gen·tri·fi·ca·tion

Is Inglewood Next?

With a nearly $2 billion NFL stadium, which will include a mixed-use shopping and entertainment development, scheduled to open in 2018 it is safe to say Inglewood can be next up for gentrification.

 Inglewood, a traditionally African-American city, is the last frontier of Westside affordability: If you go any farther south you're in the South Bay; if you go any farther east you're in South L.A. 

While none of the nation's newest stadiums, those built in the last 10 years, "has had a noticeable impact in raising home values in its immediate vicinity," the long-term outlook is better. Buy-and-hold real estate hunters could find wise values in the 'Wood.

The median home price in Inglewood is $389,100, according to real estate site Zillow. It pegs the Greater Los Angeles median at $562,800. The site projected that Inglewood home values would increase by 1 percent in the next year.

A spokesman for real estate website Redfin says "homes are selling much faster in Inglewood" than in Greater Los Angeles in recent months. "More homes in Inglewood are selling for above the list price when compared to L.A.," he said.

Article from LA weekly

Policies against gentrification

Policy1:  Aggressively build middle-income housing. 

    Thousands of middle-income households today cannot afford to rent or buy in Roxbury. New construction home prices are at $550,000, requiring an income of $150,000 to buy. The city is selling its stock of small vacant lots to developers to build middle-income housing, but that’s not nearly enough to prevent displacement. We need a much more aggressive middle-income housing production program including investment of city subsidies. The city should resist calls to devote all of the city’s housing resources in low-income housing production.

Policy 2:  Reduce or freeze property taxes to protect long-time residents.

   Major cities are considering tax programs to help retain long-time homeowners in at-risk neighborhoods. In Boston, the city council recently passed a bill allowing homeowners whose taxes have grown by 10 percent or more to defer property tax payments until they sell. Approval of the state legislature is required.

Policy 3:  Protect senior homeowners. 

In Boston, a major concern is that low- and moderate-income seniors are choosing to sell because they cannot afford rising property taxes in gentrifying neighborhoods and cannot afford the upkeep on their homes. The city should dramatically increase funding for existing senior home repair programs, and these programs should prioritize gentrifying neighborhoods. The existing property tax deferral available for Boston seniors with incomes under $55,000 should be vigorously marketed in gentrifying neighborhoods. Seniors owning and living in 2- and 3-family homes in at-risk areas should be rewarded for keeping rents affordable.

Policy 4:  Prohibit large-scale luxury development in at-risk neighborhoods.

     The single biggest cause of displacement is large-scale, high-cost housing development. Boston should accordingly promote small- and medium-scale, mixed-income development in at-risk neighborhoods like Roxbury, and forbid market-rate, large-scale development. 

Policy 5:  Create a stabilization voucher. 

Some community development advocates propose that the federal government create a new type of housing voucher, to be awarded to long-time residents of low-income communities to help them stay when gentrification poses a risk. I call this a stabilization voucher, because it retains low-income residents to help stabilize communities by avoiding displacement.

Policy 6:  Change the fair housing rules.

 In order to provide federal resources disproportionately in at-risk majority-minority neighborhoods, such as the stabilization voucher described above, the fair housing rules need to be re-written. Traditional fair housing rules can discourage equitable investment in at-risk neighborhoods, based on policies opposing concentrations of poverty and favoring relocation to suburban “opportunity communities”. Fair housing instead should affirmatively promote equitable investment in emerging urban opportunity communities--the neighborhoods of color at-risk of gentrification.

Policy 7:  Production! 

According to the Metro Area Planning Council, we have to build 14,000 units a year in order to meet the demand for housing in metro Boston.  However, actual annual production has ranged from 4,000 to 9,000 units. In the long term, the only way to meet demand and stop gentrification is to make it much easier to build more housing in Boston and the region. Even new luxury housing will help meet this goal, but these developments should be confined to Boston’s high-cost ghettos—Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, the Seaport and downtown (after carving out a buffer zone protecting Chinatown).



Sources: http://www.rooflines.org/3731/7_policies_that_could_prevent_gentrification/

Los Angeles Gentrification Maps and Data

	Share of Eligible Tracts Gentrifying	Tracts Gentrifying	Did Not Gentrify	Not Eligible to Gentrify	Total Census Tracts
Since 2000	15.1%	51	287	661	999
1990-2000	2.9%	10	340	649	999

Source: Governing analysis of 2009-2013 American Community Survey, US2010 Longitudinal Tract Data Base

Los Angeles Gentrification Map: 2000 Census - Present

Los Angeles Gentrification Map: 1990 Census - 2000 Census

Median Home Value: Estimates are shown for owner-occupied housing units in 2013 dollars for recent data and 1999 dollars for 2000 Census data. Percentage changes in home values reflect adjustments for inflation.

Bachelor’s Degrees: The share of the population age 25 and older who report holding bachelor’s degrees.

Median Household Income: Values shown in 2013 dollars for recent data and 1999 dollars for 2000 Census data.

Gentrification throughout the years

Areas in red became gentrified throughout the entire two-decade-plus span. Those neighborhoods include parts of Mid-City, Koreatown and Echo Park as well as Angelino Heights and the Arts District,

Most of downtown (in blue) is shown as being gentrified in the last decade or so; as well as parts of Venice, Playa Vista, Arlington Heights, Westlake, Highland Park and more.

Areas around transit stations are transforming, these transformations often lead to neighborhood upscaling and gentrification. These changes bring in more white, college-educated people and higher rents, and often result in the displacement of "disadvantaged populations," which includes residents with low-incomes and less than a high-school diploma.

Neighborhood upscaling and gentrification hold serious consequences for low-income residents, who may no longer be able to afford the rising rents that come from sudden interest in a neighborhood.

Upscaling .Vs Gentrification

Here in Los Angeles, researchers found that areas near transit stations tended to be changing, with many of them trending toward gentrification, and "neighborhood upscaling." That upscaling can have a devastating effect on existing communities, leading to the displacement of longstanding residents.

Sometimes, landlords aggressively—and perhaps illegally— force [low-income residents] out." Higher rents make it difficult for low-income households to move into the neighborhood, so we see a net decline in their numbers. They are replaced by those who can afford the higher housing cost—people referred to as 'gentrifiers.'"

Where is gentrification happening?

 areas around transit stations are changing and that many of the changes are in direction of neighborhood upscaling and gentrification.

non-transit areas, transit neighborhoods are more associated with higher increases in whites, college educated, higher income households and greater increases in the cost of rent. Conversely, transit neighborhoods are associated with greater losses in disadvantaged populations including individuals with less than a high school diploma and lower income households.

• changes vary across locations but the biggest impacts seem to be around the Downtown areas where transit-oriented development interacts with other interventions aiming to revitalize the urban form.

For more visit urbandisplacement.org