What Is Redlining?

What is redlining?

The word sounds like history. The maps are not. The line a federal appraiser drew around a block in 1935 still tracks, with unsettling precision, the value of the homes on it, the temperature on its sidewalks, and the lifespan of the people inside. This page follows that line from the drafting table to the present day.

How the Maps Were Drawn

Redlining started as a government program with a paper trail. During the New Deal, a federal agency called the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation set out to map credit risk in American cities. Between 1935 and 1940 it surveyed more than 200 of them.

Surveyors sorted every neighborhood into four grades. Grade A, “Best,” was outlined in green. Grade B, “Still Desirable,” in blue. Grade C, “Definitely Declining,” in yellow. Grade D, “Hazardous,” in red.

The single strongest predictor of a red grade was race. A neighborhood with Black residents, or sometimes immigrant or Jewish residents, was marked down regardless of the condition of its homes. Surveyor notes described “infiltration” and “undesirable population” in plain language.

The grades then steered real money. The Federal Housing Administration wrote those judgments into its underwriting rules, and its manual warned against “inharmonious racial groups.” Between 1945 and 1959, when federally backed mortgages built the white middle class, African Americans received less than 2% of them.

1. Federal agency, 1935-1940 Home Owners' Loan Corporation Graded 200+ cities A through D by perceived risk, driven by race ↓ Maps handed to the FHA and private lenders
2. Federal underwriter Federal Housing Administration Wrote the grades into its underwriting manual; warned against "inharmonious racial groups" ↓ FHA-backed banks follow the maps
3. Lenders Banks and the GI Bill pipeline Approved loans in green areas, denied them in red ones ↓ Less than 2% of 1945-1959 FHA loans went to Black families
4. Outcome A red neighborhood, capital-starved for decades No loans means no repairs, no equity, no new owners. The disinvestment compounds.

Sources: Mapping Inequality; Federal Reserve History; Hanchett/Gelfand.

A red grade cut a neighborhood off from the home mortgage, the single largest source of American wealth, for a generation. Owners could not borrow to repair or sell, buyers could not get in, and the disinvestment compounded. Those effects did not stay in the past.

The legal history runs in two halves. The maps and the laws that built redlining came first, from 1933 to 1968. The laws and enforcement meant to undo it came later, from 1968 to today, and the most recent chapter is a retreat.

1. 1933 HOLC created The New Deal agency that would draw the grade maps is established.
2. 1934 FHA writes race into underwriting Its manual warns lenders against "inharmonious racial groups."
3. 1935-40 The maps are drawn The government grades 200+ cities A through D, coloring the riskiest red, mostly by race.
4. 1968 Fair Housing Act Redlining is outlawed, but the maps are never redrawn.
5. 1974-77 ECOA, HMDA, and the CRA Lending discrimination is banned and banks are required to lend where they take deposits.
6. 2021 DOJ Combating Redlining Initiative A coordinated federal push wins 16 settlements and $153M+ in relief by 2025.
7. 2025 The rollback begins The DOJ moves to end its redlining consent orders early; courts terminate five. (source)

Sources: Mapping Inequality; Federal Reserve History; DOJ; National Mortgage News.

From the redlining maps to the enforcement rollback, 1933-2026: 1933 — HOLC created (The New Deal agency that would draw the grade maps is established.). 1934 — FHA writes race into underwriting (Its manual warns lenders against "inharmonious racial groups."). 1935-40 — The maps are drawn (The government grades 200+ cities A through D, coloring the riskiest red, mostly by race.). 1968 — Fair Housing Act (Redlining is outlawed, but the maps are never redrawn.). 1974-77 — ECOA, HMDA, and the CRA (Lending discrimination is banned and banks are required to lend where they take deposits.). 2021 — DOJ Combating Redlining Initiative (A coordinated federal push wins 16 settlements and $153M+ in relief by 2025.). 2025 — The rollback begins (The DOJ moves to end its redlining consent orders early; courts terminate five.).

The dates split cleanly. 1933: the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation is created. 1934-1940: the FHA writes race into its underwriting and the government grades more than 200 cities, coloring the riskiest red. 1968: the Fair Housing Act outlaws redlining, but no one redraws the maps, so the marked neighborhoods stay marked. 1974 to 1977: the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and the Community Reinvestment Act ban lending discrimination and force banks to lend where they take deposits. 2021: the Justice Department’s Combating Redlining Initiative wins 16 settlements. 2025: the government begins dismantling those settlements, and courts end five of them early.

The Map That Still Decides Your Block

The Fair Housing Act made redlining illegal in 1968. The maps were never redrawn, so the neighborhoods they marked stayed marked. Here is the throughline competitors leave out: take a single city, find a block that was graded red in the 1930s, and pull today’s data for it. The grade predicts the present.

1. D Richmond, VA · a formerly red neighborhood Grade D (Hazardous) · graded red in the 1930s
   →
   Today Life expectancy runs about 21 years shorter than a nearby formerly-green neighborhood (source)
2. D Baltimore, MD · red and yellow zones Grade D (Hazardous) · graded red and yellow
   →
   Today Residents live roughly 5 years less than those in the highest-graded areas (source)
3. D Across 108 cities · red vs green areas Grade D (Hazardous) · graded red in the 1930s
   →
   Today Run about 5°F hotter on summer days, with less tree canopy and more pavement (source)
4. D Nationwide · formerly red neighborhoods Grade D (Hazardous) · graded red in the 1930s
   →
   Today Receive 2.5x fewer mortgage loans than formerly green areas today (source)

Sources: NCRC; Hoffman et al. 2020; Redfin.

The 1930s grade still predicts the block in 2026: Richmond, VA, a formerly red neighborhood was HOLC grade D (Hazardous). graded red in the 1930s. Today: Life expectancy runs about 21 years shorter than a nearby formerly-green neighborhood. Baltimore, MD, red and yellow zones was HOLC grade D (Hazardous). graded red and yellow. Today: Residents live roughly 5 years less than those in the highest-graded areas. Across 108 cities, red vs green areas was HOLC grade D (Hazardous). graded red in the 1930s. Today: Run about 5°F hotter on summer days, with less tree canopy and more pavement. Nationwide, formerly red neighborhoods was HOLC grade D (Hazardous). graded red in the 1930s. Today: Receive 2.5x fewer mortgage loans than formerly green areas today.

None of these are accidents. The trees, the loans, the temperature, and the lifespan trace to the same cause. Decades of capital flowed into the green neighborhoods and skipped the red ones.

Why Redlined Blocks Run Hotter

The most physical effect is heat. Formerly redlined neighborhoods are measurably hotter than the green-graded ones across town, and the reason is concrete. Decades of investment bought one set of neighborhoods shade trees and parks. The other set got highways, warehouses, and asphalt.

A 2020 study of 108 cities found that formerly red-graded areas average a surface temperature about 2.6°C (5°F) higher than formerly green ones. The gap holds in city after city.

The mechanism is tree canopy and pavement. Green-graded neighborhoods were planted and maintained for generations. Red-graded ones were paved, zoned for industry, and routed through by interstates, which strip away the canopy that cools a street and add the surfaces that store heat.

The same redlined areas carry a heavier pollution load. A 2022 study found higher levels of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter in formerly redlined neighborhoods, the legacy of industrial zoning and highway routing that green neighborhoods were spared.

The Wealth the Maps Stripped Out

Homeownership is how most American families build wealth, and redlining cut red neighborhoods out of it for the decades when that wealth compounded fastest. The gap did not close when the practice became illegal. It kept growing.

A homeowner in a formerly redlined neighborhood gained $212,023 less in home equity between 1980 and 2017 than a homeowner in a greenlined one, about 52% less. That is per household, in neighborhoods where Black families are nearly five times more likely to own than in greenlined areas.

Home equity gained, 1980-2017, redlined vs greenlined neighborhoods

Period	Value
Greenlined home	Full gain
Redlined home	52% less
Change	-$212,023

The undervaluing continues at the appraisal. Homes in majority-Black neighborhoods are appraised $48,000 lower per home on average, a cumulative $156 billion in lost value, even after controlling for the home and the neighborhood’s amenities. A 2022 follow-up found homes in Black neighborhoods nearly twice as likely to be appraised below their contract price.

Shorter Lives on the Red Side of the Line

The most disturbing outcome is the one measured in years of life. The NCRC compared 1930s grade maps with current public-health data and found that life expectancy in formerly redlined neighborhoods runs about 3.6 years shorter than in the highest-graded ones. Census-tract data sharpens it: 80.5 years in grade-A tracts, 75.7 in grade-D, a gap of nearly five years.

The health gap is not mysterious. Formerly redlined neighborhoods carry higher rates of asthma, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, and kidney disease, and they were COVID-19 hotspots. The hotter summers, dirtier air, fewer parks, and thinner medical investment documented above all land on the same blocks at once. Cancer screening rates are lower there too, so the diseases are caught later.

The Enforcement Now Being Undone

Redlining did not end in 1968. Banks kept drawing the lines quietly, and the federal government kept catching some of them. In October 2021 the Justice Department launched its Combating Redlining Initiative with the OCC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

By early 2025 the initiative had reached 16 settlements and secured more than $153 million in relief for communities of color, money the government projected would unlock over $1 billion in new lending. The largest single settlement, $31 million, was with Los Angeles-based City National Bank in 2023.

That enforcement is now being dismantled. Starting in late May 2025, the Justice Department began asking federal courts to end its redlining consent orders early, arguing the banks had already met their terms. Courts terminated five Biden-era orders in 2025. Of the 15 settlements reached, roughly 10 remain active.

Fair-housing groups are fighting back in court, and winning some. The National Fair Housing Alliance intervened in the case against ESSA Bank, accused of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods around Philadelphia, and a federal court rejected the government’s bid to end that order early.

Reverse Redlining and the Algorithm

The discrimination did not only retreat. It also flipped. Reverse redlining is the mirror image of the original: instead of denying loans to a minority neighborhood, lenders flood it with predatory, high-cost ones. The classic redliner refused to lend. The reverse redliner lends on the worst possible terms.

It drove the subprime crisis, when brokers steered Black and Latino homeowners into higher-cost loans than their credit justified, and it survived the move to apps and algorithms. A University of California, Berkeley study found that Black and Latino borrowers pay more in interest on home loans than white borrowers with comparable credit, on the order of hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

The hope was that automated lending would be neutral. It was not. The same study found that algorithmic lenders still charged Black and Latino borrowers more. A model trained on a discriminatory past learns to repeat it, and it does so without a loan officer in the room to blame.

What Closes the Gap

The problem is documented down to the census tract, which means the fixes can be targeted just as precisely. None of them are theoretical. Each already exists in law or practice.

The throughline of the solutions matches the throughline of the harm. The damage was concentrated by geography, so the remedies are too. The fight now is less about inventing new tools than about keeping the ones that exist funded, enforced, and aimed at the blocks the maps marked.

Where Redlining Ends and Ordinary Risk Begins

Redlining is a specific thing, and calling everything redlining weakens the cases that are. A few distinctions hold the line.

Not every denied loan is redlining. A lender can decline an individual borrower for a thin credit file or a low income. Redlining is when the lender writes off a whole neighborhood because of who lives there, regardless of any one applicant’s credit.

It is about geography, not your credit score. Classic redlining denies the area. Reverse redlining targets the area. Both turn on the neighborhood’s racial makeup, not the individual’s qualifications, which is exactly what makes them illegal.

The HOLC maps did not invent segregation. Private lenders, racial covenants, and local zoning were already at work. The maps hardened the pattern with federal money and a paper record, which is why we can trace it so precisely now.

Most residents of red-graded areas in the 1930s were white. The grade tracked perceived racial risk, not just current population, and the lasting harm concentrated on Black neighborhoods. Precision on this point is what makes the evidence hold up.

Correlation is not the whole story, and the studies know it. Researchers control for housing age, vacancy, and income, and the 90-year-old grade still predicts the outcome. Redlining is one powerful force among several, including highways and urban renewal, not a single magic cause.

Frequently asked questions

Is redlining illegal? Yes. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed housing discrimination, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 banned it in lending. The practice still happens, which is why the Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau bring redlining cases against lenders today.

What is the difference between redlining and reverse redlining? Redlining denies loans and services to a neighborhood because of its racial makeup. Reverse redlining targets the same neighborhoods with predatory, high-cost loans. One withholds credit, the other floods it on bad terms. Both are illegal forms of discrimination by geography.

Where can I see the original redlining maps? The University of Richmond’s Mapping Inequality project has digitized the original Home Owners’ Loan Corporation maps and surveyor notes for more than 200 cities. You can find your own neighborhood’s 1930s grade there.

Did redlining only affect Black neighborhoods? The maps downgraded neighborhoods with Black residents most severely, but also penalized immigrant, Jewish, and working-class areas. The deepest and most lasting harm concentrated on Black communities, which is where the present-day outcome gaps are widest.

What you can do

1. Tell Congress to keep fair-lending enforcement funded. The DOJ and CFPB tools that win relief for redlined neighborhoods only work if they are staffed and used. Ask your representatives by name to protect fair-lending enforcement and oppose the early termination of redlining consent orders. Use the letter below.
2. Push your bank and city on Special Purpose Credit Programs. These programs let lenders legally direct credit to historically redlined areas. Ask local banks and your city’s housing office whether they offer one, and push them to.
3. Look up your own neighborhood’s grade. Find your block on Mapping Inequality and check it against today’s tree canopy, home values, and lending data. The maps make the abstract local. Bring what you find to a city council or zoning meeting.
4. Support fair-housing groups that intervene in court. Organizations like the National Fair Housing Alliance have blocked the early termination of redlining settlements. They are the backstop when federal enforcement retreats.