Home Mortgage Lenders and Earthquake Hazards

A survey of major home mortgage lenders and real -property appraisers in California and the Puget Sound region shows a general inattention to earthquake hazards in appraisal and lending policy. This inattention is demonstrated not only in responses to survey questions, but also in a lack of differentiation in lending decisions between properties within and outside surface-fault rupture zones. As posited by organizational theory however, important variants exist in this overall policy, almost always resulting from the efforts of individuals within large lending organization

Public Response to Earthquake Hazard Information

Consumer protection legislation has been based on the assumptions that people prefer to avoid risks and that they make rational decisions given a bounded field of information. Mandated disclosure of information about environmental hazards in limited areas should therefore result in the avoidance of such areas by homebuyers or the adoption of mitigation measures subsequent to the move. The response of California homebuyers to mandated disclosure of the location of special studies zones or surface fault rupture districts was negligible, both because of the failure of the law to specify rigorous disclosure procedures and also because the law was based on the assumption that the mere provision of information will result in a predictable and rational behavioral response

Racial and Ethnic Influences on Real Estate Agent Practices

A 1982 survey of Anglo, Black, and Hispanic real estate agents in the Denver metropolitan area suggested that race and ethnicity influence the attitudes and business practices of real estate agents. Minority real estate agents tended to gain listings from minority sellers and in areas of minority concentrations. They also have closer business relationships with other agents of the same minority group. One possible indicator of their integration into the dominant community, however, is the finding that minority agents were more likely to select personal residences in non- minority neighborhoods

Real Estate Agents and Geographical Information

Real estate agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, were surveyed to ascertain the nature and degree of any geographical bias in their evaluations of urban neighborhoods. Three hypotheses were confirmed: first, that realty companies cover limited portions of the housing market; second, that overall evaluations by realtors correspond to the vacancy pattern; and third, that individual real estate agents have highly localized views of which areas are appropriate for certain types of home buyers. These empirical findings have implications for the viewpoint that the metropolitan area acts as the information frame or \u27whole\u27 in which intra-urban migration can be analyzed

The Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography Catastrophic Earthquake Insurance: Patterns of Adoption

In California, earthquake insurance is not mandatory and is relatively expensive. Investment in earthquake insurance is one indicator of individual/household response to hazards in the urban environment. This paper reports on a series of three surveys of California homeowners undertaken in 1989, 1990, and 1993 in Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties. The surveys addressed six hypotheses: rates of insurance subscription have increased; socioeconomc and demographic characteristics distinguish the insured from the uninsured; insurance purchase is systematically related to geophysical risk at the home site; perceived risk is a predictor of insurance purchase; experience with an earthquake increases perceived risk and motivates insurance purchase; and mandatory noncatastrophic insurance increases the propensity to buy nonmandatory catastrophic insurance. The surveys yielded three primary findings. First, the proportion of households subscribing to earthquake insurance increased steadily, from about 5 percent in 1973 to approximately 40 percent in Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties in 1989 and 50 percent in those counties in 1993. Second, the geographic pattern of insurance subscription has consistently been unrelated to relative geophysical risk: those in areas susceptible to high degrees of ground shaking are no more likely to purchase insurance than those in less risky areas. Third, the strongest and most consistent predictor of earthquake insurance purchase is perceived vulnerability: those who perceive that their homes or communities are likely to experience earthquake damage are more likely to purchase earthquake insurance. Future research should involve cross-cultural studies, specifically addressed at questions of the universality of the empirical relationships between personality, demographic-economic status, and insurance purchase, or, more broadly, earthquake-mitigation behavior

Spatial Segmentation of the Urban Housing Market

Neighborhood correlates of house price changes for the San Francisco Bay area are analyzed for the metropolitan area as a whole, and also for sub­ markets defined on the basis of real estate board jurisdictions, the racial­ ethnic composition of neighborhoods, and the average house price of neighborhoods. Regression analysis reveals different patterns of correlates for the market and submarket models, and an F-test indicates that the board of realtors submarket model is superior to the other models in accounting for variance in price change. These findings suggest that sub­ market models should be used in the analysis of housing, but only if submarkets are carefully defined to bound areas which are likely to show discrete attribute-price structures

Urban Earthquake Hazards: the Impact of Culture on Perceived Risk and Response in the USA and Japan

This paper reports on a major survey of earthquake hazard response in neighbourhoods in Tokyo-Yokohama and Los Angeles, two metropolitan areas of highly industrialized nations which routinely exchange ideas in order to try to learn from the policies, practices and experiences of the other. Survey findings showed many similarities in hazard response and preferred public policy, but also important contrasts in behaviour, and significant differences in the factors associated with these behaviours. The findings suggest caution in bi-national policy-sharing unless such sharing is preceded by a careful study of local cultural contexts

International Telephone Calls: Global and Regional Patterns

This study examines patterns in international telephone communications, documenting a close relationship between international call volume aggregated by nation and indicators of global connectivity including volume of international trade, tourism and migration. In addition, the analysis documents the existence of a set of national “communities” of callers. The clear orientation of large portions of the world to former colonial powers (e.g., West Africa and North Africa to France), and the separation of the Muslim Middle East and the Chinese-speaking nations of East and Southeast Asia from other calling communities suggest the importance of continuing historic and cultural influences on information flows