Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The practice of persuading white homeowners to sell quickly and usually at a loss by appealing to the fear that nonwhite groups will move into the neighborhood, causing property values to decline. The property is then resold at inflated prices.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US A technique used to encourage people to sell their property by giving the impression that a neighborhood is changing for the worse, especially by implying a change in its racial makeup
- adjective Having the characteristics of a
blockbuster ; hugelysuccessful .
Etymologies
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Examples
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Just 50 years ago, so-called "blockbusting" led African-Americans into tight, white, ethno-centric neighborhoods of big cities such as Chicago and New York.
The new immigration battleground Peter Galuszka 2010
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As early as the 1970s, Strupp explained, "blockbusting" practices developed as FHA loans were used by banks to get owners to sell quick, with the banks then reselling the homes to minorities at inflated prices.
Congressional Hearing Looks into Wells Fargo Predatory Lending 2009
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I really think you need to look into how white flight was encouraged by suburban developers through conscious tactics like "blockbusting".
"Jake was treated like a second-class citizen because he was IZ." Ann Althouse 2006
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I really think you need to look into how white flight was encouraged by suburban developers through conscious tactics like "blockbusting".
"Jake was treated like a second-class citizen because he was IZ." Ann Althouse 2006
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It managed to avoid the kind of blockbusting queues that greeted the launch of the iPhone in 2007 by allowing customers to pre-order the iPad online from March 12, offering the choice of home delivery or in-store collection.
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With England also heavily present in the ICC Test match team of the year, where Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann and James Anderson were also selected, the evening represented something of a coronation for Andy Flower, whose transformation of the muddled and occasionally timid collection of talented individuals he inherited into the current blockbusting Test match force and one-day pretenders has been remarkable.
England's Jonathan Trott and Alastair Cook hit sixes at ICC awards 2011
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The bigger the blockbusting characters live, the greater the fall that will at some point afflict them, while much of their success has to be won by a struggle against the odds that few of us would ever cheerfully embrace.
Blockbusters and the Tao Te Ching « Tales from the Reading Room 2010
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This retrospective explores both sides of Orozco's story: one part poet of the ephemeral, one part blockbusting art star.
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Convinced that she had what it took to be a blockbusting star, Arista's influential president, Clive Davis, personally oversaw the recording of her first album.
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Better still, India are over here in August for a blockbusting multiformat tour.
IPL4 is the ideal accompaniment to the parochial intrigue of ECC112 | Barney Ronay 2011
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Some are the invisible product of historical forces including zoning regulations, mortgage redlining, the boundaries of 124 school districts, housing prices, and racial steering and blockbusting — a tactic used by real estate agents to drive up sales, and commissions, by inducing blacks to move into a white neighborhood and then warning whites that property values were about to plummet.
Undercover investigation reveals evidence of unequal treatment by real estate agents Anthony Carrozzo 2021
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He also devoted six minutes to blockbusting, the practice of inducing panic sales by warning homeowners that people of a different race or ethnicity were moving in.
Undercover investigation reveals evidence of unequal treatment by real estate agents jamesstewart 2021
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