From Boom to Bubble: How Finance Built the New Chicago (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780226294483)

An unprecedented historical, sociological, and geographic look at how property markets change and fail--and how that affects cities.

In From Boom to Bubble, Rachel Weber debunks the idea that booms occur only when cities are growing and innovating. Instead, she argues, even in cities experiencing employment and population decline, developers rush to erect new office towers and apartment buildings when they have financial incentives to do so. Focusing on the main causes of overbuilding during the early 2000s, Weber documents the case of Chicago's "Millennial Boom," showing that the Loop's expansion was a response to global and local pressures to produce new assets. An influx of cheap cash, made available through the use of complex financial instruments, helped transform what started as a boom grounded in modest occupant demand into a speculative bubble, where pricing and supply had only tenuous connections to the market. From Boom to Bubble is an innovative look at how property markets change and fail--and how that affects cities.

Author: Rachel Weber
ISBN-10: 022629448X
ISBN-13: 9780226294483
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 11/20/2015
Pages: 296
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2016