
Yet to operate an agency which is truly involved in open housing, they
feel it is necessary to attract different groups to the office.
People have to
know that there is an effort to create an open housing market in Jamaica Plain
and that this organization is part of that movement.
If Urban Edge is attracting
a diversity of buyers, then board members feel it is serving the spirit of open
housing as well as living up to the letter of the law.
There has been some
difficulty reaching the Spanish-speaking community, and efforts are still being
made to attract more of these clients.
Board members also want to see Urban
Edge find homes for its diverse clientele in a variety of Jamaica Plain neighborhoods.
The board and staff do not feel that it is necessary or proper to engage
in reverse steering in order for this to happen.
They also think that if Urban
Edge is able to place their diverse homeseekers in a number of different neighborhoods, then positive changes must be occurring in those neighborhoods.
Serving the more moderate income buyer has been an important part of the
service provided by Urban Edge.
Urban Edge is well known in the area in which
ESAC's Homeownership Program operated.
In this area they have attracted a large
number of listings in the $10,000-$20,000 range.
As they expand into other areas,
they feel it is important to continue to obtain and pay attention to this kind
of listing.
The efficiency of the brokerage is of primary concern to several board
members.
It is important because the survival of the organization depends on
the ability of the staff to generate sales.
It is also important because the
efficiency of the program will attract both sellers and buyers to the firm.
The staff and board know that residents and prospective buyers must perceive
53
Urban Edge as an alternative to traditional real estate firms, while the real
estate community must accept Urban Edge as a legitimate member.
Institutional
actors must realize that Urban Edge's methods and approaches are different; this
permits Urban Edge to induce change.
However, the program cannot be seen as
so divergent that it loses credibility among realtors.
Legitimacy both in the
business and in the residential community needs to be monitored.
suggested is an increase in the number of listings.
One indicator
Another is gaining listings
in neighborhoods where Urban Edge has not been active.
An increased opportunity
to co-broker houses was also mentioned as an indicator of acceptance by the real
estate community.
Urban Edge's image among banks and the government agencies
which deal with the housing market is also important.
The more respect they
can generate, the easier it will become to deal in the business environment.
3.5
Tests
Since Urban Edge has been operating just over a year and a half, the tests
will focus primarily on the preliminary indicators, rather than those which measure
end results.
The emphasis is on those indicators which show the trends developing
in Jamaica Plain.
Some information comes from the firm itself.
Since a basic
goal is to change some of the methods of real estate operation to ones which more
directly benefit the community, we need also look at the concerns of the community
activists.
And because Urban Edge's strategy is to change real estate practices
by example, we need to find out what realtors and other actors in the real estate
market think of Urban Edge and the job it is trying to do.
Each goal suggests certain questions which must be answered in order to
measure Urban Edge's progress.
Many of these questions grow out of the expecta-
tions held by board members; others add to or modify those ideas.
54
In this section
the questions, some ideas about data needed to answer those questions, and the
program to collect that data are presented.
A.
To help families purchase homes who would otherwise remain renters
Several questions will aid understanding of progress on this goal.
First,
does Urban Edge attract listings in the lower price ranges so it can show houses
to moderate income people?
is
listing.
We can answer this by reviewing the houses Urban Edg2
The asking prices of properties will serve as a good indicator of
the kind of property Urban Edge is listing because houses sell an average of 5%
below the asking price.
The more hous:Es Urban Edge lists in this category, the
greater the choice for this class of buyer.
Secondly, does the firm effectively
sell homes priced within the reac h of moderate income people?
Focusing on the
percentage of homes sold for less than $20,000 will hellp answer this question.
type of house sought and the kind of house listed must match.
The
Listing many three
family buildings when people are really interested in two or single family houses
does little good.
In addition, a survey of buyers is presented.
If Urban
Edge successfully helps moderate income buyers, then this group will be positive
about their dealings with the firm.
for homes through Urban Edge?
Thirdly, are moderate income people looking
A review of the prices home-seekers are willing
to pay will reveal the proportion of buyers looking for homes for less than
$20,000.
The fourth, how do Urban Edge buyers feel about the service provided?
Does the information and counseling provided by the firm really contribute to
their perception of homeownership and the sale process?
Only the buyers can
assess the value of the information they received from the firm.
about the information received will be documented.
buyers is another positive sign for the program.
Buyers'feelings
Referrals of clients by
Finally, moderate income
families need to know about repairs and changes that are necessary in the house.
55
How does the experience of the buyer with his house compare with his expectations?
The buyer interviews offer the opportunity to catalog problems that buyers
have had with their homes.
By comparing their problems with the
roblems they
expected, some conclusions can be drawn about the value of making the sale of
a house contingent upon a satisfactory engineering report.
A list
of common
problems faced by owners might also come out of such an interview.
B.
To promote Jamaica Plain as an alternative to either inner city or suburban
living
Here the questions focus on who Urban Edge reaches and how promoting
homeownership benefits the community.
Edge.
It is important to know who comes to Urban
And where else have they considered living?
Where are they from?
The
places outside Jamaica Plain which Urban Edge buyers considered moving, and the
neighborhoods in which home-seekers currently reside both indicate something
about the kind of client Urban Edge is attracting.
The more clients the firm
attracts who are from the suburbs or who are thinking about moving to the suburbs,
the more successful the program is in promoting Jamaica Plain.
A number of
questions which focus on buyer attitudes expand understanding of the movement
to Jamaica Plain.
What are the important attributes of Jamaica Plain which draw
home-seekers to the area?
community?
What contributions do new homeowners make to the
In one instance buyers' ideas of community are of primary concern.
In the other case data is needed on buyers' investment programs.
guage of buyer committment to the neighborhood.
by the buyers'
C.
involvement in
This is a
Committment is also reflected
community organizations.
Maintain economic, racial, and cultural diversity found in some Jamaica Plain
neighborhoods;
to facilitate it
elsewhere-
Do home-seekers look in various neighborhoods for houses?
56
If
the firm is
making
progress, then these questions
ahould
The data to
get positive responses.
answer these questions comes from a survey of home-seekers, and from buyer
interviews.
The first reveals the diversity of Urban Edge's clientele.
The
second aids understanding of the areas home buyers considered before purchasing.
The question must also be asked:
What portion of Urban Edge clients are minority?
What percentage of home-seekers are black or Spanish-speaking?
of Urban Edge's buyers are minority families?
particular portion of Jamaica Plain?
What percentage
Do these families locate in
a
The data for this is really a subset of that
collected above, but the questions deserve special attention and should be
highlighted.
To maintain or facilitate economic integration there must be
active interest in properties by people with incomes which will support
higher prices.
Are there consistently high offering prices for certain types
of houses in neighborhoods with modest housing?
Again, a catalog of Urban Edge
buyers will allow us to speculate on progress.
D.
To combat those institutional practices which promote segregation or operate
according to signals based on race
What are the attitudes of institutional actors toward different neighborhoods
in Jamaica Plain?
If brokers and bankers are willing to differentiate between
small areas of Jamaica Plain, and if they do not rely on ethnic descriptions of
neighborhood, then there is a greater possibility of promoting integration.
Interviews with brokers and bankers will provide information about their attitudes.
If Urban Edge is more successful negotiating with mortgage lenders than other
firms are, it will indicate that lenders are differentiating among small areas
of Jamaica Plain.
for Jamaica Plain?
How does Urban Edge's mortgage record compare with the average
If it is better, then success is indicated.
Urban Edge gaining legitimacy in the real estate community?
57
Finally, is
How many recent
listings and sales were co-brokered?
A catalog of the firm's listings and
sales offers the chance to see if co-brokering is on the rise.
E.
The brokerage program should be self-supporting
The tests here deal with the firm's ability to attract business volume.
How many people does Urban Edge see in a given time period?
hear about Urban Edge?
How do these people
11ow
How many co-brokering opportunities are offered?
many of those become sales?
All these questions can be answered by collecting
data at Urban Edge, noting the number of people seen, the number of listings
by category, the number of co-brokering opportunities, etc.
The other
question deals with Urban Edge's ability to turn volume into cash flow.
is the financial status of the program?
the future?
What
What are the financial prospects for
A look at income up to July 30, 1976 and a review of the sales
which were in process as of that time will give a perspective on the health
of the firm.
F.
Data gathering
The data gathering divides into 3 major categories.
The first is information
from the firm itself: (i) their clientele; (ii) buyers; (iii) listings; and
(iv) financial stability.
The second is the buyer interview.
The last is
interviews with bankers, brokers and community people.
For several months, the staff kept track of who came into the office.
Using this information, I will catalog the people seeking and selling homes
through Urban Edge.
Information compiled about home-seekers includes (i) total
number; (ii) ethnicity;
(iii) the price range and type of house in which they
are interested; (iv) their ages; and (v) where they now live.
Information
about sellers includes their reasons for moving, their ages, and the number.
The sub-markets described in the last chapter will be used as the units of
58
analysis.
Recent listings will be highlighted.
A survey of buyers is also presented.
homes for several months were interviewed.
Only buyers who had lived in their
Twenty families met this criterion.
With the help of Ron Hafer, I selected 8 families; they were chosen because
they lived in different parts of Jamaica Plain and because they represented
a cross section of Urban Edge clients.
Lastly, the results of interviews with community leaders, real estate
brokers, and area bankers are presented to assess the reputation of the
organization and understand how its function is viewed.
There are 2 approaches
which will allow us to compare their ideas with the ideas of the Urban Edge
staff.
The first is to give them a map of Jamaica Plain and have them describe
past trends, and their predictions for the future.
The second approach is to
have them give the same kind of information about preselected neighborhoods.
These areas were selected by an Urban Edge staff member.
currently attracts few white buyers.
white community.
One is an area which
Another is an area which is a stable
The next, an area where the prospects are good for integration
and where a fair number of minority families reside.
Another is an area where
prospects are good for integration, but where relatively few minorities live.
The fourth is an area where the population is mixed, but the neighborhood is
likely to become predominantly minority.
minority entrance is likely.
The last is an all-white area where
The opinions of this staff member will be compared
to the opinions of others working in the Jamaica Plain housing market.
59
TABLE 3.1.
Goals, Strategies, Expectations, Tests, and Data Needs.
GOALS
STRATEGIES
EXPECTATIONS
TESTS
DATA NEEDS
(A) To help
families purchase homes
who would otherwise remain renters.
(1) List and sell
houses in lower
price ranges.
(1) Attract listings
in lower price ranges;
sell lower priced
properties.
(1) Are there
listings and
sales in the
full range available in the
community?
(1) Prices of
houses sold
and listed.
(2) Advertise in
local and minority
papers.
(2) Attract a variety
of home-seekers to the
office.
(2) What price
range homes are
people looking
for?
(2) The proportion of homeseekers interested in lower
priced homes?
(3) Help clients
assess their financial and ownership
capabilities.
(3) More successful
homeowners.
(3) How do buyers feel about
the help they
recieved assessing their finances?
(3) Buyer attitudes about the
financing portion of the
process.
(4) Salary salespeople so there
is no incentive
to rush a sale.
(4) More service for
the buyer; the buyer understands the problems
and possibilities of
homeownership more; More
responsible and perpared
homeowners in area.
(4) How do buyers
feel about the
kind of information they get
from the brokers?
Condition of
house? Type of
neighborhood?
(4) Buyer attitudes about neighborhood and house
information.
TABLE 3.1.
Goals, Strategies, Expectations, Tests, and Data Needs --
continued.
GOALS
STRATEGIES
EXPECTATIONS
TESTS
DATA NEEDS
(A) To help
families purchase homes
who would otherwise remain renters.
(con.)
(5) Educate home
buyers about homeownership.
(5) Same as #4.
(5) Same as #4.
(5) Same as #4.
(6) Recommend buyers
have an engineering
report on the property before the closing.
(6) Buyer will be better
able to handle the responsibilities of homeownership.
(6) How do buyer
experiences compare with their
expectations?
(6) Number of
buyers with such
reports; Their
ideas of its
value.
(B) To promote
Jamaica Plain
as an alternative to either
inner-city or
suburban living.
(1) Publicize Jamaica
Plain; Participate
in community organizations and participate in those enterprises which publicize Jamaica Plain.
(1) More homeseekers
will take an interest
in Jamaica Plain; People from outside are
encouraged to locate
in Jamaica Plain, while
people living there are
encouraged to stay;
New residents participate in community
activities.
(1) Who comes to
Urban Edge; Where
are they from?
Where else are
they considering
moving? What
attributes convince people to
buy in Jamaica
Plain? In what
activities do
new residents
engage?
(1) Buyer Interviews: proportion who looked
elsewhere in the
metropolitan area;
catalog of buyer's
community activities.
Encounters: proportion from outside the city;
catalog of other
places home-seekers
are looking.
TABLE 3.1.
Goals, Strategies, Expectations, Tests and Data Needs --
continued.
GOALS
STRATEGIES
EXPECTATIONS
(B) To Promote
Jamaica Plain
as an alternative to either
inner-city or
suburban living. (con.)
(2) Educate buyers
about homeownership.
(2) More knowledgable
buyers are assets to
the community; they
are able to plan effective house improvment programs.
(3) Recommend that
buyers have an engineering report
on the condition
of the house.
(3) Same as #2.
(3) How do buyers
feel about the
information in
the engineering
report?
Is there a difference in experiences between
those who did and
those who did not
have reports?
(4) Advocate buyers
more than other brokers.
(4) Same as #2.
(4) How do buyers (4) Buyer attifeel about Urban tudes about the
Edge's service?
purchase process.
(1) A fair approach
will preserve and create
diverse neighborhoods
in Jamaica Plain.
(1) Does a mix
of buyers come
to Urban Edge?
Do they look in
various neigh.?
(C) To maintain (1) Operate an
economic, racial open agency.
and cultural diversity found in
some Jamaica
TESTS
DATA NEEDS
(2) How do buy-
(2) Buyer attitudes about assistance; catalog
of planned investments.
ers feel about
the information
they recieved
from Urban Edge?
How much do they
intend to invest
in their house.
(3) Buyer attitudes about the
engineering report; catalog
of problems faced
by buyers.
(1) Type of house
people are looking for; note sale
locations; catalog
buyer's search.
Goals, Strategies, Expectations, Tests, and Data Needs --
TABLE 3.1.
continued.
GOALS
STRATEGIES
EXPECTATIONS
TESTS
DATA NEEDS
Plain neighborhoods; to
facilitate
it elsewhere
(2) Use the equal
housing opportunity
logo in adds; advertise in minority
newspapers.
(2) Attract minority
home-seekers.
(2) What proportion of homeseekers are
minority families? What
proportion
of buyers are
minorities? Do
people indicate
they learned
about U.E.
through adds?
(2) Same as #1
(3) Challenge ideas
about a narrow
range of prices
in a given neighborhood.
(3) Economic diversity
would be encouraged
if houses were evaluated individually.
(3) Are there
consistantly
high offering
prices for certain types of
houses in neighborhoods of
otherwise modest homes?
(3) Catalog of
U.E. buyers;
where they
locate and the
prices they
pay.
(1) Change broker
practices through
successful competition.
(1) Realtors will modify their practices
when they see that
their survival is
not dependant upon
those practices.
(1) How do brokers view various neigh. in
Jamaica Plain.
(1) Realtor
interviews;
perceptions of
neigh.; perceptions of U.E.
(D) Combat
those institutional practices which
promote segregation.
TABLE 3.1.
Goals, Strategies, Expectations, Tests, Data Needs --
continued.
GOALS
STRATEGIES
EXPECTATIONS
TESTS
DATA NEEDS
(D) Combat
those institutional practices which
promote segregation.
(con.)
(2) Negotiate with
lending institutions
(2) Banks will differentiate more between
various sales and neighborhoods.
(2) Are mortgages more available through
Urban Edge than
generally?
(2) Number of
successful mortgages for U.E.
sales than the
average for
Jamaica Plain.
(3) Gain legitimacy
in the business
community.
(3) Facilitates
numbers 1 and 2.
(3) Is there
more cooperation
with other brokers? Is there
cooperation from
banks?
(3) Number of
co-brokering
arrangements
for both listings
and sales. and
(1) How many
people does U.E.
see? How do they
hear about U.E.?
How many co-brokering opportunities are offer
ed? How many of
those become
sales? How is
U.E. viewed by
bankers and brokers?
(1) Number of
people seen;
% of recent
listings and s
sales co-brokered; mortgage successes
compared with
area average;
number of sales.
(E) The brokerage program
should be
self-supporting.
(1) Follow general
brokerage strategies:
locate in the business district;
advertise; join
the Real Estate
Board; join MLS.
(1) Attract buyers and
sellers; attract cobrokering opportunities.
#2.
TABLE 3.1.
Goals, Strategies, Expectations, Tests, and Data Needs --
continued.
GOALS
STRATEGIES
EXPECTATIONS
TESTS-
DATA NEEDS
(E) The brokerage program
should be
self-supporting (con.).
(2) Sell properties
(2) Collect Commissions
(2) What is
the financial
status of the
program? What
are the prospects?
(2) Cash flow;
% of seekers who
become buyers;
% of agreements
that become sales.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter Three
The bulk of this chapter is based on interviews with people involved with
Urban Edge.
Portions are also based on interviews with bankers, brokers and community
people.
Hodas, Barbara. Neighborhood Analysis: Locating Neighborhood Boundaries
and Measuring Neighborhood Change. Unpublished M.C.P. Thesis, M.I.T.
1975.
Sternlieb, George.
The Tenement Landlord.
66
Chapter Four
Outcomes
In this chapter, the collected data will be reviewed to determine the
progress Urban Edge has made advancing their goals of:
(1) helping families purchase homes who would otherwise have remained
renters;
(2) promoting Jamaica Plain as an alternative to inner city or
suburban living;
(3) maintaining the economic, racial, and cultural diversity
found in some neighborhoods, and facilitating the expansion
of these patterns into other portions of Jamaica Plain;
(4) combatting those institutional practices which promote
segregation or operate according to signals which are based
on race; and
(5) supporting itself.
The outline for the tests was presented in section 3.5.
To measure the
progress Urban Edge has made, one must rely on information which only indicates
trends; there is no way to measure actual accomplishments after only 2 years
of operation.
The board and staff of Urban Edge hold several assumptions about the real
estate market and the way the firm can effect change.
These should be kept in
mind as the outcomes and recommendations are presented.
(1) Families gain certain benefits from homeownership.
(2) Because they are more likely to maintain their property, homeowners
are better neighbors than landlords.
(3) There are benefits derived from cultural diversity in neighborhood.
(4) If it were not for institutional support of segregation, the
market would produce ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
67
(5) Change in the real estate market can be encouraged by demonstrating the viability of an organization which rejects conventional
strategies.
(6) Real estate practices can be modified to be more supportive of
the buyer's position.
(7) Integrated neighborhoods are best described by people's reactions
to the area rather than quotas or proportions.
(8) There is a market among young professionals for homes in the
city and this market can be tapped to help create diverse
neighborhoods in Jamaica Plain.
Each goal is presented with a summary of the data needed for evaluation.
Where it is appropriate, appendix III contains tables of data organized by
collection method.
A.
Promoting Homeownership
Table 3.1 shows 6 kinds of data which will indicate whether or not progress
is being made in promoting homeownership.
Positive effects can be expected if
a large number of listed houses have asking prices of less than $20,000, if
a good percentage of the home-seekers coming to the office are looking for
homes in this price range, if a large percentage of homes sold by Urban Edge
are in this price range and finally, if buyers feel that the Urban Edge staff
helped them understand their capabilities and responsibilities as homeowners.
Table 4.1 shows the number of listings in each price category.
Houses recently
listed by Urban Edge have somewhat higher asking prices than those listed earlier.
Table 4.1
Urban Edge's Listings by Price
1/75-6/76
less that 15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
45+
34
35
31
25
15
12
6
5
3/76-6/76
Encounters
7
10
10
7
3
6
2
2
19
11
10
10
2
9
2
-
Only 36% of Urban Edge's recent listings have asking prices of less than
68
$20,000.
However,
increased.
it
the absolute number of listings in
Urban Edge is better able to help moderate income families because
has more modestly priced homes to sell.
time is
this price range has
The problem raised is
that staff
likely to be drawn away from this category of sale because a lower
percentage of Urban Edge's listings sell for less than $20,000.
Urban Edge's sale and listing prices must be compared with the needs of
home-seekers coming to the office.
The following table shows the number of
recent listings by price, the number of prospective buyers looking for homes
in
each price range,
and the number of sales between January 1 and July 30,
1976
in each price category.
Table 4.2
Urban Edge's Listings, Encounters,
and Sales by Price
Recent listings
less than 15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41+
7
10
10
7
3
6
4
Encounters
Sales
19
11
10
10
.2
9
2
7
7
4
1
3
-
Almost half of the home-seekers surveyed were looking for houses with sale
prices of less than $20,000.
in the lower price ranges.
Urban Edge has had success selling properties
63% of the firm's sales or houses now under agree-
ment have accepted prices of less than $20,000.
This may be because they have
more experience selling homes in the Egelston Square area where prices are
generally lower than places Urban Edge has recently listed homes.
Urban Edge
continues to serve those looking for houses in the lower price ranges.
The buyer intervicws showed that those buyers looking for modestly priced
homes received much help from the Urban Edge staff.
This help ranged from
assessing the family's financial capabilities to finding a house which required
renovations which the family felt they could afford.
69
Half of the buyers had
an engineer, contractor or rehab specialist look at the house before the closing.
Most of these people feel the inspections were useful.
One family was dissap-
pointed when a problem surfaced which had not been anticipated by their inspector.
Those buyers who did not have inspections had more unexpected repairs.
The only
information they had about the condition of the houses came from the Urban
Edge salesperson.
The interviews revealed no new information about the responsibilities
of a landlord.
Many of the buyers followed the usual pattern of renting their
units by informal means.
advertising the apartment.
Others rented to friends.
No one who had a new tenent rented his unit by
One buyer shared a two family home with a relative.
Yet another rented because neighbors knew of a
particular couple who wanted to live in the neighborhood.
None of these people
could estimate the amount of time or money they spent on their rental units.
Several people have tenants who take care of their own units.
renovations in
Some buyers plan
their buildings which will change their status as landlords.
One person is in the process of sub-dividing a house from 1 to 3 units, while
2 buyers are hoping to convert two family homes into single family homes.
I
was not able to isolate any particular problems these new buyers faced as landlords.
Promoting homeownership means more than selling low priced homes and
assuring that the owners have the ability to care for them.
expect it
landlords.
to combat an increase in
Board members
the number of buildings owned by absentee
The following table shows the owner-occupancy rates for the
neighborhoods where Urban Edge is working:
70
Table 4.3 Owner-occupancy in
Jamaica Plain
New owneroccupancy
Boylston W.
Hyde Square N.E.
Lamartine
Atherton
Brookside
Parkside N.
Parkside S.
South St. W.
Sumner Hill
Rockview
# of Urban Edge
sales*
46%
58%
57%
58%
57%
69%
75%
83%
42%
80%
# of Urban Edge
sales* under $20,000
1
2
1
2
5
2
5
1
12
1
2
1
2
4
2
1
1
-
Average for Jamaica Plain is 64%
There is little that can be drawn from this table.
Urban Edge is
The areas where
successful listing and selling houses have proportions of
new owner-occupants which are near the proportion for Jamaica Plain as a whole.
Referring to table 4.4, one can see that the average Urban Edge sale price is
higher than the average price of homes bought in the neighborhood.
Table 4.4 Comparison of Urban Edge Sales and All Residential Sales
Boylston W.
Hyde Square N.E.
Lamartine
Atherton
Brookside
Parkside N.
Parkside S.
South St. W.
Sumner Hill
Rockview
Ave. sale price
(1975-76)(1,000's)
# of residential sales
20.6
11.8
12.1
11.9
14.1
12.6
27.3
19.1
21.2
24.5
11
25
16
5
8
8
8
9
7
5
Ave. U.E. sale
price (1,000's)
26.9
8.2
15.0
18.7
16.3
13.5
26.3
18.0
35.0
29.5
# of U.E.
sales
1
2
1
2
5
2
5
1
1
2
If absentee owners buy into an area by out-bidding owner-occupants, this
table would indicate that Urban Edge buyers are offering competitive prices for
properties.
Urban Edge home-buyers would be replacing absentee landlords in
these markets.
If, on the other hand, absentee landlords buy in a different kind
*"Sales" is used, for convenience, to mean sales and houses under agreement.
71
of market, perhaps buying homes in poor condition which could be rented after
cosmetic rehab or homes for which banks fail to give mortgages, then absentee
owners would buy lower priced properties.
In this case, one would expect
higher purchase prices to be offered by Urban Edge customers, because they are
purchasing homes which are in better condition.
B.
Promoting Jamaica Plain
Understanding the nature of absentee owner entry into a neighborhood is
important when one considers Urban Edge's strategy for promoting Jamaica Plain.
They sell the opportunity for families to own homes in the city, the advantage
of easy access to downtown, and the advantages of living in a diverse environment.
Again refer to Table 3.1.
owner-occupancy;
neighborhoods;
The indicators of success are (i) increased
(ii) new owner satisfaction with their houses and their
(iii) new owners' reasons for locating in Jamaica Plain; (iv) new
owners' involvement in community affairs; (v) new owners' plans for investment
in their homes; (vi) a decrease in areas where there are many listings and few
sales; and (vii) an increase in the number of suburban people looking for houses
in Jamaica Plain and in increase in the number of people who are looking for
homes in both Jamaica Plain and the suburbs.
Changes in owner-occupancy must be monitored over a number of years before
one can see the impact of Urban Edge's work.
It is possible that an increase
in sales by Urban Edge would indicate-increased owner-occupancy.
However, this
would be true only if other area brokers continued to do the same amount and
type of business in which they are currently involved.
Area brokers indicated
that most of their business is with buyers who become owner-occupants.
If Urban
Edge's business expands at the expense of these brokers, then it would be
fallacious to assume that owner-occupancy is increasing.
However, if Urban Edge
taps a new market of buyers, then there is reason to believe that owner-occupancy
72
will increase with an increase in the firm's sales.
The positive responses of recent buyers toward their homes and neighborhoods
is a sign that Jamaica Plain's image is improving.
Of those interviewed,-nly
one family was dissatisfied with the neighborhood.
They are unhappy that the
entire street has only white families and that the neighbors would be hostile
if minority families entered.
These
Their neighbors are mostly older people.
Although this family
neighbors do not seem to like having children in the area.
lived on this street before, these difficulties were not anticipated because
they had no children at that time.
the neighborhood.
Two other buyers were only satisfied with
The first feels that the neighbors automatically assumed
This buyer feels that the representative of Urban
they could not get along.
Edge tried to prepare him for the kind of situation he might encounter.
thinks he did not give enough credence to their warning.
He
I did not really get
an explicit reason the other family was only satisfied with their neighborhood.
I sensed a certain isolation and I also got the impression that the people at
Urban Edge said the neighborhood is very open and friendly.
tation was not realized.
Somehow this expec-
The other buyers were happy with their neighborhoods.
Several knew the areas well before they moved and already had established
social ties; others feel that the sales people at Urban Edge fairly represented
the problems and advantages in their neighborhoods.
Reasons buyers like Jamaica Plain include its stability of neighborhood
quality and ethnic mix, and its convenience to downtown Boston.
Community involvement and owner investment in houses are two reasons
Urban Edge trys to promote homeownership.
in community organizations.
They either have other interests or they have not
yet found the time to become involved.
home-improvement programs.
Few of the new buyers were active
However, some people have substantial
The most common renovations were modernizing baths
73
.
urFan
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 4.1
PROPERTY
TRANSFERS
1/75 - 5/76
URBAN EDGE
ALL *
@
JAMAICA
POND
/
0
ARNOLD
ARBORITU-11
f,
and kitchens.
Some were finishing attics.
A number of people were waiting for
a few years before they moved forward on their improvement programs.
the buyers bought houses for which they planned only minor changes.
Three of
Each of
the buyers was asked to name the maximum he would be willing to invest in the
house.
The figure often mentioned was $10,000.
that people planned to stay in the neighborhood.
Lastly, the interviews indicated
Barring a move to another
metropolitan area, all but one buyer saw their new houses as places they would
stay indefinately.
No one viewed his house as a place to live while building
up equity so he could move to another house more suited to his family's needs.
Map 4.2 shows that in Hyde Square, Urban Edge has a large number of
listings compared to the number of sales.
Other brokers find a similar situation
in Forest Hills. (interviews with realtors, bankers, Urban Edge staff)
More
sales in both these areas would also signal an improvement in Jamaica Plain.
The fact that a number of Urban Edge clients have purchased homes in the Brookside area may indicate that this sub-market is improving.
Refer back to table 4.4.
In 7 of the 10 areas, Urban Edge sold homes with
average prices higher than the average sale price for the neighborhood.
Urban
Edge has recently sold homes in sub-markets where, to date, they have not attracted
a large number of listings.
Two such neighborhoods are Sumner Hill and Rockview,
It is encouraging to see so many
where Urban Edge has sold expensive homes.
prices above the mean for the neighborhood, because this may indicate that
people buying to own property can hold their own when bidding against speculators.
To show that Jamaica Plain is really offering an alternative to suburban
living, more new buyers would either have to be moving from the suburbs or looking
for homes in the suburbs as well as in Jamaica Plain.
The encounter table
(see Appendix III, table A 3.1) shows that only 4 home-seekers came from suburbs
of Boston (Newton, Somerville, Cambridge, and Marlborough).
75
No information has
urfanecle
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 4. 2
LTS1INGSE]
PROPERTY
TRANSFERS
1/75 - 5/76
UREAN EDGEO
ALL -
JAMAICA
POND
ID
0
0
1.
A
ORNOLC
,ARBORIT(I.
0
been collected on the other areas they are considering.
The buyer interviews
revealed that several families only looked for homes in Jamaica Plain when
buying, while others looked in Dorchester, Roxbury, Allston-Brighton, as well
as Jamaica Plain.
C.
No one mentioned that he looked for a home in the suburbs.
Maintaining and Facilitating Integrated Neighborhoods
The indicators of success in this area are (i) an increase in the diversity
of the people interested in a particular neighborhood, or clients interested in
a variety of neighborhoods; (ii) placement of buyers; (iii) good buyer attitudes
about their neighborhoods;
(iv) an increase in Urban Edge's listings in
neighborhoods where they have had little activity; and (v) interest of institutional
actors in promoting integrated neighborhoods.
Client Diversity.
in buying homes.
Sixty-three people who came to Urban Edge were interested
Thirty-five were white; 17 were black; 12 were Spanish-speaking.
Prospective white buyers were interested in homes with prices ranging from
$40,000 to less than $15,000.
ranges was fairly even.
The distribution of home-seekers across the price
Seven of the black home-seekers were looking for homes
which sold for less than $15,000, 3 for homes in the $15,000-$20,000 range, 2 in
the $20,000-$25,000 range, 2 in the $25,000-$30,000 range and 1 in the $35,000$40,000 price range.
Most of the Spanish-speaking home-seekers were looking
for homes for less than $15,000.
Several were looking in the $25,000-$30,000
and the $35,000-$40,000 range as well.
This profile shows that Urban Edge is
attracting a healthy diversity of people who want to locate in Jamaica Plain.
It
also shows that in order to effectively serve the minority home-seeker, the
brokerage must attract listings in the lower price ranges.
It may be that Urban
Edge.must attract more high income minority home-seekers if it is to promote
integration in white areas near the pond.
Placement of Buyers.
Urban Edge has sold 9 houses since the beginning of
77
the year.
Price agreements have been reached for 11 more houses, and they are
now in process.
Map 4.3 shows the Urban Edge sales since January 1, 1976 and
the houses which are under agreement.
Most of these are in Parkside South,
Three of the sales were to white buyers;
Parkside North, Atherton, and Brookside.
the other was to a mixed black and white couple.
agreement in these neighborhoods.
There are 8 houses under
Of the 4 in Parkside South, 2 were sold to
black buyers, 1 to a white buyer, and another to a mixed black and white couple.
Very few minority families live on the streets involved.
Sales in Sumner Hill and South Street
involve black or Spanish-speaking buyers.
West were to white buyers.
The other agreements
In Rockview 2 houses are under agreement, 1 to a
white couple, the other to a mixed Spanish-speaking and white couple.
family is interested in the house in Hyde Square North East.
A minority
A white family
with young children bought in Boylston West.
The characteristics of the buyers placed by Urban Edge show that new
buyers are interested in looking in a variety of places in Jamaica Plain.
One
area of developing concern is that a large number of houses under agreement in
Parkside South are being purchased by minority families.
Although there was
active interest in several of these homes by white buyers, minority families
finally purchased the homes.
The problem developing in this area is the same
one which will face Jamaica Plain if Urban Edge is successful.
It is a problem
*
which faces all
The dual housing market has pent-up black
integrated communities.
demand for housing, and once an area is opened to black families, they out-bid
**
white families for housing in the area.
This situation exists because the
black families either cannot or will not move into all-white areas beyond.
They
*
The argument is usually cast as a black-white situation--it is applicable
for any minority group which suffers discrimination.
**
This serves as the basis for successful blockbusting.
78
urfan
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 4. 3
JAN -JUN
SALES
* UNDER
AGREEMEN#
.ARNOLBI
may be denied access due to discrimination by the institutions
in the real
estate market, or they may be concerned about the reception they will receive
in an all-white neighborhood.
problem.
Urban Edge is an effort to address the first
The second cannot be confronted by this approach.
As long as most
of the market is closed to black entry, integrated neighborhoods will feel this
pressure.
Attracting Listings in New Areas.
has been involved with 143 listings.
last 3 months.
In the last year and a half, Urban Edge
Forty-three of those were arranged in the
Map 4.1 shows Urban Edge's listings and all property transfers
in the last 18 months; map 4.2 shows the listings of the last 3 months with
the property transfers.
Table 4.5 shows the distribution of Urban Edge's
listings by sub-market.
Table 4.5
Urban Edge Listings
1/75-6/76
Boylston West
Hyde Sq. N.E.
Hyde Sq. S.E.
Lamartine
Atherton
Brookside
Parkside N.
Parkside S.
Stoneybrook
Condominiums
White City
Forest Hills
South St. W.
South St. E.
Jamaica Hills
Pondside
Sumner Hill
Green St.
Rockview
13
19
8
7
7
12
4
14
4
3
5
3
9
2
3
15
2
5
8
3/76-6/76
5
6
3
1
2
2
5
1
2
1
1
2
1
2
3
-1
1
4
Sales by Sub-market
1
2
1
2
5
2
5
-
1
2
In order to have more influence in the real estate market, Urban Edge
needs to attract more listings in the central, southern and Jamaica Hill sections.
There are some indications that progress is being made.
80
Urban Edge has recently
urfancd4
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP 4.4
RECENT LISTINGS
PROPERTY
TRANSFERS
1:1
1/75 - 5/76
URBAN EDGEO
ALL '
0
r~II
a0
Ql
00
:0V
ARNOLD
:ARBORITU:V
El
been involved in areas of central Jamaica Plain, and has had success selling
properties in
these new areas.
The firm is
still
not a force on the Pond side
of Centre Street, but its influence may grow after these recent successes.
When people sell their homes,
their neighbors are usually aware of the activity.
It is likely that the neighbors are aware that a newly listed house is selling
through Urban Edge.
The neighbors would have to at least be indifferent about
Urban Edge's policies if
the seller received no complaints.
The increase in
Urban Edge's listings indicates a growing acceptance of its policies.
Urban Edge Buyer Attitudes about Diversity.
The attitudes about integration
and diverse living shown in the buyer surveys were overwhelmingly positive.
Those interviewed were not indifferent about integrated neighborhoods; they were
advocates of them.
If
Does Urban Edge cater to only a small segment of home-seekers?
this population of integration advocates is
integration are good.
large,
then prospects for promoting
However, it would be more comforting if there were buyers
who showed more indifference.
Indifference might indicate that there is
a larger group of buyers who are willing to move into such a neighborhood.
If
success depends on advocates of integration to buy houses, then it is not
clear that a successful experience in Jamaica Plain can be duplicated.
Broker and Banker Attitudes.
The broker and banker interviews showed
there are several widely accepted ideas about trends in Jamaica Plain.
When
I asked about general changes in the district, most of the bankers and real
estate brokers mentioned the influx of hispanic families.
They indicated
that these families dominated the Hyde Square and Egelston Square areas.
Several
people did not mention ethnicity at all, but concentrated on the changes in
price and condition of homes.
They described the Jamaica Plain housing market
in much the same way it is described in section 2.3; the price of housing in
82
most of Jamaica Plain has held steady, while a few areas have seen sale prices
increase with inflation and isolated areas have experienced value declines.
They responded to questions about general trends by singling out Hyde Square
and Egelston Square as declining areas.
No one drew distinctions within these areas until I asked about specific
subsections of Egelston Square.
When the conversation turned from general
trends to trends in specific neighborhoods, only one person was unwilling to
draw distinctions among smaller neighborhoods.
mentioned as likely in any of the areas.
Stable integration was not
Several conversations focused on the
condition of structures or the market conditions.
Generally, the comments
ran as follows:
Hyde Square (an area pre-selected as an area of primarily minority
interest).
are moving.
This area is cited as a place where Spanish-speaking people
Generally, the housing is in poor condition.
One banker
said it is an area where a group of banks might be able to make a
favorable impact, but it is too risky for a single bank to invest
heavily there.
Pond area (an area pre-selected as a stable white area).
expects this area to change ethnically.
No one
Housing conditions are considered
very good, and values have been rising in recent years.
Atherton (an area pre-selected as a stable integrated area).
area was described as a stable housing market.
are expected to hold up well.
This
Both houses and values
Those who mentioned ethnicity said the
area is becoming a hispanic community.
Brookside (a community pre-selected as an area with a good mix of
people, but likely to change to predominantly minority).
83
This area
has always been considered a bad neighborhood.
The housing has not
been well maintained, and informants think there is little reason to
expect positive change.
They described this sub-market as likely
to change to a minority area.
Parkside (pre-selected as an integrated community with a lower
number of minorities than Atherton).
This area is described as an
area where prices are going up and where they will continue to do so.
Some people mentioned that the neighborhood is too small to avoid
being affected by nearby declining sub-markets. One broker said that
no family worried about racial transition would move there.
Forest Hills (pre-selected as a white community likely to
experience minority entry).
Informants note that this neighborhood has
a soft market; there have been few sales in recent years, there are
more homes for sale than there are interested buyers, and prices are
considered likely to decline.
No one mentioned the possibility of
ethnic change.
While these brokers and bankers saw reasons to differentiate between
subsections of larger neighborhoods, their image of the future of the neighborhoods is different than the one held by Urban Edge.
seen by others as an area experiencing transition.
Egelston Square is still
The presence of small areas
where the housing market is stable does not signal possible ethnic stability
to these observers.
integration.
Few people directly commented on the likelihood of promoting
One interviewee feels that Jamaica Plain has survived other ethnic
transitions and he described the recent influx of black and hispanic residents
as no different.
Failure of these brokers to draw distinctions during the
early portion of the interviews indicates that buyers would not be informed
of these distinctions.
Purposely or inadvertantly, brokers will direct house-
84
seekers away from stable neighborhoods in
the northeastern section of Jamaica
Plain.
D.
Combat Institutional Practices which Promote Segregation
The indicators of success outlined in chapter 3 are measures which say
something about the institutions affecting the Jamaica Plain housing market.
These are (i)
the number of recent listings which are co-brokered;
number of recent sales that have been co-brokered; and (iii)
banker statements about various neighborhoods.
(ii)
the
the broker and
There are other official indicators.
Both Hafer and Beato are members of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.
Through this, they use the multiple listing service and they are in contact with
other brokers.
However, Hafer does not believe that area brokers offer Urban
Edge as many co-brokering opportunities as he feels appropriate.
Only 1 recent
sale was a co-brokering situation.
The broker and banker interviews were dissappointing.
of changing activities by example is
working,
no one is
If
the strategy
admitting it.
Indeed,
a side effect of a very successful alternative firm might be that other brckers
are left with the business of only those who do not accept Urban Edge's
policies.
It is likely that Urban Edge will have to capture a larger share
of the market if it is going to affect real estate brokerage in the area.
Doubts about the ability to duplicate a Jamaica Plain success were raised by
several real estate people.
place and is
Boston.
They felt that Jamaica Plain is
considered an integrated area by people in
More. important than this is
neighborhoods.
other sections of
a conflict between images of integrated
The people at Urban Edge are not concerned about the proportion
of minority families in
all people.
already a unique
an area as long as there is
an open environment for
But a successful neighborhood from their perspective may not be
considered successful by others.
The notion of a tipping point is alive in
85
people's minds.
If Urban Edge promotes successful integration in Jamaica Plain
and the people of Hyde Park or West Roxbury consider the area a minority district,
then prospects for duplicating success are nil,
One indication that this
problem will arise is illustrated by people's willingness to categorize areas
of Jamaica Plain as minority communities when statistics show a low minority
population.
This response can be contrasted to the responses of community people.
They described the areas of Hyde and Egelston Squares as mixed communities rather
than minority ones.
For areas they know well, their perceptions are similar
to those given by the staff member at Urban Edge.
In general, they said that
(i) Hyde Square is improving physically with the influx of hispanic people;
(ii) the Pond area is a stable white area; (iii) the Atherton section is well
mixed and a stable neighborhood; and (iv)
the Brookside sub-market is a
traditionally bad area, and the housing there has always been poorly maintained.
These people did not make the sweeping ethnic generalizations that were
made by the bankers and brokers.
They were very comfortable discussing the small
areas of Jamaica Plain and usually referred to those areas which are not all
white as ethnically mixed.
Community people said that real estate trends are by and large caused by
banking practices.
Major studies of red-lining have been conducted in Jamaica
Plain and have shown that the major banks avoid this area.
remarkable changes in the housing market.
purchases and home improvements.
This leads to
Mortgages are unavailable for home
This limits the number of buyers who are
able to purchase houses in the area, and causes house prices to drop.
One person
implied that this situation shifts the consumers' use of housing-rather than
being able to look toward resale to re-coup investments in the house, the owner
is forced to either take a substantial loss or stay in the house and allow it
86
to deteriorate.
another.
The consumer "uses up" the house and then must look for
If his next house is also red-lined, the process of consumption is
repeated.
I asked people to speculate on the reasons for red-lining in the Jamaica
Plain area.
Everyone focused on racial change as a reason banks avoid areas.
They think that banks avoid lending in areas where minorities are moving or
where banks expect minorities to move.
integrated living.
This has major implications for promoting
If mortgages are unavailable, then there is little
opportunity for people to stay in integrated neighborhoods.
There is another set of institutional practices which impact the Jamaica
Plain market and is more major than the activities in the neighborhoods.
One observer feels that the lack of lending to minority households in Roxbury
and Dorchester would cause a new migration of minority families and that
Jamaica Plain would have to accomodate a good deal of that new migration.
This
observer feels that the lean economic times of recent years have stifled this
migration and that economic recovery will cause dramatic changes in Jamaica
Plain.
Secondly,. Urban Edge has no way to effect change in neighboring commun-
ities.
Successful-integration may not be perceived by others as a success.
Although Jamaica Plain may develop as a healthy, integrated neighborhood,
integration of an level unacceptable to the white community may damage the
opportunity to create more integrated neighborhoods.
Unrecognized success
might be more damaging than failure.
E.. Self-sufficiency
Indicators of increased success in this category are (i) more commissions;
(ii) a decrease in the hours spent generating each dollar of commission;
(iii) an increase in the number of higher priced houses listed and sold; and
(iv) the reactions of the buyers to the broker's handling of the sales process.
87
The financial picture at Urban Edge is somewhat clouded.
In order to cover
the costs of the brokerage, $29,000 in commissions must be generated in 1976.
By June of 1976, only about 1/3 of that amount had been collected.
However,
the large number of properties under agreement held the prospect of an additional
$15,780 in commissions.
Sales people at Urban Edge have estimated that 65%
of all accepted offers become sales.
of other brokers.
If 1/3
This number is in line with the estimates
of the expected commissions do not materialize,
prospects are still good that the brokerage will meet its budget obligations.
However, the costs of the program are not fully reflected in the $29,000 figure.
Currently, the staff is working far more than 40 hours per week, and some staff
members are spending time on the brokerage which should be spent on the Vacant
Housing Program.
It is not clear where the extra time is going.
The number
of sale negotiations that are completed, once a price is agreed upon, compares
favorably with that of other area brokers.
Either the Urban Edge staff is
generally slow processing a sale, they spend more time in preliminary counseling,
or they list lower priced houses which require equal or more time to sell.
The last 2 of these are mandated by the other goals of the program.
purpose of the firm to deal with a more difficult clientele.
It is the
Uban Edge
expects some of its home-seekers to require more counseling; they intend to
provide services similar to those offered by the ESAC Homeownership Program.
The time spent by staff people on initial interviews of buyers is 2 to 5 times
the amount other brokers estimate for their preliminary counseling sessions.
Extra counseling, processing and negotiation are also required because the Urban
Edge staff wants the buyers to know as much as possible about the houses they
finally choose.
If an engineering report indicates unexpected work is necessary
on a house, then the price may have to be re-negotiated.
falls through.
88
At times, the sale
Urban Edge has increased the number of houses it lists in the higher
price ranges.
Several of these more expensive homes have been sold in recent
months and this may enhance the firm's reputation.
of goal conflict here as well.
However,
there is
a source
As more high priced houses are listed, staff
attention may be diverted from those people who need housing assistance the
most.
Until commissions reach a point where an additional person can be
brought on the staff, trade-offs will have to be made between serving these
2 different kinds of buyers.
Because the firm is trying to act as more of an advocate for the buyer,
one expects buyer reactions to be largely positive.
This was borne out.
On
each phase of the process, the search for the house, the selection of the house,
the price negotiation,
and the financing,
Urban Edge received high marks.
No
one feels he was shown houses unnecessarily or houses which failed to suit
his needs.
All were satisfied with the price negotiations.
was a problem for all of the buyers.
However, financing
Only loperson thinks that Urban Edge
made a mistake on this count, but all feel the process took too long.
buyers were warned by salespeople
that the financing would take a long time,
but even these warnings proved optimistic.
problems.
Several
There were also several individual
One family found help with an insurance problem from Urban Edge.
Another buyer found the closing process exceedingly confusing.
any additional services the firm might offer buyers.
No one mentioned
Several buyers said that
the only advice they would give Jamaica Plain home-seekers would be to buy
through Urban Edge.
One person even mentioned that a friend of the family went
to Urban Edge on his recommendation.
89
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter Four
Suffolk County Transfer Directory.
1975 and 1976.
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Characteristics of the Population: Tract Data for the Boston SMSA. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1960 and 1970.
.
ington D.C.:
Housing Characteristics:
Boston Block Statistics.
Government Printing Office.
1960 and 1970.
Rest on data and interviews described in Chapter Three.
90
Wash-
Chapter Five
Understanding Success
In the first chapter the question was presented:
Is there room in the real
estate environment for an alternative firm which measures its success in
terms of community welfare rather than profit?
the answer to be yes.
to survive.
Two conditions must be met for
First, the firm must find enough flexibility in the market
The market they work within must be large enough to support an
additional firm, and this new firm must prove a successful competitor.
Secondly,
there must be some way to distinguish the results of the alternative program
from the results of a regular real estate brokerage.
will meet the first criterion.
It looks as if Urban Edge
The second requires that a standard be devised
against which to compare the results of the program, and it is necessary to
develop an understanding of the effect Urban Edge has had in recent years.
5.1
Considering Success
One standard can be developed by focusing on the non-profit charactor of
the organization.
This rule will ignore any possible efficiencies of the Urban
Edge approach, but it will offer an idea of the resources the firm can commit
to community well-being.
If the major difference between Urban Edge and a profit-
making brokerage were its non-profit status, then the amount of time which
is spent generating profits in other firms could be used by Urban Edge for other
endeavors.
If profits were 4-5% of the gross realized by a successful firm, then
a successful non-profit firm can expect to use 4-5% of its time pursuing goals
91
which substitute for profits.
If it loses only 4-5% of its sales because it
deals openly with all buyers, it will still be able to survive.
It could
spend 4-5% of its time on extra homeownership counseling, or it could spend 4-5%
of its time convincing banks that the risks of certain loans are not as great
as the banks perceive.
Because all of these activities take place at once
at Urban Edge, it is difficult to chart the progress that is being made.
It
is also difficult to understand where the time of the staff is going vis-a-vis
each of these activities.
Buyers are counseled; it is likely that listings are
lost; and the staff takes time to advocate loans.
The rule shows that only
s small amount of Urban Edge's resources can be committed to change.
the goal of self-sufficiency foremost.
It places
Indeed, self-sufficiency almost takes
on the qualities of a constraint rather than the qualities of
a goal.
This
is consistent with the emphasis placed on this activity by the board members.
The major inference drawn from this is that even if Urban Edge is a more
effective broker than others in Jamaica Plain, most of its staff time must be
directed toward survival.
A.
Promoting Homeownership
The data presented in chapter four show that the prospects for promoting
homeownership are good.
However, the issue that is confronted here is effective
allocation of staff time.
Clearly, Urban Edge wants to devote more time to
counseling than other brokers do.
It wants buyers to be given as complete
a picture as possible about homeownership in general, and about the house or
houses in which they show interest.
be as personal as possible.
It is a matter of style that the service
Efforts must focus on making the counseling process
more effecient without jeapardizing this personal service.
B.
Promoting Jamaica Plain
The indicators concerning Urban Edge's program to promote Jamaica Plain
92
are mixed.
The Vacant Housing Program deals directly with the problems of
physical decline.
The buyer counseling has helped people understand the houses
they have purchased.
It is unclear whether or not Jamaica Plain is attracting
people to the city from the suburbs or if it is taking people from other parts
of the city.
It is important to know whether improvement of Jamaica Plain
comes at the expense of other city neighborhoods which cannot afford the loss
of residents, or if it is attracting dollars and people that would otherwise
go to outlying areas.
C.
Promoting and Facilitating Racial and Economic Integration
Again, the preliminary indicators show signs of progress.
deals with a wide range of people.
Urban Edge
White home-seekers are interested in the
integrated portions of Jamaica Plain, and although most of Urban Edge's sales
to minorities have been in the Hyde Square or Egelston Square areas, these sales
have not been concentrated in particular sub-markets in those areas.
Urban Edge has started to attract more listings in other areas.
Also,
This means
that more homes are available to be shown to minority home-seekers.
There are several kinds of issues raised about moving toward racial and
economic diversity.
The first is whether economic integration is necessary to
promote racial integration.
Is economic integration a desirable thing in other
areas or is it just useful in the Jamaica Plain context?
Another issue is
raised by the prospect of success in promoting racial integration.
Urban
Edge has a different standard of success than many other people in the white
community.
Will successful integration which does not meet the standards of
success used by the white co.munity help or hurt the possibility of promoting
racial integration?
93
D.
Changing the Reactions of Institutions toward Racially Mixed Areas.
The reactions of bankers and brokers to the change by examiple strategy
were extremely disappointing, because they may indicate that an avenue of
promoting change will be closed.
It is important to reconsider strategies
which reach beyond Jamaica Plain not only because of this disappointing result,
but because Urban Edge has been approached by an organization in another section
of Boston.
That organization is interested in starting a program similar to
Urban Edge's.
What is the best strategy Urban Edge can follow to expand its
ideas about open housing beyond Jamaica Plain?
5.2
Outstanding Issues
Some of these issues raised are unresolved conflicts that the organization
will have time to address as more critical hurdles are passed, while other
issues are dilemmas caused by success.
In this section, a framework is developed
for each issue on which Urban Edge needs to make a decision.
A.
Resource Allocation
Approximately 1/3 of Urban Edge's resources are now supposed to be allocated
to the real estate brokerage program.
Vacant Housing Program.
from the first
The rest of the time is taken in the
There is already a tension around shifting staff time
program to the second.
This time squeeze may only be seasonal,
occurring because most home buying and selling is concentrated in the spring
and summer months.
Decision:
to handle peak periods?
Should Urban Edge re-order its use of staff time
Spending more time on the brokerage in the spring and
summer and focusing on the Vacant Housing Program in the fall and winter might
lead to the correct proportion of staff hours allocated to each program over
94
the entire year.
It may also spread
-across the entire year the work load
faced by the staff.
This seasonal adjustment may not solve the entire problem.
In recent
months, Urban Edge salespeople have logged more overtime than the number of
hours budgeted for the brokerage program.
Onertime which cannot be accounted for
by seasonal adjustments can only be legitimate if Urban Edge is growing.
The
firm relied on extra work by the staff to get through the early part of the organization's life.
Decision:
How long should Urban Edge expect its share of the
market to expand and how long can it rely on large amounts of unpaid staff time
(overtime) to help increase that market?
The firm can only expand the brokerage
program if it begins to generate more commissions with a less than proportional
increase in staff time spent on sales.
A saving of staff time might be gained by focusing the firm's efforts on
certain areas of activity.
Decision:
Should Urban Edge concentrate on
neighborhoods, housing types or groups of clients which will have the greatest
impact on the community?
Making this kind of change would probably focus attention
on direct trade-offs between goals which would accompany targeted strategies.
At
this point in time, it would be better to concentrate on some heirarchy of
goal advancement which the current operation emphasizes.
B.
Racial and Economic Diversity
The communities in which Urban Edge has the most support are both racially
and economically diverse.
The peculiar development of Jamaica Plain has created
a place where these types of neighborhoods have grown, and Urban Edge wants to
help them retain their character.
Is promotion of racial integration in other parts of Jamaica Plain dependent
on the promotion of economic integration?
95
One observer asserts that Boston does
not have as large a black middle class population as some Great Lakes cities have.
This implies that economic integration is necessary for racial integration.
Decision:
Should Urban Edge actively try to attract middle class minority
home-seekers so that, if it gains listings in the more expensive portions of
Jamaica Plain, the opportunity for integration will exist?
It seems that only
very special neighborhoods survive with a combination of economic and racial
diversity.
It is important to help maintain areas with this diversity , but
expansion requires a very special environment.
Many areas of Jamaica Plain
seem to have too many single class homes to allow economic diversity.
To promote
racial integration in these areas, it is necessary to attract more minority
families looking for homes in higher price ranges.
C.
Promoting Change Beyond Jamaica Plain
There are really only 2 ways to promote an open housing market in Jamaica
Plain.
One is to change the attitudes of other brokers
either by successful
competition, or by attempts to document their discriminatory practices and
take action against them.
The first has been discussed and the latter destroys
the possibility of professional supports from other brokers.
is to capture a larger portion of the market.
The other strategy
There are more choices when
promoting change beyond Jamaica Plain.
First, Urban Edge could try to expand
its
Secondly,
operation to include a wider area.
it
could help other organi-
zations start similar programs in their own communities.
Thirdly, it could
try to change the attitudes of Boston area brokers by example.
Lastly,
it could
become part of a metropolitan-based organization designed to pressure the
real estate industry.
Decision:
Which approach should Urban Edge adopt to
promote open housing outside of Jamaica Plain?
96
The first strategy would spread
the resources of the firm thinner than they are now.
to build a community base in a new area.
section of Boston is
their community.
It is also difficult
At least 1 organization in another
interested in setting up an Urban Edge-style program in
These people already have community support, but this strategy
would require that numerous groups struggle with the self-support problem, as
Urban Edge has for the last 2 years.
It seems that the resources and energies
of these other people might be better utilized.
discussed.
Change by example has been
The last strategy has been successful elsewhere.
Hecht describes
the work of a Buffalo organization promoting open housing throughout Cuyahoga
County.
Using a successful experience in Jamaica Plain as a focal point for
inducing change would add to the prospects for success on a larger scale.
D.
Implications of Successful Integration.
The fact that many bankers and brokers in Jamaica Plain identify areas
as minority which Urban Edge and other people in the community consider integrated
leads to a problem.
integrated district.
Jamaica Plain already has a city-wide reputation as an
As section 2.2 shows,
much of Jamaica Plain is
all
white.
If Jamaica Plain is already considered integrated by many, what are the implications
of integrating white portions of Jamaica Plain?
What happens if Urban Edge
is successful by its standards and unsuccessful by the standards of others?
Decision:
Is
in the area?
it
enough to create one community which is
open to all
If it can maintain itself, then the answer is yes.
people
Maintaining
an integrated neighborhood without major manipulations of the market would be
a major contribution to city life.
own standard of success,
it
However,
if
Urban Edge is
to retain its
may have to be prepared to abandon the goal of
spreading that success beyond Jamaica because success would still be viewed as
a threat by residents of white communities.
97
5.3
Monitoring and Future Research
This study raises questions which extend beyond the scope of this work.
and which do not represent specific decision opportunities for Urban Edge.
Some of the issues are directly relevant to Urban Edge's enterprise and the
data needed to consider the problems are available to the staff.
The others
are questions which are points of departure for other researchers.
A.
Issues Urban Edge might monitor
Understanding where home-seekers might move if they do not locate in
Jamaica Plain will add to understanding the implications of the chaige taking
place in Jamaica Plain.
Have they been looking in other areas of the city or
are they thinking of locating in the suburbs if Jamaica Plain does not meet
their needs?
The difference is crucial.
The Dilemmas
In Managed Integration:
of Doing Good in the City, Molotch challenges the idea that some areas of the
city can better themselves without lowering the quality of others.
If Jamaica
Plain's stability is based on the deterioration of other city districts or
grey areas elsewhere in the metropolitan area, then the zero-sum gain described
by Molotch is faced.
However, if the revitalization of Jamaica Plain is generated
by current residents and migrants from the suburbs, the results would represent
more than a transfer of resources from 1 area to another.
Diverting many people
from the suburbs to city neighborhoods would help neighborhoods in the city
and also ease the problems of growth faced by suburban communities.
Buyer Sophistication.
Urban Edge is counseling people who are currently
renters so they will be educated buyers and homeowners.
This counseling takes
2 forms in the 2 programs run by Urban Edge.
In the brokerage the counseling
is aimed at increasing buyer sophistication.
Buyers increase their understanding
of the sales process; they know more about where to turn for assistance on
different problems. Their capacity to deal with the sale process and homeownership
98
is increased.
The Vacant Housing Program develops a different sophistication
by offering a sweat equity option.
This increases the buyer's ability to
provide specific services for his home.
in caring for his home in the future.
heirarchy of buyer sophistication.
more sophistication;
the sale prices.
He gains skills which will be useful
The comments of realtors suggests a
One commented that his buyers are showing
they are asking the right questions about the houses and
They understand the critical elements of the house and the
process. (Hafer)
Another realtor said that his buyers have skills necessary
to work on houses or they have friends or relatives with the skills. (McQuarrie)
He termed this "buyer sophistication."
The first statement was about the
young professional buyer in Jamaica Plain; the second about blue collar buyers
in Roslindale.
Which kind of "sophistication" is most appropriate for moderate
income people coming to Urban Edge for counseling?
or might it
depend on the type of building?
Does it depend on the person
Certain building types in
Jamaica
Plain may require levels of maintenance that could only be met by moderate
income people if they develop the skills necessary to make their own repairs.
A
catalog of responsibilities or maintenance by housing type might help resolve
this question.
It might also help identify houses which suit a particular
family's situation.
Size of Jamaica Plains
There are 2 reasons to develop a sense of the
extent and kind of business done by other brokers.
First, this offers an
assessment of the size of the market available for brokers in Jamaica Plain.
A
monitoring of solicitations by other brokers might also be important, especially
in areas where there are only a few minority families.
Urban Edge's place-
ment of a minority family in a white area provides an opportunity for others
to utilize a blockbusting tactics.
This would jeapardize Urban Edge's activities.
99
The other reason area brokers' activities need to be monitored is to understand
more about those sales which are not handled by brokers.
similar to the properties listed by brokers?
owners enter?
Are these properties
Is this the market which absentee
Understanding this segment of the market may yield strategies
to break into that portion of the market.
Absentee owners.
What properties do absentee landlords hold?
different class of properties than are useful for owner-occupants?
Are they a
These questions
should be answered according to the price of the properties held, the financing
used, the financing that might have been possible, the condition of the property,
and the type of sale--government, private, brokered, etc.
This might offer
insights into what approach will effectively curtail any rise in absentee
ownership.
Research Questions.
There are several questions about the nature of
neighborhood which have arisen.
of neighborhood typology.
The first is a need for an operational view
There are several definitions of neighborhood
developed in the planning literature.
specific situations.
Each of these is probably best used in
Currently, the use of definitions breaks down by discipline.
rather than by issue.
of various definitions.
There is
a need for a study contrasting the application
This kind of undertaking might also address the questions
of when neighborhood boundaries change.
Once a neighborhood has a geographic
definition, how much change is necessary before that geographic image is
redefined?
100
Appendix I
A look at the literature
on segregation and integration
Al.1
Causes of Segregation
Racial and ethnic discrimination arises from the belief
of many whites that blacks, in particular, as well as
other minorities, are inferior and undesirable as neighbors.
Translated into the workings of the housing market early
in this century, individual predjudice combined in a legally
and politically sanctioned system to keep racial and ethnic
minorities out of neighborhoods in which white desired to
live. (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, p.6 (U.S.C.C.R.))
The image of northern racial attitudes between the Civil War and
World War I is largely positive.
Those northerners who recieve attention
in the history books are Abolisionists and those who helped slaves escape
to Canada.
In Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto, Osofsky describes the
residential patterns of blacks in New York.
Until their move to Harlem,
blacks located near the wealthy, in whose homes they worked, and in
areas separate from whites.
Osofsky also speaks about those black entrepren-
eurs who were making economic and social advances.
This image of acceptance
leads Edward Banfield to say,
The misfortune, amounting to a tragedy, is not that the Negroes
got to the city but that they got there so late and then in
such great numbers in so short a time. It is likely that had
they moved to the city in large numbers between the Civil War
and the First World War, most Negroes would long since have
entered the middle class. Those who did come north in this
period did enter it soon: Philadephia and Cleveland, for
example, had predominatly middle-class Negro communities before
the turn of the century. (author's emphasis)(Banfield)
Osofsky reminds us that "At no period in the history of New York City were
Negroes accepted as full American citizens ...
the attitudes of New Yorkers
toward Negroes--sometimes eased, at other times hardened--wavered with
Al
national trends of racial adjustment."
(my emphasis)(Osofsky)
Charles Abrams
documented mid-century violence against blacks who attempted to enter
white neighborhoods in Detroit, Chicago and Miami.
And in a recent article
in the Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Lauber mentions
several acts of violence directed at black families in the Chicago suburb
of Cicero.
Yet violence against minorities is not the only force which has
fostered segregation.
"[I]ndividual prejudice combined with a legally
and politically sanctioned system to keep racial and ethnic minorities
out of neighborhoods."
(U.S.C.C.R.,p. 6)
Local zoning ordinances were
written at the turn of the century which required that a black family move
into a block with other black families unless there were no longer any houses
available in such blocks.
These ordinances were declared uncontitutional
by the Supreme Court in 1917.
(U.S.C.C.R.)
This pattern of racial segregation was then fostered and supported
by the real estate industry and financial institutions.
William Brown
quotes a 1917 statement of the Chicago Real Estate Board as saying, "It is
desired in the interest of all that each block shall be filled solidly
[with blacks] and that further expansion shall be confined to contiguous
blocks, and the present method of obtaining single buildings in scattered
blocks be discontinued."
(my emphasis)(Brown, p.67)
In St. Louis the Real
Estate Exchange provided a model race restrictive covenant.
A race restric-
tive covenant is a clause in a deed which prohibits the sale of a property
to any non-white.
As part of that covenant, "[t]he St. Louis Real Estate
Exchange, holding a trusteeship of... [the].. .covenants through its President,
Secretary, and Treasurer serving as 'parties to the second part'
A2
to the a-
greement, is empowered by the agreement to institute action in a court...
against any signing member of the covenant who breaks [the] agreement."
and Johnson, p.19)
(Long
Race restrictive covenants required 60 to 90 percent of
the neighbors to agree to the lifting of the restriction.
(Ibid.)
The im-
plication is that whites would have to be prepared to abandon the area before
the first blacks could enter.
restricted districts."
St. Louis went farther and established "un-
These were areas in which brokers were allowed to
sell to black families. (Ibid., p.61)
were not so bold or concise.
In other cities, real estate entities
In Cleveland the local real estate board refused
to take a position similar to either the St. Louis or Chicago boards.
There,
the use of race restrictive covenants was almost non-existant. (Abrams, Long
and Johnson)
gation.
Yet today we see a remarkably high degree of residential segre-
Long and Johnson looked deeper into the Cleveland situation and found
that sub-organizations of the Real Estate Board were permitted to make restrictive decisions on the basis ofrace.
They also found that the bankers in
Cleveland lent money in ways that supported segregation.
They quote a pres-
ident of a leading Cleveland bank, "The banking concerns have not lent for
Negro building outside of-regular Negro sections for two reasons:
first, be-
cause they consider it will develop bad business relations with their patrons
and second, because of their personal bias in the matter.
The thought is, I
believe, that if the neighborhood is not extended, it will eventually die out
or degenerate into a slum area and be condemned." (Long and Johnson, p.63)
These institutional supports of segregation in housing were not limited
to a few cities.
Until 1950 the National Association of Real Estate Boards,
in its code of ethics, barred realtor from, "introducing into a neighborhood
a character of property of occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or
A3
any individual whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values
in the neighborhood."
(U.S.C.C.R., p.1 5 )
al agencies supported this sentiment.
In addition, the policies of feder-
The F.H.A. supported several mechanisms
designed to restrict minority entry into white neighborhoods.
They preferred
to insure properties with restrictive covenants until the Supreme Court declared
them unenforcable. (Greir and Greir, U.S.C.C.R.)
Their underwriter's manual
made specific reference to "inharmonious racial or nationality groups" and warned appraisers to "lower the rating of properties in mixed neighborhoods..."
(Greir and
Greir, p.16)
F.H.A. attitudes began to change in 1951 when its
foreclosed property was made available to all citizens without regard to race
or national origin, and in 1954 F.H.A. moved to encourage projects designed
for open occupancy.(Greir and Greir, U.S.C.C.R.)
1962 saw non-discrimination
in federally-sponsored housing become national policy by order of the President.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave this executive action the force of law.
The Civil Rights Act of 1968 extended non-discrimination to all house sales
and rentals advertised, handled by real estate brokers, or large landlords.
(U.S. C.C.R. )
After almost three generations of institutional support for housing
segregation, the federal government took action to bar discrimination.
after such a period "effects have become causes.
Yet
And the interrelationships
of cause and effect have become increasingly entangled..." (Greir and Greir,
p. 9)
We find that people are sincerely doubtful that integrated living
patterns are possible.
After seeing neighborhood after neighborhood change
from white to minority occupancy, can we turn with confidence and assure
homeowners, realtors and bankers that there are alternatives to that pattern?
For that matter, why is it important?
A4
Al.1
Integration and Diversity in Communities
Several authors have listed the burdens that racially segregated neigh-
borhoods place on residents.
Limited economic opportunities for minority
residents (Kain), educational disparities (Coleman), limited housing opportunities (Piven and Cloward), and lack of access to lower priced shopping
areas have been listed as costs of ghetto life (Berger).
Berger feels that
the inability of middle class minority families to break away from the ghetto
is a signal to young people that traditional methods of advancement are blocked.
He cites the rise of alternative, often illegal methods of advancement as
evidence that minority youths have rejected traditional pathways of upward
mobility.
He also sees that segregated living patterns allow racial stereo-
types to endure, and feels that those characterizations are central to the
formation of a "caste system" which locks minorities into a specific place in
the social and economic structure of America. (Berger,
p.18)
There is evidence that these stereotypes break down when people live
in integrated environments.
residents in public housing:
Greir and Greir cite a 1951 and a 1952 study of
"these two studies made one chief point:
that
residential proximity on an equal status basis can and often does lead to
improved racial attitudes." (my emphasis)(Greir and Greir, p.3)
Other studies
report that new private developments designed and marketed as interracial
communities have provided examples of integrated living situations which work.
(Fishman)
Both of these situations guarentee a certain amount of financial and
status equality.
does not exist.
In the case of an established neighborhood, this guarentee
Integration is often accompanied or proceeded by deterioration
in the neighborhood.
While the in migration of minority residents need not
be a factor in this decline, white homeowners associate minority entry in a
A5
community with the physical deterioration of the neighborhood.
Though the
new minority residents may share the economic and social status of the white
population, there is no guarentee of this in neighborhoods which are constantly
changing and evolving.
Though segregated housing patterns do impose severe costs on minority
residents, some observers feel that integration is inappropriate as a strategy for the improvement of the conditions in which many minority families
live.
Harrison and Edel have both challenged Kain's view that suburbanization
of minority families is a meaningful way to promote economic advancement.
Piven and Cloward claim that integration has proceeded too slowly to relieve
ghetto housing problems.
They go on to say that integration yeilds too few
benefits at the sacrifice of potential political power.
Despite these reserv-
ations, advocates of housing integration feel that the costs of segregation can
best be eliminated by changing current housing patterns.
They see added bene-
fits when people of diverse cultures share space in the city.
There is
a neighborhood.
little
concensus about the advantages of cultural diversity in
Gans cites four benefits claimed by advocates of diversity:
(i) it enriches inhabitants' lives and makes human resources and experiences
more available and exchangable;
and cultures;
(ii)
it
promotes tolerance of different groups
(iii) it broadens children by teaching them first hand about
diverse groups of people; and (iv) it exposes people to different lifestyles,
allowing one to make educated judgements about the applicability of those lifestyles to his life.
Gans feels these goals are noble, but doubts that truely
diverse neighborhoods have managed to foster such reactions.
He feels that
a certain amount of homogeneity is necessary for neighbors to be able to reach
an agreement on certain key issues in the community.
A6
Within that constraint,
diversity is an asset to a community. (Gans) Banfield describes the conflict
of class aspirations and points out that children may pick up negative characteristics from those who might be of a lower class. (Banfield) Still others see
the opportunity to gain economic efficiences if people who demand similar public goods and services are clustered geographically.
Those authors who see positive attributes of diversity in community include Richard Sennett and Richard Babcock.
Sennett emphasises the opportun-
ities for personal growth through both contact and conflict.
Babcock mentions
the potential for a diversity of community services that would result from a
mix of consumers in a similar area.
No matter what advantages or disadvantages
are seen by commentators, a number of community groups have adopted the goals
of integration and diversity in neighborhood, and have developed programs to
promote these interests.
A7
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Appendix I
Forbidden Neighbors.
Abrams, Charles.
New York:
Harper and Brothers. 1955.
Babcock, Richard and Fred Bosselman. Exclusionary Zoning:
and Housing in the 1970's. New York. Praeger, 1973.
Banfield, Edward.
The Unheavenly City.
Boston.
Baum, David J. Toward a Free Housing Market.
Miami Press. 1971.
Land Use Regulation
Little Brown and Co.. 1969.
Coral Gables:
University of
Berger, Stephen D. The Social Consequences of the Residential Segregation of
the Urban American Negro. New York: Metropolitan Applied Research Center.
1970.
Brown, William. "Access to Housing: The Role of the Real Estate Industry."
Economic Geography, Vol 48. January, 1972. pp. 66-78.
Coleman, James et. al. Equality of Educational Opportunity.
U.S. Dept. of H.E.W., Office of Education. 1966.
Washington D.C:
Edel, Matthew and Jerome Rothenberg, eds. Readings in Urban Economics.
York: The MacMillan Co. 1972. pp. 247-340.
New
Fishman, Joshua. "Some Social and Pshchological Determinants of Inter-group
Relations in Changing Neighborhoods."
In Open Occupancy vs. Forced Housing
under the 14th Amendment: A Symposium on Anti-Discrimination Legislation,
Freedom of Choice, and Property Rights in Housing. Alfred Alvins, ed.
New York: The Bookmailer. 1963. pp. 124-136.
Gans, Herbert.
New York:
People and Plans: Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions.
Basic Books. 1968. pp. 141-151, 166-182, 317-320, 360-364.
Grier, George and Eunice Grier. Discrimination in Housing.
defamation League of B'nai B'rith. 1960.
Harrison, Bennett.
1974.
Urban Economic Development.
Washington:
New York:
Anti-
The Urban Institute.
Helper, Rose. Racial Policies and Practices of Real Estate Brokers.
University of Minnesota Press. 1960.
Minneapolis:
Kain, John. "Housing Segregation, Negro Employment and Metropolitan Decentralization."
Quarterly Journal of Economics.
May, 1958.
Long, Herman and Charles Johnson. People vs. Property? Race Restrictive
Covenants in Housing. Nashville, Tenn.: Fiske University Press. 1947.
A8
McEntire, Davis. Residence and Race.
Press. 1972.
Berkley:
University of Claifornia
Muth, Richar. Cities and Housing: The Spacial Pattern of Urban Residential
Land Use. Chicago Press. 1969.
Osofsky, Gilbert. Harlem:
Harper. 1966.
The Making of a Ghetto 1890-1930.
New York:
Piven, Frances Fox and Richard Cloward. "The Case Against Urban Desegregation."
in Housing Urban America. John Pynoos, Robert Schafer and Chester Hartman,
eds. Chicago: Adline Publishing Co. 1973.
Pryor, F.L.
"Empirical Note on the Tipping Point."
1971. pp. 413-417.
Land Economics.
November,
Raferty, Maureen. Bias in Newspaper Real Estate Advertising. Washington:
Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies.
November, 1970.
Rapkin, Chester and William Grigsby.
The Demand for Housing in Racially Mixed
Areas: A Study of the Nature of Neighborhood Change. Berkley: University
of California Press. 1960.
Rothman, Jack.
"The Ghetto Makers."
pp. 274-278.
Sennett, Richard.
Tauber,
Karl E.
in Housing Urban America (see Piven).
The Uses of Disorder.
and Alma F.
Tauber.
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Government Printing Office.
Negroes in Cities.
Chicago:
Twenty Years After Brown.
1975.
Aldine.
1965.
Washington D.C.:
Varady, David P. "White Moving Plans in a Racially Changing Middle Class
Community."
Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 40, No.5.
September, 1974. pp. 360-370.
Wolf, Eleanor. "The Tipping Point in Racially Changing Neighborhoods."
Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 29. 1963. pp. 217-222.
A9
Appendix II
Demographics of Jamaica Plain
When looking at an area it is useful to understand the demographic
changes in the area.
report.
Here the neighborhoods used are defined by the BRA
We want to chart the influx of minority residents in each area.
In addition, Hodas has applied an indicator of socioeconomic status (SEI)
to Jamaica Plain neighborhoods.
That SEI is:
Ave. education
in tract
ave. education
in Boston
ave. income in
the tract
ave. income in
Boston
%white collar male
in tract
%white collar male
in Boston
A high SEI is one greater than 1.33; a medium SEI lies between 1.33 and
0.67; a low SEI falls below 0.67.
To arrive at the proportion of black res-
idents in neighborhoods block statistics can be used.
For the proportion
of Spanish-speaking residents, the socioeconomic indicators and income figures
we must use census tracts as surrogates for the BRA boundaries.
The following
substitutions are made:
Census Tracts
1205, 1207, 812
1203, 813
1202
1206, 1204
1201
Neighborhood
Hyde Square
Egelston Square
Stoneybrook
Jamaica Central
Jamaica Hills and
Jamaica Pond
Woodbourne
1101
No substitution is made for Jamaica South because it is split between tracts
included in Jamaica Hills, Jamaica Central and Stoneybrook.
All dollar
amounts mentioned are in 1970 dollars.
Hyde Square.
In 1970 the population of Hyde Square totalled 9,800
The BRA report mentions that "this area is experiencing an influx of new
upwardly mobile Greek and Spanish-speaking people."
A10
(BRA,
p.5)
According
uran
JAMAICA PLAIN
MAP A2.1
CENSUS
TRACTS
1207
1205
1206
813
AJAMAICA
POND
1204
1201
1202
ARNOLD
'ARBORITUA
1101
1203
to the most recent census, 21% of the residents of Hyde Square are black,
compared with only 2% ten years earlier.
The 1970 census also reports that
15% of the residents of Hyde Square are Spanish-speaking.
The SEI in the
neighborhood has remained the same between 1960 and 1970.
Egelston Square.
Egelston Square's population was 7763 in 1970.
Of these people, 13% were black and 13% were Spanish-speaking.
less than 1% of this area's population was black.
from .77 to .67 over the ten years.
In 1960
The SEI fell, moving
72% of Jamaica Plain's black residents
live in Egelston or Hyde Square.
Stoneybrook.
This neighborhood is described in the BRA report as
an area "characterized by two and three family frame dwellings, with various
other housing types (mainly single family) interspered throughout."
(BRA, p.5)
Stoneybrook's population is 95% white; 4% of the neighborhood's population
is Spanish-speaking.
Hodas indicates that Spanish-speaking and black fam-
ilies live in less desirable parts of the neighborhood along the Washington
Street El.
The SEI for this area dropped between 1960 and 1970, but stayed
within the medium range.
Both the percentage of people earning above $15,000
and the percentage of people earning below $5,000 rose between 1960 and 1970.
Jamaica Central.
The central portion of Jamaica Plain has a high per-
centage of buildings in good condition, according to a windshield survey
done in 1974. (BRA)
Most of those buildings which were in less than good
condition were found along the cleared land of the Southwest Corridor.
Only
1% of Jamaica Central's people counted themselves as Spanish-speaking in the
1970 census.
And the census showed only 2% of the residents were black.
Both census tracts which make up Jamaica Central showed a drop in the SEI.
And, although incomes increased relative to the consumer price index, they did
not keep pace with rising incomes in the city as a whole.
A12
Jamaica Hills/Jamaica Pond.
has held up best in recent years.
This is the portion of Jamaica Plain that
6,200 people lived there in 1970.
all of these residents were white.
Virtually
In this area the SEI increased between
1960 and 1970 and the proportion of people earning more than $15,000 jumped
from 26% in 1960 to 65% in 1970.
The area is predominately made up of single
family houses and seems to have more in common with neighboring West Roxbury
than with the rest of Jamaica Plain.
Woodbourne.
This neighborhood is evenly split between three family
houses and clusters of one and two family homes.
by demolition for the southwest expressway.
census this neighborhood was 100% white,
ing an influx of minority residents.
it
(Beato)
A13
This area has been affected
Although at the time of the
may be on the verge of experienc-
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Appendix II
Boston Redevelopment Authority. Jamaica Plain: Background Information,
Planning Issues, and Preliminary Neighborhood Improvement Strategies.
Boston: City of Boston. 1975.
Hodas, Barbara. Neighborhood Analysis: Locating Neighborhood Boundaries
and Measuring Neighborhood Change. Unpublished M.C.P. Thesis, M.I.T.
1975.
Suffolk County Transfer Directory.
1975 and 1976.
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Characteristics of the Population: Tract Data for the Boston SMSA. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1960 and 1970.
.
ton D.C.:
Housing Characteristics:
Boston Block Statistics.
Government Printing Office.
A14
1960 and 1970.
Washing-
Appendix III
Data by Collection Scheme
TABLE A3.1
Analysis of Encounter Forms 3/1/76 to 5/15/76
White
Homeseekers
Desire Counseling
Current Residence
Jamaica Plain
Elsewhere in
Boston
Outside Boston
in Region
Outside Region
Price Range
less than 15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
40+
Type of House*
Single
Two Fam.
Three Fam.
3+
Homeowner
Family Type
less than 35
36-50
51+
N.A.
Single
2+ Adults
Adults with
Children
N.A.
Black
Hispanic
34
15
17
11
12
11
63
37
14
4
6
24
14
10
4
28
5
1
2
1
2
7
4
5
7
7
6
2
7
1
7
3
2
2
1
-
7
1
1
2
1
-
19
11
10
10
2
9
1
17
25
6
1
5
14
3
-
6
7
5
1
28
46
14
2
-
1
7
20
1
2
11
6
12
10
5
2
2
7
10
1
1
1
77
40
6
3
14
9
24
7
13
8
-
3
1
18
14
6
* Often more than one house type was indicated
A15
Total
TABLE A3.1
Analysis of Encounter Forms 3/1/76 to 5/15/76 --
White
Sellers
Reasons for selling
Age Related
Financial
Move from Region
Other
Moving Elsewhere
N.A.
Owner-occupants
Family Type
less than 35
36-50
51+
N.A.
Single
2+ Adults
Adults and
Children
N.A.
12
Black
Hispanic
-
15
1
-
4
-
1
1
1
-
1
1
3
2
2
9
3
-
12
4
4
4
2
6
1
1
1
1
-
5
4
5
1
2
7
4
-
1
1
-
5
1
3
1
3
2
3
Total
A16
continued
TABLE
A3.2
Sales Information by Neighborhood
Ave. Sale Prices
Property Transfers
Neighborhoods
1964
1974
1975-76
1964
Boylston West
Hyde Sq. N.E.
Hyde Sq. S.E.
Lamartine
Atherton
Brookside
Parkside N.
Parkside S.
Stoneybrook
White City
Forest Hills
South St. W.
South St. E.
Jamaica Hills
Pondside
Sumner Iill
Green St.
Rockview
14
17
18
10
13
13
13
7
16
25
NA
12
11
36
9
17
9
11
25
16
16
5
8
8.
8
19.4
10.3
5
5
19.6
15
3
10
6
1
5
13
NA
9
5
35
19
22
4
3
3
9
1
5
5
9
6
19
20
7
8
8
12.5
12.1
11.5
9.7
15.2
14.3
18.2
NA
17.8
15.8
26.3
22.8
18.5
17.0
17.7
(in 1,000's)
1974
1975-76
Owner-occup.
21.1
20.6
46%
12.4
12.9
20.2
11.8
14.5
12.1
11.9
14.1
12.6
27.3
11.9
22.2
25.2
19.1
17.1
41.8
36.2
21.2
58%
50%
51%
50%
57%
69%
75%
50%
16%
60%
83%
33%
83%
43%
42%
25%
75%
13.6
12.1
17.1
24.0
16.8
19.2
NA
14.6
22.0
40.7
34.5
36.0
19.0
24.5
Sources: The Suffolk County Transfer Directory, 1975-76
The Banker and Tradesman, 1964 and 1974
13.2
15.7
Foreclosures
TABLE A 3.3
Information on Urban Edge Activities -
by Neighborhood.
SALES*
LISTINGS
All
Boylston West
Hyde Sq. N.E.
Hyde Sq. S.E.
Lamartine
Atherton
Brookside
Parkside N.
Parkside S.
Stoneybrook
Condominiums
White City
Forest Hills
South St. W.
South St. E.
Jamaica Hills
Pondside
Sumner Hill
Green Street
Rockview
3/76 to 6/76
*sales is a convenience -**includes mixed couples
Source: Urban Edge.
# less than
Total
$20,000
Minority
Buyers**
26,900
13
19
8
7
7
12
4
14
4
3
5
3
9
2
3
15
2
5
8
Ave. Urban Edge
Sale Price
8,200
2
2
15,000
18,700
16,300
13,500
1
2
1
2
2
2
4
26,300
2
1
18,000
1
4
1
35,000
4
29,500
the figure is sale+houses under agreement.
Appendix IV
Real Estate Activity by Sub-market
A.
Hyde Square
Hyde Square North East.
The owner-occupancy survey shows that 58% of
the neighborhood's new owners live in their buildings.
sales, 8 received mortgages.
Of the 25 in residential
The average amount of the mortgage given in this
area is high because the data includes 2 mortgages which are for commercial
developments.
The average mortgage was given for 92% of the purchase price,
while the high mortgage amounted to 275% of the sale price.
Prices in
moved from an average $10,300 per sale in
1974.
1964 to $12,000 in
and 1975 the average sale price dropped 5%.
the area
BeLween 1974
Problems in this part of the market
are evidenced by a large number of properties which have remained on the market
for an extended period, and the fact that I banks. have foreclosed properties
in the last 18 months.
The number of properties which changed hands during
each of the 3 periods monitored has remained fairly constant.
Hyde Square South East.
This neighborhood is somewhat different.
show a lower rate of new owner-occupancy
than in
My figures
Hyde Square North East.
However,
mortgages are more available, with 1/2 of the recent sales receiving mortgage
support.
Two properties were foreclosed in 1975 and the first 1/2 of 1976.
The average sale prices rose modestly over both time periods:
average sale price was $12,500; in 1975-76 it
in 1964 the
was $14,500.
The negative influences of the housing project and the declining commercial
areas seem to affect the Hyde Square North East section more than the other.
are enclaves of single family homes in both neighborhoods.
There
Those in Hyde Square
North East are more modest and their values have not held as well as the larger
homes on the other side of Centre Street.
A19
Hyde Square South East also has areas
of two family dwellings.
in
B.
Although these provide small housing units, they are
demand and probably serve to keep prices rising in
this area.
Egelston Sqgjare
Two of Urban Edge's sub-markets are not considered in this analysis.
first, Dimock, is in Egelston Square.
commercial and industrial buildings.
It consists of either vacant land or
The second is a group of recently developed
condominiums between Stoneybrook and Forest Hills.
condominiums are all
The
seller take-backs,
The mortgages for the
and discussion of them will not add
to the understanding of the dynamic of the Jamaica Plain housing market.
Atherton.
last 10 years.
Activity in
the Atherton area has shifted dramatically in the
In 1964, 13 properties changed hands.
During 1974, 1975 and the
first 1/2 of 1976 only 7 properties were sold; in addition, there was 1 bank foreclosure.
The average sale prices rose 18% between 1964 and 1974 and then dropped
to near 1964 levels in 1975-76.
Half of the new owners live in the area and,
of the 5 sales here, 2 received mortgages averaging 77% of the sale price.
In Brookside, 57% of the new owners are owner-occupants.
Brookside.
prices rose over the periods monitored:
1974 and 1975.
25% between 1964 and 1974, 17% between
However, there were 2 bank foreclosures, and 3 of the properties
sold in 1975-76 were tax-title properties.
mortgages.
Sale
Almost all of the new owners-received
The highest mortgage amount was 100% of the sale price and the average
was 73%.
Parkside North.
than in 1964.
The average sale price of property in 1974 was 13% greater
But in 1975-76 average sales dropped below the 1964 level.
There
were 2 foreclosures in the area and 1 was on an H.U.D. insured loan; H.U.D. also
sold 1 house in the neighborhood.
obtain mortgages.
All of the buyers in 1975-76 were able to
The average mortgage was for 88% of the purchase price, and
several were issued at 100% of sale price.
A20
69% of those who bought in Parkside
North live in
their newly-acquired buildings.
Parkside South.
This neighborhood of one and two family houses has seen
the average sale price rise since 1964.
The 1974 sale prices averaged 68%
higher than the 1964 figures and there was a 14% rise between 1974 and 1975-76.
75% of the newly purchased homes are occupied by their current owners.
situation seems unusual in light of these good signs.
The mortgage
Only 1/2 of the buyers were
able to get mortgage financing, and the average mortgage was 64.5% of the sale
price.
The highest mortgage given was 80%.
Owner-occupancy figures are similar for Atherton and Brookside, but they
are significantly higher in the Parkside neighborhoods; Parkside South is one
of the top 3 sub-markets for owner-occupancy.
varied greatly among the sub-markets.
Average sale prices have also
In Brookside and Parkside South, there has
been a general upward trend of sale prices.
In the other 2 neighborhoods the
prices do not really follow an identifiable trend.
Prices in Parkside South
kept pace with inflation while in Atherton and Parkside North it is not clear
whether or not properties will hold value.
tencies.
The data present certain inconsis-
Although there have been many mortgage defaults and tax title sales
in Brookside, values in that area have risen.
Also, Brookside is listed by
informants as an area which is not socially stable.
One person pointed out that
the area had been considered a bad one while she was growing up.
The other areas
are places where people expect more stability.
C.
Stoneybrook
Stoneybrook.
Stoneybrook has seen a steady decline in average purchase
prices; prices dropped 12% between 1964 and 1974, and 29% between 1974 and 197576.
The market has also been less active in recent years.
1964, 11 houses changed hands.
In the 12 months of
During the 30 months since January, 1974, only
A21
10 residential properties have been sold.
One mortgage was issued in the past
18 months, and there has been 1 bank foreclosure, and 1 sale of property by a
bank.
D.
Jamaica Central
Boylston West.
buildings.
Slightly less than 1/2 of the new owners occupy their
Between 1964 and 1974, prices rose 9% and in the last year, they
dropped 2%.
There were no mortgage foreclosures in 1975-76, and only 1 tax
title sale.
Eight of 11 owners got mortgages and the average amount was 72%
of the sale price.
The number of sales is fairly constant over the 3 years
monitored.
Green Street.
Eighteen properties changed hands in 1975-76, many more
than in the other observation years.
area has dropped 31% since 1974.
However, the average sale price in the
Only 2 of the properties sold received
mortgage funding, and the high mortgage granted amounted to 80% of the purchase
price.
The other mortgage amounted to only 56%.
Sumner Hill.
The price data has been erratic for the Sumner Hill area.
This is due, in part, to a small number of sales in the area.
properties changed hands; in 1974, 3; and in 1975-76, 7.
sale price was $36,000; in 1975-76 it was only $21,000.
houses sold recently in
the 30,000--
In 1964, 4
In 1974 the average
There have been as many
35,000 dollar range as were sold in
1974.
However, several more modest homes were sold in the area during 1975-76.
is unlikely that there has been a 44% drop in prices.
It
A better explanation is
that more modest homes in the area came onto the market in 1975-76.
Mortgages
were given for only 2 of 7 houses sold in the area, and were granted for nearly
70% of the purchase price.
Lamartine.
This area is the neighborhood which borders the Southwest
Corridor through Jamaica Central.
Again, only 1/3 of the new owners received
A22
mortgage support.
Sixteen properties have changed hands in the last 18 months.
This campares with 15 properties in the 12 months before.
The sales figures
show that average sale prices rose from $12,100 in 1964 to $20,200 in 1974.
However, the average sale price returned to $12,100 in 1975-76.
There were 2
bank foreclosures during this period and 1 tax title property was sold by the
City of Boston.
The BRA report attributes disruptions in
influence of the Southwest Corridor.
this neighborhood to the blighting
The Lamartine area includes most of the
properties directly affected by events associated with the Corridor.
separating this area from the rest of Jamaica Central,
trends exclusive of those events.
By
one can focus on market
Both the Green Street and Boylston West
neighborhoods realized modest price gains between 1964 and 1974.
At the same
time, Sumner Hill experienced a large increase in average sale prices.
are also differences in owner-occupancy rates.
The Green Street neighborhood
showed 1/2 the proportion of new owner-occupants as the others.
stock in these neighborhoods is very different.
There
The housing
The Lamartine area consists
of single and one family houses built at the time of the commuter rail.
Boylston
West is also dominated by single and two family homes, but these are newer, more
modest structures.
The Green Street neighborhood is more mixed:
there are
a number of six family buildings on Green Street, but the side streets have
homes which were built as one or two family structures.
The Sumner Hill area
is older and the houses here are larger than in other portions of Jamaica Central.
Jamaica Central is perhaps more physically diverse than the other BRA neighborhoods.
It is likely that these separate sections of Jamaica Central will follow different
paths of evolution if lending institutions choose to view each of the neighborhoods independently.
The -type of housing and environment available in each
subsection will attract a different group of buyers.
A23
E.
Jamaica Hills/Pond
Jamaica Hills.
are owner-occupied.
As was mentioned before, 85% of the units in Jamaica Hills
However, only 83% of the properties sold in the last 18
months were purchased by people who will live in the buildings.
34 properties changed hands in this neighborhood.
In 1964,
In 1974, the number was
only 19, and during the last 18 months, another 19 properties changed hands.
Property values in this area have also kept pace with inflation, rising 55%
between 1964 and 1974.
The average sale price in this area is $41,800, and
the high price is $75,000.
Pondside.
with inflation.
Prices of Pondside properties have come close to keeping pace
The average price of property was $36,500 in 1975-76, and
the high price for this area was $55,000.
75% of the new owners received
mortgages which averaged 76% of the sales price.
Only 43% of the newly acquired
properties are owner-occupied.
Lending institutions react in similar ways to these areas even though they
are different types of communities.
Ron Hafer has said that for banks unfamiliar
with Jamaica Plain, Centre Street is
the great divide,
to consider mortgages in Pondside and Jamaica Hills.
and they are only willing
Thses areas are considered
the healthiest because prices have kept up with inflation.
Prices in Parkside
South and Sumner Hill have also kept pace with inflation, but because they are
associated with other parts of Jamaica Plain, they are not mentioned as stable
areas.
Those real estate and banking people I interviewed did not say that
house values in these areas were rising with inflation until I made a point to
ask them about the neighborhoods.
F.
Jamaica South
South Street West.
neighborhood.
83% of the people who bought property here live in the
Mortgage money was available for almost 1/2 of the residential
A24
properties.
The properties have held their value according to inflation from
The 1974 sale prices were below both 1964 and 1975-76 levels.
1964 to 1975-76.
South Street East.
In South Street East, only 33% of the new owners occupy
the recently purchased buildings.
South Street West.
purchase price.
Mortgages are less available here than in
However, the average mortgage granted was 80% of the
In 1964, 11 houses changed hands in this neighborhood; in 1974,
5; and in 1975-76, 6.
Sale prices here are also erratic:
in 1964 the average
sale price was $15,800; in 1974 it rose to $22,000; but in 1975-76, it dropped
to $17,100.
Jamaica South is the area which was split up among the census tracts
which covered the areas.
The sharp swings in prices for this area are probably
due more to the diversity of housing stock than to other considerations.
There
are buildings scattered throughout the area which are in need of major repair.
The owner-occupancy rates are widely divergent, but sale prices and residential
mortgage committments are similar.
There is nothing in the market data to
suggent that different factors are influencing the market in the two areas.
G.
Woodbourne
White City.
The annual number of sales in White City has dropped from
25 in 1964 to 3 in 1975.
At the same time, sale prices have risen.
sale price in 1964 was $18,200; in 1975-76 it was $22,200.
new owners was found to live at the newly-acquired property.
The average
Only 1 of the 6
And only 1 new
owner was able to attract mortgage funding.
Forest Hills.
When the data for 1964 and 1974 was collected, Forest Hills
was not designated as a sub-market separate from White City.
In 1975-76 the
average sale price was $21,600, and the highest price was $51,000.
the new owners occupy the property they have recently purchased.
A25
51% of