HOUSTON—Gentrification is a topic of conversation lately, sparking strong reactions and heated debates in cities and communities across the nation. But which areas have been most affected by it since the turn of the millennium?
To answer this question, RentCafe reviewed Census data from 2000 and 2016 in 11,000 US ZIP codes to look at the changes that took place in a decade and a half. The gentrification coefficient that provided the final ranking is a simple average of the ZIP codes ranks in the three categories of median home value, median household income and the population that holds bachelors or higher degrees.
More than half of the top 20 fastest-gentrifying ZIP codes are on the East Coast, four in Texas, three on the West Coast and one in the Midwest. Not surprising is the LA ZIP code, 90014, taking the gentrified cake with a staggering 707% increase in median home value and a 95% change in median household income from 2000 to 2016, followed by Washington DC's 20001 ZIP code. Houston's ZIP code, 77003, grabs third place with a whopping 284% boost in home value, as well as a 71% increase in median household income.
“When combining the growth rates of these three indicators, ZIP code 77003, covering East Downtown and the lower part of the Second Ward, as well as a couple of blocks of the Greater Eastwood neighborhood, has the third highest gentrification coefficient nationwide. This part of Houston has always been ethnically highly diversified, but mainly working class dominated and this latter aspect has changed dramatically in recent years as numerous restaurants, bars and businesses now call the once-neglected blocks of EaDo home,” RentCafe's Balazs Szekely tells GlobeSt.com.
Although the buzzing new life (with townhomes filling increased demand) has pushed the median home value to almost four times the figure recorded in the year 2000, the educated population has had the steepest increase. There are now almost five-and-a-half times more people with college degrees living here than there were at the turn of the century, Szekely says.
And it's not the only area in Bayou City on the list: 77007 also makes an appearance at number 19, posting a 107% home value growth and a 114% spike in household income, the second-biggest income increase and the only ZIP to boast a median household income above $100,000 in the top 20. But what landed it on this list is the fact that just a decade and a half ago, its median income was less than half of the current sum, GlobeSt.com learns.
“The other Houston ZIP had the second-highest increase in household income, out of all the ZIP codes included in the analysis,” Szekely tells GlobeSt.com. “From slightly under $55,500 in 2000, the median household income in ZIP code 77007 was blown straight to the stratosphere, to $118,600 in just 17 years.”
Fort Worth's 76102 takes the sixth spot, with the fourth-highest median home value jump (323%) and the third-biggest median household income growth (103%) in the ranking. Austin's 78702 is the other Texas ZIP that makes the list at number 13, with a 212% median home value hike and a 47% increase in the median household income during the same period.
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Lisa Brown
Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.
