A growing body of literature has documented the long-term consequences of federal housing policies during the New Deal–most notably the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)–on a wide variety of outcomes. HOLC’s infamous redlining practices (i.e., the marking of disadvantaged neighborhoods as “high risk” for mortgage lending) set into motion decades of segregated federal and private investment, funneling resources away from urban communities of color and towards White, suburban communities. This project explores the impact HOLC had on homeownership inequality. I show that racial gaps in homeownership and home value widened significantly more in places appraised by HOLC.

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