A new report shows that Greater Hartford is a significant outlier among America’s major metro areas, with far less severe flood risk in formerly-redlined areas than not.

The report, from economists at Redfin using data from the First Street Foundation that incorporates climate change-driven increases in flood risk over the next 50 years, shows that 3.6 percent of homes in once-redlined or “yellow-lined” areas in Greater Boston are at a high risk of flooding while 9.8 percent of homes face that risk in areas that were once “green-lined” or “blue-lined” by the Home Owners Loan Corp.

The federal Home Owners Loan Corp., or HOLC, fulfilled a similar mortgage-buying function in the 1930s to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac today and published maps purporting to assess credit risk in urban neighborhoods across America. Neighborhoods – nearly always working-class and dominated by racial minorities or Jews – designated poor credit risks were outlined in red (“hazardous”) or yellow (“declining”), while more middle-class and wealthy areas were assigned blue (“still desirable”) and green (“best”) colors. Over its 20-year existence, HOLC’s maps and policies, which reflected broader trends in the banking sector at the time, helped dramatically increase racial segregation in America.

Nationwide, however, the relationship is flipped, with high-flood-risk formerly-redlined neighborhoods facing up to $106.5 billion in property damage compared to $84.9 billion in potential damages to high-flood-risk areas that were once green- and blue-lined.

In Greater Hartford, nonwhite households make up 35 percent of formerly green-lined and blue-lined areas, while they make up 47.5 percent of formerly redlined and yellow-lined areas, Redfin found, citing Census Bureau data.

“Decades of segregation and economic inequality shoehorned many people of color – especially Black Americans – into living in neighborhoods that are more vulnerable to climate change,” Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari said in a statement. “Redlining kept home values in Black neighborhoods depressed, which in turn meant there was less money invested and reinvested in those neighborhoods for decades to come.”