Homer Hoyt
Encyclopedia
Homer Hoyt was a land economist
, a real estate appraiser
, and a real estate
consultant. In his long and accomplished life, he conducted path-breaking research on land economics, developed an influential approach to the analysis of neighborhoods and housing markets, refined local area economic analysis, and was a major figure in the development of suburban shopping centers in the decades after World War II
. His sector model
of land use
remains one of his most well-known contributions to urban scholarship.
Hoyt attended the University of Kansas
from which he graduated at the age of 18 with a Phi Beta Kappa key. He also earned a J.D. in 1918 and a Ph.D. in economics
in 1933, both from the University of Chicago
. Between 1918 and 1933, he taught economics, business law, and accounting at various colleges. His dissertation, One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago, led to numerous opportunities to work as a real estate consultant. In 1934, he joined the Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) as Principal Housing Economist and later taught as a visiting professor at MIT
and Columbia University
before opening a consulting firm in 1946. He maintained an active practice consulting on real estate development
(with a specialization in suburban shopping malls) and economic analysis. Hoyt also invested in real estate, out of which came the money to establish the Homer Hoyt Institute.
Hoyt made significant contributions in five areas. First, he developed a novel approach to the historical analysis of land values that utilized primary data and mapping techniques.
Second, he applied this methodology
during his time at the FHA to assessing the viability of neighborhoods and designing strategies for intervention. His approach combined multiple factors (e.g., condition of dwelling, transportation access, proportion of non-whites) using overlay mapping. The approach enabled the FHA to assess the risk a neighborhood posed for mortgage
lenders. The methodology was used by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation
(HOLC) to produce Residential Security Area maps for use by lenders. At the time, mixed race neighborhoods were considered unstable and the corresponding attitude towards lending came to be known as red-lining because of the color used on the maps to designate a high-risk neighborhood. Out of this work emerged the sector theory that replaced Ernest Burgess
's concentric zone theory
of urban morphology
.
Third, Hoyt refined the method of economic base analysis
that enabled municipal and state governments to assess potential population growth
based on the mix of basic and non-basic employment within their economies. Fourth, Hoyt's ability to analyze profitable locations for shopping centers and to estimate their likely revenues made him the country's premier consultant on these matters. Lastly, Hoyt wrote frequently on urban development from a comparative perspective, producing some of the earliest writings in this vein.
Hoyt was not only a consultant but an active contributor to the profession of real estate appraising and to land economics and real estate analysis. The textbook, Principles of Real Estate co-authored with Arthur Weimer, went through seven editions and he published in a variety of professional and academic journal
s. His legacy continues with the Homer Hoyt Institute that supports real estate research, provides advanced studies for Weimer School fellows, and works to support careers in real estate.
produced by academia. His desire was to bring academia and industry together for the enrichment of both. Towards this end, Hoyt decided to underwrite the formation of the Homer Hoyt Institute in 1967. Income from the sale of his Florida
property was used to support research at the American University
as part of a consortium of 35 universities. It was later shifted to the creation of an advanced studies institute named in honor of Dean Arthur M. Weimer (1910–1987), Hoyt’s closest friend and co-author of a longstanding leading textbook
in real estate. By January 2009, the Institute had admitted over 120 candidates who are national and international leaders in academic and industry research in real estate and related areas to the status of Weimer School Fellows. The Advanced Studies Institute, which oversees the Weimer School, was renamed the Maury Seldin Advanced Studies Institute in Real Estate and Land Economics when Dr. Seldin, the founding president of the Homer Hoyt Institute, retired after twenty-five years of service.
A division of the Homer Hoyt Institute is known as the Hoyt Fellows. It is the industry counterpart of the Weimer School Fellows. The Institute has also formed the Hoyt Institute for Real Estate, which is oriented to those seeking a career in this field.
More information on these Hoyt Group activities is available on the Hoyt Group website: http://www.hoyt.org
Land economy
Land economy is the study of law, economics, and the environment. The University of Cambridge and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology are currently the only universities in the world offering such a degree at undergraduate level....
, a real estate appraiser
Real estate appraisal
Real estate appraisal, property valuation or land valuation is the process of valuing real property. The value usually sought is the property's Market Value. Appraisals are needed because compared to, say, corporate stock, real estate transactions occur very infrequently...
, and a real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
consultant. In his long and accomplished life, he conducted path-breaking research on land economics, developed an influential approach to the analysis of neighborhoods and housing markets, refined local area economic analysis, and was a major figure in the development of suburban shopping centers in the decades after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His sector model
Sector model
The sector model, also known as the Hoyt model, is a model of urban land use proposed in 1939 by economist Homer Hoyt. It is a modification of the concentric zone model of city development. The benefits of the application of this model include the fact it allows for an outward progression of growth...
of land use
Land use
Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...
remains one of his most well-known contributions to urban scholarship.
Hoyt attended the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
from which he graduated at the age of 18 with a Phi Beta Kappa key. He also earned a J.D. in 1918 and a Ph.D. in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
in 1933, both from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. Between 1918 and 1933, he taught economics, business law, and accounting at various colleges. His dissertation, One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago, led to numerous opportunities to work as a real estate consultant. In 1934, he joined the Federal Housing Administration
Federal Housing Administration
The Federal Housing Administration is a United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. It insured loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building and home buying...
(FHA) as Principal Housing Economist and later taught as a visiting professor at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
before opening a consulting firm in 1946. He maintained an active practice consulting on real estate development
Real estate development
Real estate development, or Property Development, is a multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved land or parcels to others...
(with a specialization in suburban shopping malls) and economic analysis. Hoyt also invested in real estate, out of which came the money to establish the Homer Hoyt Institute.
Hoyt made significant contributions in five areas. First, he developed a novel approach to the historical analysis of land values that utilized primary data and mapping techniques.
Second, he applied this methodology
Methodology
Methodology is generally a guideline for solving a problem, with specificcomponents such as phases, tasks, methods, techniques and tools . It can be defined also as follows:...
during his time at the FHA to assessing the viability of neighborhoods and designing strategies for intervention. His approach combined multiple factors (e.g., condition of dwelling, transportation access, proportion of non-whites) using overlay mapping. The approach enabled the FHA to assess the risk a neighborhood posed for mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
lenders. The methodology was used by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation
Home Owners' Loan Corporation
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation was a New Deal agency established in 1933 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its purpose was to refinance home mortgages currently in default to prevent foreclosure. This was accomplished by selling bonds to lenders in...
(HOLC) to produce Residential Security Area maps for use by lenders. At the time, mixed race neighborhoods were considered unstable and the corresponding attitude towards lending came to be known as red-lining because of the color used on the maps to designate a high-risk neighborhood. Out of this work emerged the sector theory that replaced Ernest Burgess
Ernest Burgess
Ernest Watson Burgess was an urban sociologist born in Tilbury, Ontario. He was educated at Kingfisher College in Oklahoma and continued graduate studies in sociology at the University of Chicago. In 1916, he returned to the University of Chicago, as a faculty member. Burgess was hired as an...
's concentric zone theory
Concentric zone model
The Concentric zone model also known as the Burgess model is one of the earliest theoretical models to explain urban social structures. It was created by sociologist Ernest Burgess in 1924. -The model:...
of urban morphology
Urban morphology
Urban morphology is the study of the form of human settlements and the process of their formation and transformation. The study seeks to understand the spatial structure and character of a metropolitan area, city, town or village by examining the patterns of its component parts and the process of...
.
Third, Hoyt refined the method of economic base analysis
Economic base analysis
Economic base analysis was developed by Robert Murray Haig in his work on the Regional Plan of New York in 1928. Briefly, activities in an area divide into two categories – basic and non-basic. Basic industries are those exporting from the region and bringing wealth from outside; non-basic ...
that enabled municipal and state governments to assess potential population growth
Population growth
Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
based on the mix of basic and non-basic employment within their economies. Fourth, Hoyt's ability to analyze profitable locations for shopping centers and to estimate their likely revenues made him the country's premier consultant on these matters. Lastly, Hoyt wrote frequently on urban development from a comparative perspective, producing some of the earliest writings in this vein.
Hoyt was not only a consultant but an active contributor to the profession of real estate appraising and to land economics and real estate analysis. The textbook, Principles of Real Estate co-authored with Arthur Weimer, went through seven editions and he published in a variety of professional and academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
s. His legacy continues with the Homer Hoyt Institute that supports real estate research, provides advanced studies for Weimer School fellows, and works to support careers in real estate.
The Homer Hoyt Institute
Hoyt, in addition to his theories, had a great interest in researchResearch
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
produced by academia. His desire was to bring academia and industry together for the enrichment of both. Towards this end, Hoyt decided to underwrite the formation of the Homer Hoyt Institute in 1967. Income from the sale of his Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
property was used to support research at the American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
as part of a consortium of 35 universities. It was later shifted to the creation of an advanced studies institute named in honor of Dean Arthur M. Weimer (1910–1987), Hoyt’s closest friend and co-author of a longstanding leading textbook
Textbook
A textbook or coursebook is a manual of instruction in any branch of study. Textbooks are produced according to the demands of educational institutions...
in real estate. By January 2009, the Institute had admitted over 120 candidates who are national and international leaders in academic and industry research in real estate and related areas to the status of Weimer School Fellows. The Advanced Studies Institute, which oversees the Weimer School, was renamed the Maury Seldin Advanced Studies Institute in Real Estate and Land Economics when Dr. Seldin, the founding president of the Homer Hoyt Institute, retired after twenty-five years of service.
A division of the Homer Hoyt Institute is known as the Hoyt Fellows. It is the industry counterpart of the Weimer School Fellows. The Institute has also formed the Hoyt Institute for Real Estate, which is oriented to those seeking a career in this field.
More information on these Hoyt Group activities is available on the Hoyt Group website: http://www.hoyt.org
Selected publications
- According to Hoyt; Fifty Years of Homer Hoyt / Articles on law, real estate cycle, economic base, sector theory, shopping centers, urban growth, 1916-1966. [Washington, D.C., 1966]
- Autobiography of Homer Hoyt; Michael Hoyt and Jean Hoyt. No city: photocopy, 2005. Available at Avery Library, Columbia University.
- "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge," Journal of Planning History 6, 3 (2007):248-271 by Robert Beauregard.
- The Structure and Growth of Residential Areas in American Cities; Homer Hoyt. Washington DC: Federal Housing Administration, 1939.
- One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago; Homer Hoyt. New York : Arno Press, 1970, [c1933]
External links
- http://www.hoyt.org/ Non-profit research and educational foundation