Eric Seymour

Eric Seymour, Ph.D. joined the Bloustein School in July 2019. He was most recently a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University’s Population Studies and Training Center, where he worked on the spatial demography of urban population loss. Prior to that, he received his PhD from the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Michigan. Eric’s primary research interests include housing and neighborhood dynamics under conditions of chronic job and population losses, including the role of urban policy in influencing the location and pace of disinvestment. His current research examines transformations in “post-crisis” housing markets and their implications for the health and housing insecurity of low-income and minority groups. This work looks at investors in formerly foreclosed single-family housing and their business practices, including the use of problematic home sale arrangements like land contracts and the expansion of rental property holdings by exploitative landlords. Eric is also engaged in ongoing research on evictions, focusing on the intersection of opportunistic property investment and the constrained housing options of low-income renters.