Maintenance Effort and the Professional Landlord: An Empirical Critique of Theories of Neighborhood Decline

Most theories of neighborhood decline assume a reduction in expenditures for repair and maintenance of housing. Findings reported in this paper suggest that this view is overly simplistic. Based on analysis of 127 low-income rental properties in the city of St. Louis, Missouri during the 1960s and early 1970s, the authors find that in most cases expenditures for repair and maintenance increased in the face of declining rents. While not totally discounting the standard theories, this paper sets forth an alternative description of low-income property management in neighborhoods undergoing decline. Copyright American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association.