Race, Crime, and Lending Risk in Chicago: The Relevance of Crime and Disorder for HOLC's Neighborhood Assessments.

ABSTRACT: While scholars have documented the importance of race for decisions on lending risk and value in the U.S. housing market, less is known about how crime shaped lending risk assessments or how a neighborhood's racial composition influenced appraisers' perceptions of crime and disorder. Drawing on the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) residential security maps, this study examines appraisers' narratives around neighborhood crime and disorder, how observed neighborhood conditions shaped these narratives, and how both observed crime and perceptions of disorder influenced decisions on lending risk. Using the case of Chicago, this study integrates multiple historical datasets, including the HOLC residential security maps and their corresponding neighborhood area descriptions, the 1940 Census,

SUBMITTER: Evans M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12605564 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature