Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impact of Digital Real Estate Technologies on Housing and Home in the US

该项目将调查数字房地产技术的发展如何影响美国城市房地产交易的社会和经济层面。房地产交易越来越多地受到数字房地产平台整理的数据和向购房者展示数据的算法的影响。这种数字转型可能会影响金融工具的可用性，以及购房者在进行房地产交易过程中获得的知识。重要的是，在如何为城市之间和城市内部的购房者处理和整理数据方面，可能存在差异和相关的社会正义问题。这项研究的目的是了解房地产交易数字化的不同影响，以及城市政府和私营部门之间的伙伴关系在房地产市场中的作用。这项研究将探索基于网络的房地产平台上数据的设计和使用如何为住房和住宅创造新的社会和经济关系。该项目将通过借鉴城市地理学的概念和理论，解决这些平台是否创造了更广泛的获得负担得起的住房的机会，特别是在种族和性别方面。该项目将具体询问数字房地产平台如何在住房金融化中发挥作用，数字房地产平台的用户从这些平台获得了哪些知识，以及来自不同社会人口群体的用户是否有不同的体验。将利用与房地产交易过程中的关键参与者的访谈和焦点小组，了解数字房地产平台的设计和开发。档案研究和参与者观察都将被用来另外三角测量访谈和焦点小组的发现。结果将通过社交媒体和播客向学术社区传播。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate how the development of digital real estate technologies have affected social and economic dimensions of real estate transactions in US cities. Real estate transactions are increasingly affected by the data curated by digital real estate platforms and the algorithms underlying the presentation of data to home buyers. This digital transformation potentially affects the availability of financial instruments and the knowledge that home buyers acquire in the process of making real estate transactions. Importantly there may be differences and social justice issues relevant in how data are processed and curated for home buyers between and within cities. The objective of this research is to understand the disparate impacts of the digitalization of real estate transactions as well as the role of partnerships between city governments and the private sector in real estate markets. This research will explore how the design and use of data on web based real estate platforms creates new social and economic relationships to housing and home. This project will address whether these platforms create wider access to affordable housing, especially in terms of race and gender by drawing on concepts and theories from urban geography. The project will specifically ask how digital real estate platforms play a role in the financialization of housing, what knowledge users of digital real estate platforms acquire from these platforms and whether there are differential experiences by users from different socio-demographic groups. Interviews and focus groups with key actors in the real estate transaction process will be used to gain an understanding of the design and development of digital real estate platforms. Both archival research and participant observation will be used to additionally triangulate the findings from interviews and focus groups. Results will be disseminated to scholarly communities, through social media and through a podcast.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.