The role of housing in capitalism and the unequal distribution of wealth and privilege in American cities

Since 2007, the United States and much of the world have been in a financial and economic crisis of unparalleled proportions. Housing values ​​in the country fell at a rate not seen since the Great Depression, credit markets have seized up and a sharp perception of high risk and uncertainty has emerged. Over the past few years, the housing sector has maintained exponential growth, but now is in decline due to the large losses suffered by investors in the subprime housing market. Thousands of people, especially minorities and the elderly, have lost their homes due to these lending practices that, in fact, replaced discriminatory rejection with discriminatory lending. The subprime mortgage sector in these communities is directly linked to predatory exploitation. However, the so-called Great Recession must be understood not only as a real estate crisis, but in the financial system itself. Mortgages helped to link the urban to global financial market and put the city in center of the new economy. In this sense, mortgages could be considered the representative product of the post-industrial economy and the commodification of the space illustrates the overcoming of the use value by the exchange value within the city. In this article, I will explore the role of housing in capitalism and the role of State in the reproducibility of capital by making possible the expansion of the market activity, while little or no benefit goes to the masses of people. This article argued that policies of exception have produced and intensified a geography of exclusion within the American cities.