NYU Furman Center Speaker Series
Please join the NYU Furman Center for a lunchtime presentation with:
Max Besbris
Assistant Professor of Sociology
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Drawing on a mixed-methods study of real estate transactions in New York from 2012-2017, I show how interactions between real estate agents and prospective homebuyers altered buyers' stated price preferences. Specifically, buyers were consistently upsold though rates of upselling varied dramatically across buyers. The variance was the product of different interactional patterns between agents and buyers at different price points. In other words, agents and buyers interacted in distinct ways depending on the buyers' initially stated price ceiling and these differences matter for how much buyers ended up paying. I discuss how these findings--particularly upselling--matter for understanding residential segregation, neighborhood inequality, and other housing market trends.
About the Presenter:
Max Besbris is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is affiliated with the Center for Demography and Ecology and the Center for Financial Security. He is currently Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. His research investigates how individuals make choices in economic markets, particularly the housing market, and how these choices reproduce spatial and demographic inequalities. He holds a BA in Sociology and a BA in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley and a MA and PhD in Sociology from NYU. Upsold is his first book.
This event is open to members of the NYU community. Please register using the RSVP link above.