When an older, lower-income neighborhood is being upgraded and renovated by a wave of young, wealthy homeowners and investors, gentrification has typically begun.
Some people say that’s a good thing for the local economy, while others argue that it displaces long-term residents who get priced out.
“Gentrification can bring investment into areas that may not have received much attention in years past,” says Hannah Jones, Realtor.com® senior economic research analyst. “However, typically the primary beneficiaries of this investment are not the families and populations that have inhabited the neighborhood for generations, but rather the new residents.”
Whether you’re for it or against it, here’s a telltale sign your neighborhood is being gentrified.
Why gray-painted houses are a sign of gentrification
A recent article in the Washington Post revealed that gentrifying neighborhoods nationwide are being repainted in various shades of gray.
They did a color analysis of Washington, D.C., specifically, and found that “shades of gray permeate neighborhoods where the White population has increased and the Black population has decreased.”
Richard Segovia, 71, told the outlet how he’d seen a shift in the Mission District of San Francisco, where he’s lived his entire life.
“All this gray—it’s so dark, it’s so gloomy, so ugly,” he explained. “It’s like seeing creativity and art and the colors of my community disappear right in front of my eyes.”
And it’s happening all across the nation.
In Colorado Springs, CO, gray has been the dominant exterior color choice for years, according to Andrew Fortune, real estate agent and brokerage owner at Great Colorado Homes—and it’s not slowing down.
“It’s become the default for builders, house flippers, and homeowners for the past decade,” says Fortune. “It’s an easy color to choose because it feels safe, and it’s broadly appealing.”
According to Ron Myers, of Ron Buys Florida Homes, bold, outdated colors make houses harder to sell—and he’s even had buyers walk away from homes just because they didn’t want to deal with repainting the exterior.
So when Myers buys older homes to renovate, he often paints them gray.
“It instantly updates the home and gives the house a fresh look,” he explains. “It also appeals to today’s buyers who want something clean and modern.”
Why is gray such a popular color now?
In celebration of Sherwin-Williams’ 150th anniversary, they recently took a look back at color throughout the decades—and found the 2010s are when “the graying of America” began in full force.
Now in the 2020s, five out of the top 10 exterior house colors are different shades of gray.
“We are seeing an increased demand in particular for deeper charcoal gray tones or warmer grays,” say interior designers Teresa Boyd and Helena Finkelstein, co-owners of Olive Hill Design Company in Verona, NJ. “Gray appeals to a wide audience and often signifies a house has been recently updated or painted.”
So how did such a bland, boring color surge in popularity?
“Gray is the ‘pumpkin spice latte’ of home exteriors—it’s everywhere, it’s trendy, and whether people love it or roll their eyes at it, they’re still talking about it,” says designer Justin M. Riordan, founder of Spade and Archer Design Agency in Portland, OR, and Seattle.
Riordan says gray is the fast pass to making an older home feel new.
“Developers love it because it signals ‘freshly renovated’ without being polarizing,” he explains. “Homeowners love it because their real estate agent told them it’s what buyers want. And buyers love it because HGTV told them they should.”
Fortune wholeheartedly agrees.
“Many buyers don’t necessarily want gray, but they’ve been conditioned to expect it,” he says. “When almost every home on the market is some shade of gray, it becomes the norm; and anything else starts to feel different or risky.”
What are the pros and cons of gentrifying a neighborhood?
The debate over whether gentrification of neighborhoods is beneficial or harmful has been ongoing for a very long time.
“On the plus side, gentrification can result in climbing home values, putting homeowners in a strong position to sell their home for a pretty profit,” says Jones. “However, many families may not be looking to uproot and find a new place to live, and would much prefer to stay put in their neighborhood.”
Gentrification can also bring about significant cultural and aesthetic shifts, like newly built homes and businesses catering to the new residents.
“These shifts may appeal to new homeowners but can make longtime residents feel out of place in their own neighborhood,” says Jones.
These changes can also strip a neighborhood of its character.
“Sometimes all of the renovated homes become homogenous and start to all look the same—especially if people are painting them in similar shades of gray,” says Cara Ameer, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker, who operates in both California and Florida. “Then a community may start to lose that charm that made it special in the first place.”
Ameer believes gentrifying neighborhoods can be a positive thing for a community but says “it’s a delicate line to walk—being respectful of the existing residents and history, while also working to improve the community for the better in the future.”
Three cities that have experienced gentrification and gone “gray”
In the Post article, three cities were listed as part of the uprise of gray-painted homes. Additionally, many parts of Nashville, TN; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C. underwent gentrification over the past decade. Realtor.com economists examined real estate data to understand how it unfolded and to assess the consequences.
Nashville, TN
Many of the central Nashville ZIP codes with the highest share of non-White population in 2015 saw minority population fall and home prices skyrocket over the past 10 years.
ZIP codes 37208, 37203, 37201, 37216, 37206, and 37207 all saw the share of Black population fall more than 10 percentage points between 2015 and today.
In roughly the same time frame, home prices climbed an average 90.7% in these ZIP codes (between February 2017 and February 2025).
ZIP code 37201 in downtown Nashville saw home prices climb the most, from a median of $364,000 in February 2017 to $1.03M in Feb 2025.
Washington, D.C.
Six ZIP codes in Washington, D.C. saw their Black population share fall by more than 10 percentage points between 2015 and 2025.
These ZIPs did not all see price growth since 2017, but the demographic shift is noteworthy since the negative effects of gentrification are felt disproportionately by minority communities.
One of those D.C. ZIP codes—20002—saw a 17% decrease in its share of Black population between 2015 and 2025, and prices climbed 9.6% between 2017 and 2025.
San Francisco, CA
A lot of the gentrification of central San Francisco likely happened before 2015, as tech money flowed into the city throughout the 20th century, especially during the dot-com boom.
In fact, many areas of central San Francisco have actually seen prices fall relative to 2017.
However, the areas where prices have climbed the most in the past decade tend to be more affordable areas of the city.
For example, ZIP codes 94131, 94112, and 94124 are among the more economical areas of San Francisco but have seen some of the most significant price growth since 2017, with prices up 36.4%, 20.1%, and 13.6%, respectively.
That’s significantly above the average price growth of 2.6% in central San Francisco ZIP codes from 2017 to 2025.