Redlining's long shadow
The 1938 mortgage maps, and what they still predict.
The 1938 maps
In 1938 federal appraisers graded every New York neighborhood for mortgage risk, from A, green, to D, red. Areas with Black or many immigrant residents were routinely marked D.
Bedford-Stuyvesant, 1940
Much of Bed-Stuy was graded D. In 1940 about 44,000 African Americans were already mapped here, the largest group.
Bedford-Stuyvesant, 1960
Without access to ordinary mortgages, white families left for the suburbs and few could buy in. By 1960, 93% of those mapped here were African American.
Today
Eighty years on, areas graded A still have the most homeowners: about half their homes are owner-occupied, against about a quarter in areas graded D.
Where New York Came From: a map of NYC immigration and ancestry, 1910 to today