Measuring Gentrification with Mortgage Application Data

This study introduces two measures of gentrification pressure, defined as the force new homebuyers impose on neighborhood income levels. The measures rely on U.S. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act mortgage applications to observe applicant income from 2012 to 2016. Gentrification pressure is calculated for all low-income, central-city tracts in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The measures reveal variation in pressure through time and across census tracts. Contrary to traditional measures of gentrification that use ten-year census intervals, the new measures allow flexibility regarding the start date, end date, and duration of the gentrification process. We validate the measures using several traditional gentrification definitions based on changes in income and socioeconomic status.