Governing magazine has published an analysis of gentrification trends in the nation’s 50 largest cities, based on an analysis of census tract data. It looks at all tracts in each city where both the median household income and median home value were in the bottom 40th percentile of all tracts in the metro area at the beginning of the decade identified, defining them as “eligible” to gentrify. It then looked at current (2009-2013 ACS) inflation-adjusted median home value increases and changes in the percentage of adults with bachelors’ degrees. Tract with increases in the top third percentile for both measures when compared to all others in a metro area were considered to have gentrified. (Read complete methodology) It found that:
- Gentrification greatly accelerated in several cities. Nearly 20 percent of neighborhoods with lower incomes and home values have experienced gentrification since 2000, compared to only 9 percent during the 1990s. In Boston the percentage was 21% (12 of 57 potentially eligible tracts).
- Gentrification still remains rare nationally, with only 8 percent of all neighborhoods reviewed experiencing gentrification since the 2000 Census.
- Compared to lower-income areas that failed to gentrify, gentrifying Census tracts recorded increases in the non-Hispanic white population and declines in the poverty rate.
Click here to read the report.