Blockbusting was a business process of U.S. real estate agents and building developers to convince white property owners to sell their house at low prices out of fear that racial minorities would soon be moving into the neighborhood. The agents then sold the houses at much higher prices to black families desperate to escape the overcrowded ghettos. Blockbusting became possible after the legislative and judicial dismantling of legally protected racially segregated real estate practices after World War II, but by the 1980s it largely disappeared as a business practice after changes in law and the real estate market.