ABSTRACT
After the Soviet government collapsed in Russia in 1992, the new government introduced the Housing Sector Reform Project, which aimed to transform the housing sector into a market. A joint project of the Russian and American governments, the HSRP conceived of markets according to the American model of private ownership and securitized mortgage finance. Elements of a market did emerge: mass privatization of socialist housing created a nation of homeowners, and the legal and financial infrastructure for market transactions and mortgage lending now exists. However, privatization was much more successful than marketization, creating a housing system I call “property without markets,” in which housing is privately owned but not fully commodified. Limited rental and mortgage markets render housing wealth illiquid and make it difficult to convert earnings at work into better conditions at home.
