Jessica Herrmann
January 27, 2009
Assignment #2
Intro to GIS
Topic Overview
For my GIS assignment I would like to continue the work I am doing on my senior honors thesis. My thesis explores the foreclosure crisis in Boston, focusing specifically on bank-owned properties. I am using data that I collected last summer, which includes the exterior condition of the properties based on visits to the properties. In my thesis I am working to understand the relationship between the neighborhood characteristics of the
Census Block Group where the properties are located and the maintenance of the property. In addition, I want to study the spillover effect of the exterior condition of the bank-owned properties on the values of surrounding homes.
The foreclosure crisis is having a profound impact on the nation as a whole. Foreclosures are overwhelming located in areas with significant minority populations and low-income residents. The presence of foreclosures has been shown to decrease the property values of surrounding homes and the clustering of multiple foreclosures in small neighborhoods creates a compounding effect. The result has been a dramatic decline in various minority and low-income communities around the country. In my GIS project I want to study the geographic clustering of these bank-owned properties in the Boston area.
Spatial/Geographic Questions:
1.
How are bank-owned properties clustered in the Boston area? Are they primarily located in low-income and minority communities?
2.
Which neighborhoods are likely to experience the greatest decline in property values as a result of bank-owned properties? Which neighborhoods are most in need of outside assistance and support?
3.
Do declines in property values over the course of the last six months match with where the bank-owned properties were located during the period between
December 2008 and August 2009 (the period during which the properties in my data set were bank-owned)?
4.
Are there community outreach groups located in the areas that are being hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis?
References:
The External Costs of Foreclosure: The Impact of Single-Family Mortgage
Foreclosures on Property Values Dan Immergluck and Geoff Smith
This article explores the impact of foreclosures on surrounding property values and finds that a foreclosure within a quarter and an eighth of a mile from a property will decrease that property’s value by 0.9 percent.
Subprime Mortgages: What, Where and to Whom?
Mayer and Pence

Mayer and Pence (2008) find that subprime mortgages are most heavily concentrated in areas with significant Black and Hispanic populations.
Paying More for the American Dream: The Subprime Shakeout and Its Impact on
Lower-Income and Minority Communities The Woodstock Institute
This article looks at where subprime loans are originated, since subprime loans are most likely to end in foreclosure. . Their research found that communities with a higher proportion of minority groups had a greater number of subprime mortgages than communities with a lower proportion of minority groups.
Targeting Foreclosure Interventions: An Analysis of Neighborhood
Characteristics Associated with High Foreclosure Rates in Two Minnesota
Counties Michael Grover, Laura Smith, Richard M. Todd
Grover, Smith and Todd (2007) look to identify characteristics that are common in communities with high foreclosure rates. The authors discover that the change in the percent of minorities in the population between 1990 and 2000 is an important variable in their regression
Neighborhood Patterns of Subprime Lending: Evidence from Disparate Cities
Paul Calem, Jonathan Hershaff and Susan Wachter
This piece looks at the impact of both individual and neighborhood characteristics on the likelihood of loans originated in these areas to be subprime.
The Impact of Single-family Mortgage Foreclosures on Neighborhood Crime
Immgerluck and Smith
This article examines the relationship between foreclosures and neighborhood crime rates.
Data Sources:
As I stated earlier, I have addresses for the bank-owned properties included in my thesis data. In addition, I have been using data from the 2000 Census for neighborhood characteristics, including the income levels and prevalence of minority populations. I have aggregated this data to the Census Block Group level. All of this data is free for me to use.