Lecture marks the long-running national observance of Geography Awareness Week, which raises public understanding of the significance of geographic perspectives in daily life.

Dr. McCanless examines how a distinct, retail-investor-driven form of housing financialization has taken root in Memphis, Tennessee. He does this in two parts. The first shows how geographers can use property records to answer the seemingly simple question of who owns the city? The second follows that question down the rabbit hole, where he shows how the historical trajectory of racial capitalism in Memphis, coupled with the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, has funneled rental housing into the hands of out-of-state retail investors from high-cost, coastal states such as New York or California. Dr. McCanless argues that these investors, or “guy(s) from California” as they were often referred to in interviews, are motivated by a different set of incentives than the city's corporate landlords, often prioritizing immediate “cash flow”, or passive income, in spatializing investment within neighborhood level rent gaps opened by Memphis’ racialized geography of home price appreciation. Critically, these investments are facilitated by tax programs such as the 1031 exchange, which amplified cash buying and allowed investors to defer capital gains when reterritorializing capital from high-cost, coastal markets. Dr. McCanless concludes by considering how geography and the geographer’s toolkit can help address urgent public questions at the intersection of finance, property, and sustainability in mid-sized cities like Memphis, including the ongoing environmental contamination and emerging health hazards tied to the construction of xAI’s data center in South Memphis..