Most of the text in this description originally appeared on the Mapping Inequality Website. Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, Richard Marciano, Nathan Connolly, et al., “Mapping Inequality,” American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers, "HOLC staff members, using data and evaluations organized by local real estate professionals--lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers--in each city, assigned grades to residential neighborhoods that reflected their "mortgage security" that would then be visualized on color-coded maps. Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of "A"--colored green on the maps--were deemed minimal risks for banks and other mortgage lenders when they were determining who should received loans and which areas in the city were safe investments. Those receiving the lowest grade of "D," colored red, were considered "hazardous." Conservative, responsible lenders, in HOLC judgment, would "refuse to make loans in these areas [or] only on a conservative basis." HOLC created area descriptions to help to organize the data they used to assign the grades. Among that information was the neighborhood's quality of housing, the recent history of sale and rent values, and, crucially, the racial and ethnic identity and class of residents that served as the basis of the neighborhood's grade. These maps and their accompanying documentation helped set the rules for nearly a century of real estate practice. " HOLC agents grading cities through this program largely "adopted a consistently white, elite standpoint or perspective. HOLC assumed and insisted that the residency of African Americans and immigrants, as well as working-class whites, compromised the values of homes and the security of mortgages. In this they followed the guidelines set forth by Frederick Babcock, the central figure in early twentieth-century real estate appraisal standards, in his Underwriting Manual: "The infiltration of inharmonious racial groups ... tend to lower the levels of land values and to lessen the desirability of residential areas." These grades were a tool for redlining: making it difficult or impossible for people in certain areas to access mortgage financing and thus become homeowners. Redlining directed both public and private capital to native-born white families and away from African American and immigrant families. As homeownership was arguably the most significant means of intergenerational wealth building in the United States in the twentieth century, these redlining practices from eight decades ago had long-term effects in creating wealth inequalities that we still see today. Mapping Inequality, we hope, will allow and encourage you to grapple with this history of government policies contributing to inequality." Data was copied from the Mapping Inequality Website for communities in Western Pennsylvania where data was available. These communities include Altoona, Erie, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and New Castle. Data included original and georectified images, scans of the neighborhood descriptions, and digital map layers. Data here was downloaded on June 9, 2020.

Most of the text in this description originally appeared on the Mapping Inequality Website. Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, Richard Marciano, Nathan Connolly, et al., “Mapping Inequality,” American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers,

"HOLC staff members, using data and evaluations organized by local real estate professionals--lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers--in each city, assigned grades to residential neighborhoods that reflected their "mortgage security" that would then be visualized on color-coded maps. Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of "A"--colored green on the maps--were deemed minimal risks for banks and other mortgage lenders when they were determining who should received loans and which areas in the city were safe investments. Those receiving the lowest grade of "D," colored red, were considered "hazardous."

Conservative, responsible lenders, in HOLC judgment, would "refuse to make loans in these areas [or] only on a conservative basis." HOLC created area descriptions to help to organize the data they used to assign the grades. Among that information was the neighborhood's quality of housing, the recent history of sale and rent values, and, crucially, the racial and ethnic identity and class of residents that served as the basis of the neighborhood's grade. These maps and their accompanying documentation helped set the rules for nearly a century of real estate practice. "

HOLC agents grading cities through this program largely "adopted a consistently white, elite standpoint or perspective. HOLC assumed and insisted that the residency of African Americans and immigrants, as well as working-class whites, compromised the values of homes and the security of mortgages. In this they followed the guidelines set forth by Frederick Babcock, the central figure in early twentieth-century real estate appraisal standards, in his Underwriting Manual: "The infiltration of inharmonious racial groups ... tend to lower the levels of land values and to lessen the desirability of residential areas."

These grades were a tool for redlining: making it difficult or impossible for people in certain areas to access mortgage financing and thus become homeowners. Redlining directed both public and private capital to native-born white families and away from African American and immigrant families. As homeownership was arguably the most significant means of intergenerational wealth building in the United States in the twentieth century, these redlining practices from eight decades ago had long-term effects in creating wealth inequalities that we still see today. Mapping Inequality, we hope, will allow and encourage you to grapple with this history of government policies contributing to inequality."

Data was copied from the Mapping Inequality Website for communities in Western Pennsylvania where data was available. These communities include Altoona, Erie, Johnstown, Pittsburgh, and New Castle. Data included original and georectified images, scans of the neighborhood descriptions, and digital map layers. Data here was downloaded on June 9, 2020.

The practice of redlining was codified by a series of maps created as part of the New Deal by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, which evaluated the mortgage lending risk of neighborhoods.

Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) Redlining maps were developed between 1935-1940 to denote credit-worthiness and risk on neighborhood and metropolitan levels. This in turn produced a map of racial inequalities across the United States. Data clipped to focus on Gateway Cities.KeyGreen is A "Best"Blue is B "Still Desirable"Yellow is C "Definitely Declining"Red is D "Hazardous" (Redline)

This study uses a boundary design and propensity score methods to study the effects of the 1930s-era HOLC “redlining” maps on the long-run trajectories of urban neighborhoods. The maps led to reduced homeownership rates, house values, and rents and increased racial segregation in later decades. A comparison on either side of a city-level population cutoff that determined whether maps were drawn finds broadly similar conclusions. These results suggest the HOLC maps had meaningful and lasting effects on the development of urban neighborhoods through reduced credit access and subsequent disinvestment.

HOLC, in consultation with local real estate professionals and local policymakers, categorized neighborhoods in hundreds of cities in the United States into four types: Best (A), Still Desirable (B), Definitely Declining (C), and Hazardous (D). So-called “hazardous” zones were colored red on these maps. These zones were then used to approve or deny credit-lending and mortgage-backing by banks and the Federal Housing Administration. The descriptions provided by HOLC in their reports rely heavily on race and ethnicity as critical elements in assigning these grades. According to the University of Richmond's Mapping Inequality project, “Arguably the HOLC agents in the other two hundred-plus cities graded through this program adopted a consistently white, elite standpoint or perspective. HOLC assumed and insisted that the residency of African-Americans and immigrants, as well as working-class whites, compromised the values of homes and the security of mortgages” (Mapping Inequality). HOLC’s classifications were one contributory factor in underinvestment in a neighborhood, and generally, although not always, closed off many, especially people of color, from the credit necessary to purchase their own homes.The 15 Worcester neighborhood zones included on the map are ordered from Zone 1 (categorized as "Best") to Zone 15, with the highest numbered zones included in the least desirable "Hazardous" category. The exact descriptions used by HOLC to classify the neighborhoods in 1936 are included, and therefore may contain some disturbing language. Many scholars and institutions have focused their efforts on tracking the effects the 1930s redlining maps still have today. The Mapping Inequality project by the University of Richmond has collected and analyzed a comprehensive set of redlining maps for more than 200 cities in the U.S. One of their conclusions is that, for most cities, there are striking and persistent geographic similarities between redlined zones and currently vulnerable areas even after eighty years. See the Mapping Inequality website for more information (https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining).This digitized version prepared by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau was based on a scanned copy from the National Archives, obtained thanks to Dr. Robert Nelson, the Digital Scholarship Lab, and the rest of his team at Mapping Inequality at the University of Richmond. Dr. Nelson worked with The Research Bureau directly to track it down in the Archives.Informing Worcester is the City of Worcester's open data portal where interested parties can obtain public information at no cost.

Abstract

The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a U.S. federal agency that graded mortgage investment risk of neighborhoods across the U.S. between 1935 and 1940. HOLC residential security maps standardized neighborhood risk appraisal methods that included race and ethnicity, pioneering the institutional logic of residential “redlining.”

Methodology

The Mapping Inequality Project digitized the HOLC mortgage security risk maps from the 1930s. We overlaid the HOLC maps with 2010 and 2020 census tracts for 142 cities across the U.S. using ArcGIS and determined the proportion of HOLC residential security grades contained within the boundaries. We assigned a numerical value to each HOLC risk category as follows: 1 for “A” grade, 2 for “B” grade, 3 for “C” grade, and 4 for “D” grade. We calculated a historic redlining score from the summed proportion of HOLC residential security grades multiplied by a weighting factor based on area within each census tract. A higher score means greater redlining of the census tract. Continuous historic redlining score, assessing the degree of “redlining,” as well as 4 equal interval divisions of redlining, can be linked to existing data sources by census tract identifier allowing for one form of structural racism in the housing market to be assessed with a variety of outcomes.

The 2010 files are set to census 2010 tract boundaries. The 2020 files use the new census 2020 tract boundaries, reflecting the increase in the number of tracts from 12,888 in 2010, to 13,488 in 2020. Use the 2010 HRS with decennial census 2010 or ACS 2010-2019 data. As of publication (10/15/2020) decennial census 2020 data for the P1 (population) and H1 (housing) files are available from census.

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) was created in the New Deal Era and trained many home appraisers in the 1930s. The HOLC created a neighborhood ranking system infamously known today as redlining. Local real estate developers and appraisers in over 200 cities assigned grades to residential neighborhoods. These maps and neighborhood ratings set the rules for decades of real estate practices. The grades ranged from A to D. A was traditionally colored in green, B was traditionally colored in blue, C was traditionally colored in yellow, and D was traditionally colored in red. A (Best): Always upper- or upper-middle-class White neighborhoods that HOLC defined as posing minimal risk for banks and other mortgage lenders, as they were "ethnically homogeneous" and had room to be further developed.B (Still Desirable): Generally nearly or completely White, U.S. -born neighborhoods that HOLC defined as "still desirable" and sound investments for mortgage lenders.C (Declining): Areas where the residents were often working-class and/or first or second generation immigrants from Europe. These areas often lacked utilities and were characterized by older building stock.D (Hazardous): Areas here often received this grade because they were "infiltrated" with "undesirable populations" such as Jewish, Asian, Mexican, and Black families. These areas were more likely to be close to industrial areas and to have older housing.Banks received federal backing to lend money for mortgages based on these grades. Many banks simply refused to lend to areas with the lowest grade, making it impossible for people in many areas to become homeowners. While this type of neighborhood classification is no longer legal thanks to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 (which was passed in large part due to the activism and work of the NAACP and other groups), the effects of disinvestment due to redlining are still observable today. For example, the health and wealth of neighborhoods in Chicago today can be traced back to redlining (Chicago Tribune). In addition to formerly redlined neighborhoods having fewer resources such as quality schools, access to fresh foods, and health care facilities, new research from the Science Museum of Virginia finds a link between urban heat islands and redlining (Hoffman, et al., 2020). This layer comes out of that work, specifically from University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab. More information on sources and digitization process can be found on the Data and Download and About pages. NOTE: This map has been updated as of 1/16/24 to use a newer version of the data layer which contains more cities than it previously did. As mentioned above, over 200 cities were redlined and therefore this is not a complete dataset of every city that experienced redlining by the HOLC in the 1930s. Map opens in Sacramento, CA. Use bookmarks or the search bar to get to other cities.Cities included in this mapAlabama: Birmingham, Mobile, MontgomeryArizona: PhoenixArkansas: Arkadelphia, Batesville, Camden, Conway, El Dorado, Fort Smith, Little Rock, Russellville, TexarkanaCalifornia: Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, StocktonColorado: Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins, Fort Morgan, Grand Junction, Greeley, Longmont, PuebloConnecticut: Bridgeport and Fairfield; Hartford; New Britain; New Haven; Stamford, Darien, and New Canaan; WaterburyFlorida: Crestview, Daytona Beach, DeFuniak Springs, DeLand, Jacksonville, Miami, New Smyrna, Orlando, Pensacola, St. Petersburg, TampaGeorgia: Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon, SavannahIowa: Boone, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Sioux City, WaterlooIllinois: Aurora, Chicago, Decatur, East St. Louis, Joliet, Peoria, Rockford, SpringfieldIndiana: Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lake County Gary, Muncie, South Bend, Terre HauteKansas: Atchison, Greater Kansas City, Junction City, Topeka, WichitaKentucky: Covington, Lexington, LouisvilleLouisiana: New Orleans, ShreveportMaine: Augusta, Boothbay, Portland, Sanford, WatervilleMaryland: BaltimoreMassachusetts: Arlington, Belmont, Boston, Braintree, Brockton, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Dedham, Everett, Fall River, Fitchburg, Haverhill, Holyoke Chicopee, Lawrence, Lexington, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Milton, Needham, New Bedford, Newton, Pittsfield, Quincy, Revere, Salem, Saugus, Somerville, Springfield, Waltham, Watertown, Winchester, Winthrop, WorcesterMichigan: Battle Creek, Bay City, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Muskegon, Pontiac, Saginaw, ToledoMinnesota: Austin, Duluth, Mankato, Minneapolis, Rochester, Staples, St. Cloud, St. PaulMississippi: JacksonMissouri: Cape Girardeau, Carthage, Greater Kansas City, Joplin, Springfield, St. Joseph, St. LouisNorth Carolina: Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Elizabeth City, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, Greensboro, Hendersonville, High Point, New Bern, Rocky Mount, Statesville, Winston-SalemNorth Dakota: Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, WillistonNebraska: Lincoln, OmahaNew Hampshire: ManchesterNew Jersey: Atlantic City, Bergen County, Camden, Essex County, Monmouth, Passaic County, Perth Amboy, Trenton, Union CountyNew York: Albany, Binghamton/Johnson City, Bronx, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Elmira, Jamestown, Lower Westchester County, Manhattan, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Queens, Rochester, Schenectady, Staten Island, Syracuse, Troy, UticaOhio: Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Hamilton, Lima, Lorain, Portsmouth, Springfield, Toledo, Warren, YoungstownOklahoma: Ada, Alva, Enid, Miami Ottawa County, Muskogee, Norman, Oklahoma City, South McAlester, TulsaOregon: PortlandPennsylvania: Allentown, Altoona, Bethlehem, Chester, Erie, Harrisburg, Johnstown, Lancaster, McKeesport, New Castle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre, YorkRhode Island: Pawtucket & Central Falls, Providence, WoonsocketSouth Carolina: Aiken, Charleston, Columbia, Greater Anderson, Greater Greensville, Orangeburg, Rock Hill, Spartanburg, SumterSouth Dakota: Aberdeen, Huron, Milbank, Mitchell, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Vermillion, WatertownTennessee: Chattanooga, Elizabethton, Erwin, Greenville, Johnson City, Knoxville, Memphis, NashvilleTexas: Amarillo, Austin, Beaumont, Dallas, El Paso, Forth Worth, Galveston, Houston, Port Arthur, San Antonio, Waco, Wichita FallsUtah: Ogden, Salt Lake CityVirginia: Bristol, Danville, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Phoebus, Richmond, Roanoke, StauntonVermont: Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Montpelier, Newport City, Poultney, Rutland, Springfield, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury, WindsorWashington: Seattle, Spokane, TacomaWisconsin: Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee County, Oshkosh, RacineWest Virginia: Charleston, Huntington, WheelingAn example of a map produced by the HOLC of Philadelphia:

In 1934, the Federal Housing Administration created a financial mortgage system that rated mortgage risks for properties based on various criteria but was centered on race and ethnicity. This rating system propagated racial segregation that in many ways persists today.

The FHA Underwriting Handbook incorporated color-coded real estate investment maps that classified neighborhoods based on assumptions about a community, primarily their racial and ethnic composition, and not on the financial ability of the residents to satisfy the obligations of a mortgage loan. These maps, created by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) were used to determine where mortgages could or could not be issued.

The neighborhoods were categoriezed into four types:
Type A : Best - newer or areas stil in demand
Type B : Still Desirable - areas expected to remain stable for many years
Type C : Definitely Declining - areas in transition
Type D : Hazardous - older areas considered risky

Neighborhoods shaded red were deemed too hazardous for federally-back loans. These "red-lined" neighborhoods were where most African American residents lived.

Many have argued tha the HOLC maps institutionalized discriminating lending practices which not only perpetuated racial segregation but also led to neighborhood disinvestment. Today, neighborhoods classified as Type C and Type D in 2934 make up the majority of neighborhoods in 2016 that are Areas of Concentrated Poverty where 50% or More are People of Color.

This is the replication package for "The HOLC Maps: How Race and Poverty Influenced Real Estate Professionals’ Evaluation of Lending Risk in the 1930s"

In the 1930's and 1940's during the New Deal the Home Owner's Loan Corporation (HOLC) a government agency, recruited mortgage lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers in nearly 250 cities to create maps that color-coded credit worthiness and risk on neighborhood and metropolitan levels. These maps and their accompanying documentation helped set the rules for nearly a half century of real estate practice. They have also served as critical evidence in countless urban studies in the fields of history, sociology, economics, and law.

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation was established in 1933 by the U.S Congress to refinance mortgages in default and prevent foreclosures. In 1935 they created residential security maps for 239 cities to indicate the level of security for real-estate investments. The maps were graded such as the newest areas, which were considered desirable for lending received a "Type A" grade. These areas were primarily wealthy suburbs on the outskirts of town. Still Desirable neighborhoods were given a "Type B" grade and older neighborhoods were given a "Type C" grade and considered Declining. Lastly "Type D" neighborhoods were regarded as most risky for mortgage lending.If you are citing Mapping Inequality or acknowledge the source of any of the following data, we recommend the following format using the Chicago Manual of Style.Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, Richard Marciano, Nathan Connolly, et al., “Mapping Inequality,” American Panorama, ed. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers, accessed September 16, 2020, https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/[YOUR VIEW].

How Does 1930-1940 Land Use Policy Affect Our Communities Today, and Can Qualified Opportunity Zones Be Used to Remedy the Problem?HOLC Redlining Practicesn the 1930s-1940s, the U.S. government created the Home Owners' Loan Corporation to provide loans to families at risk of foreclosing on their mortgages. HOLC created maps of cities with populations of 40,000 or above to grade areas on the perceived risk of loan default. The maps contained racist evaluations of land tracts. Although there is no evidence of HOLC loans being denied to people of color, their assessments were shared with the FHA, National Board of Realtors, and Lenders. There is substantial evidence that these organizations used a similar grading technique to deny home loans to non-white families. This historic lending practice of denying loans and economic opportunities to people of color and economic disadvantage is called "Redlining," due to the fact that the lowest-grade HOLC areas were outlined in red. This map contains the HOLC grading layer, provided by the Esri Living Atlas, in which Graded maps for 149 U.S. cities can be found. Map grades are opaque red, yellow, green, and blue to designate HOLC grading levels on the map.Current Community Indicators of DisadvantageIn 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14008, which did several things. One of these things was to create a screening tool to identify communities disproportionately impacted by climate change and economic hardship. The purpose of this tool, the Justice 40 Initiative, is to identify communities in need of economic and environmental assistance. It was created in 2022 by the Council on Environmental Quality. In the map, this layer is the Justice 40 Initiative Layer. Disadvantaged areas are shaded in transparent grey/blue.Qualified Opportunity ZonesThe 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act designates thousands of "Opportunity Zones" in which investment is incentivized to help create jobs and strengthen low-income areas. Under this act, states may designate up to 1/4 of low-income census tracts as Opportunity Zones. However, not all are located in low-income areas. In 2022, the Opportunity Zones Transparency, Extension, and Improvement Act was introduced in Congress but failed to become law. The Qualified Opportunity Zones layer designates Opportunity Zones in transparent pink shading. Questions to consider:What areas on the map show overlap between formerly HOLC Redlined grades and current Justice 40 "Disadvantaged" evaluations? How could past discriminatory practices have shaped communities into what we see today?What "Disadvantaged" areas overlap with "Qualified Opportunity Zones"? Is the Opportunity Zone program being well utilized to boost economic and social well-being in disadvantaged communities?This map contains 3 layers:1. HOLC Graded areas 1930-19402. Justice 40 Initiative -Climate and Justice Screening Tool for Disadvantaged Communities (2022)3. Qualified Opportunity Zones in effect now, created in 2017All data links for this map were taken from the Esri Living Atlas, with additional information from the University of Richmond Mapping Inequality Project.

Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps illustrated patterns of segregation in United States cites in the 1930s. As the causes and drivers of demographic and land use segregation vary over years, these maps provide an important spatial lens in determining how patterns of segregation spatially and temporally developed during the course of the past century. Using a high-resolution land-use time series (1937-2018) of Denver Colorado USA, in conjunction with 80 years of U.S. Census data, we found divergent land-use and demographics patterns across HOLC categories were both pre-existent to the establishment of HOLC mapping, and continued to develop over time. Over this period, areas deemed “declining” or “hazardous” had more diverse land use compared “desirable” areas. “Desirable” areas were dominated by one land-use type (single-family residential), while single-family residential diminished in prominence in the “declining/hazardous” areas. This divergence became more established decades after HOLC mapping, with impact to racial metrics and low-income households. We found changes in these demographic patterns also occurred between 2000 and 2019, highlighting how processes like gentrification can develop from both rapid demographic and land-use changes. This study demonstrates how the legacy of urban segregation develops over decades and can simultaneously persist in some neighborhoods while providing openings for fast-paced gentrification in others.

Between 1935 and 1940 the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) classified the neighborhoods of 239 cities according to their perceived investment risk. This practice has since been referred to as “redlining,” as the neighborhoods classified as being the highest risk for investment were often colored red on the resultant maps. The Mapping Inequality project, a collaboration of faculty at the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, the University of Maryland’s Digital Curation Innovation Center, Virginia Tech, and Johns Hopkins University has digitized and georectified all 239 HOLC maps and made them publicly available, including the HOLC map of Boston from 1938. The Boston Area Research Initiative has coordinated (i.e., spatial joined) the districts from the 1938 HOLC map of Boston with census tracts from the 2010 U.S. Census. This dataset contains the original shapefile and the spatially joined tract-level data.

Georectified HOLC map of greater Boston.

This map provides a spatial illustration of different means by which racial segregation was historically reinforced across the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The map focuses largely on data from the 1940s, and includes the following data layers:Population by Race - Data based on 1940 US Census that shows the percentage of the non-white population at the census tract level. This data was downloaded from NHGIS, with a spatial join performed to combine the census table and historic tracts (Citation: Steven Manson, Jonathan Schroeder, David Van Riper, Katherine Knowles, Tracy Kugler, Finn Roberts, and Steven Ruggles, IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 18.0. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS. 2023).HOLC Map Zones by Number of Covenants - This layer displays a summary of the number of racially exclusive covenants within the area of zones designated by grade on HOLC redlining maps. The polygons of each grade zone were digitized by the Mapping Inequality Project (University of Richmond Digital Scholarship Lab) and are symbolized by the grade colors on the original maps. The data on racially exclusive covenants in Twin Cities neighborhoods was downloaded from the Mapping Prejudice Project (University of Minnesota) and is symbolized by the size of each feature.Greenbook Locations - This layer displays locations included on Greenbook travel guides from the 1940s, which indicate safe businesses for African American travelers to American Cities. This data comes from a service layer created by Shana Crosson (University of Minnesota).This spatial extent of this map is limited to the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. It was created as part of an in-class exercise in February of 2024.

This is an outdated version of the spatial data for Mapping Inequality. Please use this new and improved hosted feature layer for redlining areas.

The Federal government's Home Owners' Loan Corporation between 1935 and 1940, used data and evaluations organized by local real estate professionals--lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers--in each city, assigned grades to residential neighborhoods that reflected their "mortgage security" that would then be visualized on color-coded maps. Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of "A"--colored green on the maps--were deemed minimal risks for banks and other mortgage lenders when they were determining who should received loans and which areas in the city were safe investments. Those receiving the lowest grade of "D," colored red, were considered "hazardous."

Conservative, responsible lenders, in HOLC judgment, would "refuse to make loans in these areas [or] only on a conservative basis." HOLC created area descriptions to help to organize the data they used to assign the grades. Among that information was the neighborhood's quality of housing, the recent history of sale and rent values, and, crucially, the racial and ethnic identity and class of residents that served as the basis of the neighborhood's grade. These maps and their accompanying documentation helped set the rules for nearly a century of real estate practice that has systematically disenfranchised communities of color.

Percent changes to demographic metrics in Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) categories. Education and racial data start in 1940 and income data start in 1960.