April 30, 2026, WJLA, Historic Redlining Continues To Color Mortgage Odds, Wealth Opportunities Today
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made redlining illegal, but the old red lines still influence who can and can’t get a mortgage today.
The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), a nonprofit organization focused on underserved communities, analyzed Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 1991 and 2021. Neighborhoods once marked “hazardous” on HOLC maps received 2.5 times fewer loans than areas once graded as “best.” The disparity remains even after accounting for vacancy, owner-occupancy rates and housing age.
“Formerly redlined communities had reduced mortgage investment for over a century,” says Bruce Mitchell, a principal researcher at the NCRC. “The impact was especially deep in redlined Black neighborhoods, where mortgage availability was further suppressed until the most recent decade.”
Even today, homeownership rates in formerly “hazardous” areas are still roughly half those in greenlined neighborhoods, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
“Mortgage markets are backward-looking, relying on historical sales to determine present values,” says Jason Richardson, senior director of research at the NCRC.
