The Housing Crisis that Never Went Away
Some US cities have still not recovered from the 2008 property meltdown
Business Daily · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
The property market in some US cities has still not recovered from the 2008 meltdown, while others may be seeing the return of risky subprime lending.
Vishala Sri-Pathma travels to Slavic Village in Cleveland, Ohio, which became a by-word for the mass repossessions that followed the bursting of the housing bubble a decade ago. In the nearby Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, where property prices remain 70% below their peak and many houses are still boarded up, Anita Gardner has set up a community group to help residents with housing problems.
Meanwhile on the other side of the nation, Austin in Texas is the fastest growing city in the US, thanks to an oil and tech boom. But Edward Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute explains why there are fears that the loosely regulated federal housing loans that are fuelling this boom could be the next subprime crisis in the making.
(Picture: A resident walks past a boarded up building in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood in Cleveland, Ohio; Credit: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images)