Historical redlining and contemporary home mortgage lending: Investigating neighborhood-level racial disparities in mortgage originations in the United States

The persistent homeownership gap between minority and non-Hispanic White households in the United States is driven in part by enduring systemic mortgage lending inequalities. Historical discriminatory policies like redlining perpetuated racial disparities in housing by limiting credit access, fostering neighborhood disinvestment, and diminishing opportunities for wealth accumulation in minority neighborhoods. Despite this, the relationship between the legacy of historical redlining and racial disparities in contemporary mortgage lending remains underexplored. Given this, this study introduces a novel set of neighborhood-level mortgage lending measures, derived from the newly released Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Longitudinal Dataset, which adjust mortgage origination trends for neighborhood racial composition to enable analysis of the relative advantages and disadvantages experienced by different racial groups in securing mortgage loans. Using these measures, this study investigates neighborhood racial disparities in mortgage lending over the past three decades (1991-2020) across neighborhoods graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation. Findings reveal that the gap in mortgage originations between African American and non-Hispanic White households is larger in historically redlined neighborhoods and has widened over time. The results also demonstrate that the interaction between historical redlining and present-day neighborhood racial composition contributes to the mortgage lending disparities faced by African American households. This study highlights the lasting impact of redlining on the racial distribution of mortgage credit and underscores the need for targeted interventions to promote equitable access to financial resources for marginalized communities.