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In the 1950s, speculators combed white neighborhoods, purchasing property from whites and then reselling them to blacks—at double to quadruple market value. Even worse, they sold these overpriced properties "on contract," that is, on the installment plan. Black buyers made a down payment and were responsible for taxes, insurance, maintenance, and interest, but could lose the property if they missed even one payment. They were forced to accept such brutal terms, since in Chicago as nationally, most banks refused to loan to them; if they wanted to buy at all, they had to buy from speculators.
Given the speculators' inflated prices, missed payments were common, which meant that speculators often evicted their black buyers and resold their properties over and over, growing rich off the life savings of black Chicagoans while impoverishing whole sections of the city. This, not white flight, is why many black neighborhoods in Chicago, and throughout the country, turned into slums.
