Decades of Disinvestment: Redlining, Segregation & Current Lending Patterns

Join Dr. Bruce Mitchell, NCRC Principal Researcher, at the Obama Presidential Center as he explores how the color-coded maps used by federal officials from the 1930s through the 1960s continue to shape mortgage lending and where economic opportunity flows today.

Over the past four decades, neighborhoods labeled “hazardous” more than 80 years ago have received approximately 3,000 fewer mortgages than neighborhoods graded “best,” with lending declining steadily across each lower grade, decade after decade. Even after accounting for differences in housing stock, vacancy rates, and owner occupancy, these disparities persist alongside today’s racial wealth gap, where Black households hold roughly $15 in wealth for every $100 held by White households.