Black Majority Fades in Harlem

"By 2008, their share had declined to 4 in 10 residents. Since 2000, central Harlem’s population has grown more than in any other decade since the 1940s, to 126,000 from 109,000, but its black population — about 77,000 in central Harlem and about twice that in greater Harlem — is smaller than at any time since the 1920s.

In 2008, 22 percent of the white households in Harlem had moved to their present homes within the previous year. By comparison, only 7 percent of the black households had."

Lower housing prices are driving young white families into the neighborhood. Less than 1,000 non-Hispanic whites lived in the area when the 1990 Census was taken. 2008 figures show more than 13,000.