ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the absorption of capital by the housing sector and real estate more generally was one of the defining characteristics of the current age of financialization, exceptionally inflating the balance sheet of households and banks in the process. It discusses the histories and geographies of financialized capitalism and its relations to debt, housing, mortgage markets and the spatial fix. The chapter discusses the existing approaches to the interaction between global finance and national systems of housing finance to understand the role of housing in the variations of financialized capitalism. It argues that a body of literature centered on comparative housing markets, mostly policy-driven and dominated by econometric methods that emphasize the critical role of the variety of systems of housing finance. The chapter focuses on housing-centered processes of financialization, needs to be complemented with in-depth historical-institutional analyses that not only focus on the development of the welfare state but also on national politics vis-a-vis international finance.
