The National Archives Catalog lists 2,496 HOLC residential security maps available for public download. Analyses that overlay those boundaries report mortgage lending volumes 1.5 times lower in redlined zones along with foreclosure likelihoods up to 10 percentage points higher for exposed groups. Model estimates place the resulting gaps in household wealth and home equity in the billions of dollars across affected regions.
Key Takeaways
- 2,496 number of currently-available HOLC residential security maps in the National Archives Catalog (made available for public download)
- 1939 year when the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) created its residential security maps under the federal housing finance effort
- 3 main rating bands (A, B, C) explicitly used in HOLC's residential security maps as part of the grading scheme
- 25%+ share of recent home-purchase applicants who received higher-cost credit outcomes after neighborhood risk designations in historical mortgage discrimination research cohorts
- 2010-2015 period, in a Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis of HOLC-influenced patterns, where HOLC map boundaries were used to evaluate present-day socioeconomic outcomes
- 1.5x multiplier: mortgage lending was substantially lower in redlined areas in lender behavior analyses tied to historical HOLC grades
- 2018 year: redlining exposure is associated with lower property values; model-based estimates in peer-reviewed work quantify valuation gaps in percentage terms (e.g., mid-single-digit declines)
- 2018 year: mortgage rate disparities tied to discrimination risk can amount to measurable dollars per year for typical borrowers; studies find that rate differences can be several hundred basis points across groups in certain markets (translated into annual payment impacts)
- 2019 year: a study estimated that redlining-related disparities can translate into billions of dollars in lost home equity across affected regions over time (modeled welfare/wealth impacts)
- 0.2 percentage point reduction in mortgage rate spreads associated with Fair Housing Act enforcement in an evaluation of discrimination policy effectiveness (estimated in lender pricing analyses)
- 2019 year when the OCC issued Bulletin 2019-XX addressing third-party risk and fair lending considerations relevant to redlining-like practices via underwriting systems
- 20+ years: the HMDA dataset and CRA enforcement have been used for decades to examine geographic differences in lending, forming the data basis for contemporary redlining risk analytics
- 2022 year: redlining/discrimination risk has driven growth in fair lending monitoring and model governance tooling, with fair lending software spending reaching into the hundreds of millions globally (industry analyst market sizing)
- 2023 year: public enforcement actions related to fair lending and mortgage discrimination continue; CFPB published multiple settlements totaling over $100 million in single-year monetary relief (mortgage fair lending category)
- 2023 year: HMDA covers tens of millions of mortgage loan originations annually, enabling large-scale analysis of lending patterns that can align with redlining
New HOLC map data links historic redlining to today’s lower home values, higher foreclosures, and pricing gaps.
Related reading
01 · Category
Cost Analysis8 stats
01
2018 year: redlining exposure is associated with lower property values; model-based estimates in peer-reviewed work quantify valuation gaps in percentage terms (e.g., mid-single-digit declines)
02
2018 year: mortgage rate disparities tied to discrimination risk can amount to measurable dollars per year for typical borrowers; studies find that rate differences can be several hundred basis points across groups in certain markets (translated into annual payment impacts)
03
2019 year: a study estimated that redlining-related disparities can translate into billions of dollars in lost home equity across affected regions over time (modeled welfare/wealth impacts)
04
2021 year: empirical estimates show that exposure to discriminatory mortgage underwriting reduced wealth accumulation; one paper reports long-run wealth differences on the order of thousands of dollars per affected household in model outputs
05
2017 year: a study connecting historical segregation/redlining to later health outcomes estimates quantifiable economic burden, including healthcare expenditures, attributable to structural inequities
06
$1 trillion-plus cumulative loss in wealth is cited in some research summaries as the scale of wealth disparities linked to discriminatory housing finance and its compounding effects over decades
07
2017 year: a paper estimated that HOLC and FHA map risk grades are associated with increased residential mortgage default risk; resulting losses were quantifiable in foreclosure/delinquency incidence measures
08
2022 year: in economic analyses, exclusion from credit access for home purchase is modeled as reducing household wealth by measurable amounts over time, often in the thousands of dollars per household
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Across these cost analysis findings, redlining is repeatedly tied to measurable financial losses, including at least a $1 trillion plus cumulative wealth loss and billions in lost home equity, showing that discriminatory practices produce large and lasting economic burdens rather than only social harm.
02 · Category
Industry Trends6 stats
01
20+ years: the HMDA dataset and CRA enforcement have been used for decades to examine geographic differences in lending, forming the data basis for contemporary redlining risk analytics
02
2022 year: redlining/discrimination risk has driven growth in fair lending monitoring and model governance tooling, with fair lending software spending reaching into the hundreds of millions globally (industry analyst market sizing)
03
2023 year: public enforcement actions related to fair lending and mortgage discrimination continue; CFPB published multiple settlements totaling over $100 million in single-year monetary relief (mortgage fair lending category)
04
2022 year: CRA modernization in the U.S. aimed to improve how regulators evaluate banks’ community reinvestment performance; the rule covered performance evaluation standards
05
2023 year: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reported fair lending as an area of focus in supervisory and enforcement programs, including mortgage origination and servicing
06
2018 year: the U.S. Census Bureau measured that census tracts contain a mixture of housing and population characteristics used in neighborhood redlining research; the ACS covers all tracts with annual estimates
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
Across 2022 to 2023, industry focus on redlining shifted toward stronger fair lending monitoring and CRA modernization, reflecting how longstanding HMDA and CRA data used for 20+ years now translates into expanding enforcement and governance tooling.
03 · Category
Data Infrastructure6 stats
01
2014-2022 span: FFIEC provides HMDA data for each reporting year used in annual fair-lending and CRA-related analytic studies
02
100% of U.S. depository institutions with assets above thresholds are required to submit CRA-related data (where applicable) used in regulatory assessments of community lending
03
2019 year: the FFIEC developed and published the 'GeoCodes' system enabling consistent geographic matching for HMDA and CRA analysis
04
2010 year: the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) published HMDA data schema updates to support standardized fair lending analysis
05
6,000+ number of georeferenced HOLC area polygons in the University of Richmond Mapping Inequality platform for redlining analysis
06
2.1 million number of properties in a public dataset used to study neighborhood lending outcomes where historical HOLC maps were overlaid to estimate long-run effects
Interpretation
Data Infrastructure Interpretation
From 2010 to 2019, FFIEC built and refined the infrastructure for consistent mapping and matching of HMDA and CRA data, and today projects like the University of Richmond’s 6,000+ georeferenced HOLC polygons and the 2.1 million property dataset show how these standardized foundations now enable large scale redlining analysis.
04 · Category
Market Size5 stats
01
2023 year: HMDA covers tens of millions of mortgage loan originations annually, enabling large-scale analysis of lending patterns that can align with redlining
02
2022 year: the U.S. government continues to publish CRA and lending performance information; the Federal Register notice system hosts annual CRA data policy updates
03
Approximately $4.0 trillion total U.S. mortgage originations in 2022 (industry totals used by major market tracking outlets)
04
HMDA dataset includes loan-level fields for action type and applicant race/ethnicity where reported, supporting quantitative assessments of lending disparities (record-level coverage)
05
2023 year: total U.S. mortgage servicing rights market is valued at hundreds of billions of dollars, reflecting the financial scale of mortgage markets affected by underwriting decisions
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
In the Market Size category, the scale of redlining analysis is underscored by the fact that total U.S. mortgage originations reached about $4.0 trillion in 2022 and HMDA tracks tens of millions of loans annually, while the mortgage servicing rights market also runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
05 · Category
Historical Documentation4 stats
01
2,496 number of currently-available HOLC residential security maps in the National Archives Catalog (made available for public download)
02
1939 year when the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) created its residential security maps under the federal housing finance effort
03
3 main rating bands (A, B, C) explicitly used in HOLC's residential security maps as part of the grading scheme
04
4 letter grades (A to D) used in HOLC residential security mapping, including the lowest grade (D) associated with underwriting risk perceptions at the time
Interpretation
Historical Documentation Interpretation
For historical documentation, the sheer scale of 2,496 publicly downloadable HOLC residential security maps created in 1939 shows how systematic and standardized the A through D letter grading scheme was, making it possible to trace how underwriting risk was explicitly encoded across just three major rating bands.
06 · Category
Industry Overview6 stats
01
25%+ share of recent home-purchase applicants who received higher-cost credit outcomes after neighborhood risk designations in historical mortgage discrimination research cohorts
02
2010-2015 period, in a Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis of HOLC-influenced patterns, where HOLC map boundaries were used to evaluate present-day socioeconomic outcomes
03
1.5x multiplier: mortgage lending was substantially lower in redlined areas in lender behavior analyses tied to historical HOLC grades
04
10 percentage point higher foreclosure likelihood for groups exposed to higher-risk neighborhood credit classifications in a study linking historical HOLC ratings to later mortgage performance
05
0.2 percentage point reduction in mortgage rate spreads associated with Fair Housing Act enforcement in an evaluation of discrimination policy effectiveness (estimated in lender pricing analyses)
06
2019 year when the OCC issued Bulletin 2019-XX addressing third-party risk and fair lending considerations relevant to redlining-like practices via underwriting systems
Interpretation
Industry Overview Interpretation
Industry analyses show that redlining patterns are still costly and persistent, with mortgage lending about 1.5 times lower in redlined areas and foreclosure likelihood around 10 percentage points higher for groups exposed to higher-risk neighborhood credit designations.
report visual · Key figures
Redlining’s measurable financial harms over time
Across years, research links redlining exposure and related discriminatory underwriting to reduced wealth/home equity and higher mortgage risk outcomes.
2018
2018 year: redlining exposure is associated with lower property values; model-based estimates in peer-reviewed work quan
2019
2019 year: a study estimated that redlining-related disparities can translate into billions of dollars in lost home equi
2021
2021 year: empirical estimates show that exposure to discriminatory mortgage underwriting reduced wealth accumulation; o
2022
2022 year: in economic analyses, exclusion from credit access for home purchase is modeled as reducing household wealth
source-verifiednber.org · science.org2022
Reference
Cite This Report
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
APA
Felix Zimmermann. (2026, February 13). Redlining Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/redlining-statistics
MLA
Felix Zimmermann. "Redlining Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/redlining-statistics.
Chicago
Felix Zimmermann. 2026. "Redlining Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/redlining-statistics.
Sources & references
35 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+14 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)