Formerly Redlined Denver Neighborhoods Are Now Gentrification Hotspots

In Denver, Joe Rubino writes, several "Formerly redlined areas such as Five Points, Baker, Highland and Jefferson Park — as well as, notably, part of Cherry Creek, one of the city's toniest neighborhoods — now have a higher combined median home value than the city as a whole."

The piece draws on data from a Zillow study on home values in formerly redlined neighborhoods across the country. Zillow "used maps produced by the Home Owners' Loan Corp., the New Deal-era federal agency that told banks which neighborhoods in their cities were the highest lending risks — rendering 'hazardous' areas in red, or 'redlining' them."

Nationwide, homes in those areas tend to have median values around $50,000 lower than those in surrounding neighborhoods. But in places facing gentrification, the math is different. Of Denver's situation, Rubino writes, "many black and Latino renters in these now desirable neighborhoods have had to make tough decisions in recent years on where they can afford to live as rents and home prices have risen."