Underwater
A cautionary tale of Wall Street's push to turn homes into assets, Underwater is a powerful, incisive story that chronicles the crash and its aftermath from a fresh perspective―the forgotten, middle-class homeowner. In this deeply personal story, Dezember shows how decisions on Wall Street and in Washington played out on his street in a corner of the Sunbelt that was convulsed by the foreclosure crisis.
Praise for Underwater
"If you think you've heard the housing bust story, you haven't until you read Dezember's account of the single-family home rental industry that sprung up as a result."
— Chris Wetterich, Cincinnati Business Courier
"Ryan Dezember’s study of home buying and selling in America is frightening, enlightening, and infuriating."
— Don Noble, Alabama Public Radio
"Well told. What Dezember does have working for him are some wonderfully flamboyant characters and a knack for telling a good story."
— New York Times
"A unique and incisive portrait of the fallout from the 2008 housing crash that combines investigative journalism with his experiences as an 'underwater' homeowner. This well-informed and wryly humorous account humanizes the story of the financial meltdown without sacrificing big-picture analysis."
— Publishers Weekly