ABSTRACT

About half of the rental properties in the U.S. are owned by small- to medium-sized investors, many of whom enter the trade with little prior experience. This paper considers the factors that motivate these amateurs to purchase real estate in high-poverty neighborhoods—an investment that involves high levels of financial risk for the inexperienced. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 93 investors in three real estate markets—Baltimore, Maryland; Dallas, Texas; and Cleveland, Ohio—this paper finds that amateurs decide to become investors due to anxieties regarding their financial position, specifically professional dissatisfaction and a lack of retirement savings. Real estate is particularly appealing because it provides a cultural repertoire aligned with middle class aspirations of independence and self-sufficiency. Consequentially, these ideologies motivate and legitimize strategies of action that allow for sometimes imprudent investments, presenting risks to the investors themselves and the communities in which they invest.

摘要

美国大约一半的租赁房产由中小型投资者拥有，其中许多人进入该行业之前几乎没有经验。本文考虑了促使这些业余爱好者在高度贫困社区购买房地产的因素——对于缺乏经验的人来说，这项投资涉及高水平的财务风险。基于对三个房地产市场（马里兰州巴尔的摩；德克萨斯州达拉斯；和俄亥俄州克利夫兰——本文发现，业余爱好者决定成为投资者是因为对其财务状况的焦虑，特别是对职业的不满和缺乏退休储蓄。房地产特别有吸引力，因为它提供了符合中产阶级独立和自给自足愿望的文化组合。因此，