I'm from Harlem, bred & fed... There was a lot more govt involvement on causing the property value of historic brownstones and limestones to lose value. When the homes were owned by predominantly black families there was a thriving middle class coming out of Harlem. The gentrification plan was set in place decades ago. As homeowners died & passed the property on to children or other family members those inheriting the property had difficulty maintaining it bc most of the old homes needed rehab/ repairs but banks refused those who inherited properties improvement loans so the homes jus sat there couldn't be leased out for revenue bc of the conditions and the owners were stuck with a money pit property. The banks would appraise the property value at a rate below the purchase price or mortgage on the home thereby refusing any home equity loans. Eventually the properties couldn't b maintained and the govt raised the taxes 3 times from 1987 making them unaffordable. Owners started losing their property for unpaid taxes, foreclosure or simply abandoning these empty homes and there were no lenders offering these working class owners any help. Around 1997 once the stock of homes in Harlem had been placed in In REM status (city takes over any residential stock that has been lost or abandoned). The city started creating tax credit and subsidy programs to renovate and resell the properties.. And who did they make the properties affordable to, your fav people, white folks. All of sudden banks were appraising these homes which were just shells at over $1mil. and this is before remodel. So when the city started selling these homes who do you think the banks qualified? Now almost 7 years after appraising these same properties at under $200k when they were owned by black families banks began appraising these same properties in same conditions at over $1mil. This was by design, black people were duped out of these properties. Now claim u like to be educated, so hope u can appreciate that info...