Title: What Is Redlining and How Does It Impact Communities Today? | Ally
Headings: Let’s Talk: What Is Redlining and How Does It Affect the Homeownership Gap Today?
Let’s Talk: What Is Redlining and How Does It Affect the Homeownership Gap Today?
What is redlining?
What’s the history behind redlining laws?
But redlining is illegal now. How does it affect people today?
Let’s Act: How can you help close the homeownership gap?
Volunteer
Donate
Learn and Lead
Our Commitment

Content: Those 34 years occurred during a period of historic economic growth in the U.S. — and homeownership was denied to many people of color for all of that time. But redlining is illegal now. How does it affect people today? Since redlined areas were overtly denied opportunities to develop, it left those neighborhoods and residents falling behind other neighborhoods, where businesses, schools, and housing (including property prices) grew. Even though redlining as a practice has been illegal since the passing of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, the build-up of suppressed growth has made it so communities of color still feel the effects today. According to a study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 74 percent of the neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s are low-to-moderate income neighborhoods today, and 64 percent are also majority minority neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the Black and white homeownership gap remains as wide as it was at the start of the 20 th century. Discriminatory practices, like redlining, blockbusting, and predatory lending, led to a lower rate of appreciation for real estate in redlined neighborhoods, which paved the way to an increased wealth gap between Black and white families. A Redfin study found that, over the last 40 years, a typical homeowner in a previously redlined neighborhood has gained 52 percent less in property value increase than a typical homeowner in a neighborhood that was not historically redlined. There are also racial disparities in housing appreciation across home mortgage borrowers of all income levels — but especially among Black borrowers whose homes are still frequently undervalued.