Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Real Estate Appraisal, Los Angeles, California, Mary Cummins.

Mary Cummins is a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California with 38+ years of experience. Cummins provides real estate appraisals for banks, lenders, mortgage brokers, Appraisal Management Companies (AMCs), lawyers, Courts, factors and private parties for lending, lawsuits, probate, estate planning, divorce and all types of litigation. Cummins provides 1004, 1073, 1025 and other form reports, narrative reports and historical appraisals besides real estate research and appraisal advice.

Friday, April 21, 2023

Tucker Carlson speaks the truth about real estate appraisals now?! Last show. by Mary Cummins

tucker carlson, tucker carlson tonight, joe biden, kamala harris, marcia fudge, mary cummins, real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, bias, racist, white supremacist, fico, credit

Tucker Carlson: The Biden admin is punishing Americans with high credit scores. Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacts to a new Biden administration rule that will punish Americans with good credit on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' tucker carlson, tucker carlson tonight, joe biden, kamala harris, marcia fudge, mary cummins, real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, bias, racist, white supremacist, fico, credit, fox news @tuckercarlson

UPDATE: And a couple of days later he's gone from FOX News. This was his last story, show. Of all stories to be his last! He was let go Monday morning. https://www.tmz.com/2023/04/24/tucker-carlson-leaving-fox-news/

ORIGINAL: Some Facebook appraisal groups are sharing this video of Tucker Carlson talking about Democrats trying to get the vote. In the video he talks about Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Marcia Fudge lying and stating that all appraisers are white supremacists who are racists against black people and devalue their homes. Tucker Carlson states they provided no evidence that this is true. While I prayed to God for a savior in the media to spread the truth about the issue Tucker Carlson sure as hell would not have been my first choice. Was there no one else available, dear Lord?!

SHOW: "Tucker Carlson: The Biden admin is punishing Americans with high credit scores. Fox News host Tucker Carlson reacts to a new Biden administration rule that will punish Americans with good credit on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' " April 21, 2023 https://www.foxnews.com/video/6325545406112 Real issue starts at 2:15 min into it. Text https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-biden-admins-new-rule-punish-people-high-credit-scores

Carlson says Marcia Fudge says home appraisers are white racists who lowball black homeowners. Even HUD's own data shows this is false. AEI did independent research on HUD's data and proved there is no racism in home appraisal values, see link below. He shows a clip of the CNN August 2022 interview which I wrote about. Fudge says black people have lost great wealth through the appraisal process. No, they have not. Again, AEI research ( https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/comments-on-the-pave-report/ ) proved this to the PAVE task force by debunking Andre Perry's non-peer reviewed, non-published paper ( https://www.aei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/AEI-Housing-Center-Response-to-Perry-and-Rothwell-2021-final.pdf?x91208 ) . The difference in value between white and black, brown owned homes is caused by the income gap. Whites make more money so they have more money and buy more expensive homes in more expensive areas. That's it! It's the income gap, stupid!

Marcia Fudge again offers the false anecdote about her home being worth less than her neighbor's only because she is black and the neighbor is allegedly white. This has been debunked here previously ( https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/2022/03/pave-task-force-action-plan-from-white.html scroll to "I live in an all" ). Fudge's home is much older, of average quality and sits on the main highway. The homes across the street are new, of very good quality and in a private development off the main highway. That's why the newer homes are worth more. We don't know the color of the owners of the new homes. If Fudge doesn't understand this, she should not be the head of HUD. She also shouldn't be believing Zillow Zestimates of value. We all know they are not accurate.

Carlson said Kamala Harris in March 2022 was talking about the Home Appraisal Workforce (she meant PAVE task force ). She said appraisers are mainly white and biased. She said appraisers now must take training on fair housing and bias because of her and PAVE. False. We've been taking this training since at least 1989. You have to take it to get your license. There are new training hours which will take effect this year. It's more of the same exact training that we've taken since the 1990's. They are just divvying up the number of credits differently. It's the same total hours with the same topics.

Carlson then talked about the false accusations that all appraisers are white supremacists, "There is zero evidence of that. It's a slur upon home appraisers. Why do they deserve this abuse?" "They're using fake allegations of racism as the pretext of a political plan. They're doing it for votes." I totally agree. Can't believe I just agreed with Tucker Carlson! I feel gross but what he said is true. Why is Carlson speaking the truth now? Is he trying to change his MO after the huge defamation lawsuit loss because of his lies? I knew one day probably near election time GOP would pick up on Biden's false narrative about appraisers. I just didn't think it'd be Tucker. Anyway here is the research which proves that appraisals are not racially biased. https://www.aei.org/how-common-is-appraiser-racial-bias/ Real estate appraisals are a math formula. We don't even know the color of the owners of all the homes we appraise and use as comparable sales.

Biden just introduced a rule about credit scores and fees effective May 1, 2023. People with FICO of 740 or above will pay $40 more a month. People with low credit scores will get a discount of 1.75%. I personally believe this is unconstitutional. The purpose of credit scores is to reward people for working hard, saving money and paying bills on time. They are lower risk borrowers so their loans costs less. The better your score, the less you pay for credit because the risk of default is lower. Carlson said black people have average credit scores under 680. He says he doesn't know why. I do. It's because of the income gap. Whites make more than blacks and browns. It's because of socioeconomic factors and not color. Whites are also more likely to be married. It's cheaper to live as a married couple than two separate households. Whites less likely to have multiple children under the age of 18 than blacks, browns. Again, AEI proved this with independent data based on government data, see above. Fix the income gap and other factors if you want things to be more equal. Don't go blaming appraisers just because it's easier and good for votes.

This new program won't even help poor people. It will help them get stuck in an over priced home in a depreciating market. They will be paying higher interest rates on their mortgage which they can't easily afford. They are more likely to not be able to afford their mortgage while the economy contracts and some lose their jobs. As their home value depreciates they will end up under water. Thanks, Biden, Harris, Fudge! The Gov did the same before the great recession. Why don't they learn their lessons? Because politics and getting votes. They don't really care about helping poor people but getting their vote. It really is a sad situation.

FTR I'm a Democrat who voted for Biden. I agree with most of his positions except the false narrative of the "racist appraiser" and mass "appraiser bias" in appraisal values. This started during the last campaign cycle. Both Harris and Biden as candidates for President promised to "finally" help lower income black and brown people. If they really want to help, fix the income gap!

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate is a certified residential licensed appraiser in Los Angeles, California. Mary Cummins is licensed by the California Bureau of Real Estate appraisers and has over 35 years of experience.

Mary Cummins, Mary K. Cummins, Mary Katherine Cummins, Mary, Cummins, #marycummins #animaladvocates #losangeles #california #wildlife #wildliferehabilitation #wildliferehabilitator #realestate #realestateappraiser #realestateappraisal #lawsuit real estate, appraiser, appraisal, instructor, teacher, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Brentwood, Bel Air, California, licensed, permitted, certified, single family, condo, condominium, pud, hud, fannie mae, freddie mac, fha, uspap, certified, residential, certified resident, apartment building, multi-family, commercial, industrial, expert witness, civil, criminal, orea, dre, brea insurance, bonded, experienced, bilingual, spanish, english, form, 1004, 2055, 1073, land, raw, acreage, vacant, insurance, cost, income approach, market analysis, comparative, theory, appraisal theory, cost approach, sales, matched pairs, plot, plat, map, diagram, photo, photographs, photography, rear, front, street, subject, comparable, sold, listed, active, pending, expired, cancelled, listing, mls, multiple listing service, claw, themls, historical appraisal, facebook, linkedin DISCLAIMER: https://mary--cummins.blogspot.com/p/disclaimer-privacy-policy-for-blogs-by.html

Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins of Cummins Real Estate Services has been in real estate since 1983, over 35 years. She is licensed by the Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers. Mary Cummins was an agent and broker licensed with the California Department of Real Estate selling residential income, commercial buildings, raw land and homes for Merrill Lynch Realty in Beverly Hills and Westside Properties in Los Angeles before concentrating on appraisals. Mary Cummins currently provides real estate appraisals, expert witness testimony, historical research, legal real estate research for mortgage brokers, banks, lawyers, factors, insurance companies, financial consultants and private individuals. Mary Cummins was born and raised in Southern California. Cummins attended Beverly Hills Good Shepherd Catholic School and Beverly Hills High School. Besides being on the Dean's list, Mary Cummins was a top ten national swimmer and competed on the men's water polo team. Mary Cummins began college at the age of 15 attending the University of Southern California on scholarship, majoring in Psychology/Sociology. http://www.animaladvocates.us http://www.facebook.com/AnimalAdvocatesUSA

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Andre Perry falsely states grocery stores are racist. More bad "research," by Mary Cummins

Andre Perry just released more false and misleading "research." Andre Perry believes that premium grocery stores are racist against black people. He "proves" his point by showing there aren't many premium grocery stores in predominantly black areas. Again, his "research" is bad science and misinterpreted results. People on the internet are using his "data" to attack grocery stores and rile up black people against whites. This is not peer reviewed or published research. Below is his linked article.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/what-the-lack-of-premium-grocery-stores-says-about-disinvestment-in-black-neighborhoods/

Andre Perry states there are few premium grocery stores in mainly black areas. This is correlation and not causation. There are also few Louis Vuitton stores and Rolls Royce dealerships in predominantly black areas for the same reason. The reason is financial. There is research which proves whites make more money than blacks and Latinos in general. If a store chooses its location based on higher income, that area will more likely be more white than black, Latino. It's correlation and the income gap, stupid.

Premium grocery stores are in the business of making money. They want to make as much net profits as possible. They do this by locating their stores in an area which has the highest concentration of their most likely customers with the least amount of risk. They don't consider race. Below is an article about how Whole Foods chooses store locations to prove this. https://www.washingtonian.com/2015/07/14/how-whole-foods-decides-if-your-neighborhood-is-worthy/#:~:text=Whole%20Foods%20doesn't%20divulge,estate%2C%20population%20density%2C%20education%2C

From the article, "Whole Foods doesn’t divulge specifics about its real-estate decision-making, which it considers “proprietary.” Mid-Atlantic regional president Scott Allshouse at least offers this via e-mail:“We take a variety of factors into consideration, including availability and cost of real estate, population density, education, demographics, and the community’s interest in natural and organic foods. No one factor is most important.” Later in the article it states main factor is "education then commuter patterns, checking out competing grocery stores, and calculating their likely earnings."

Here's info on Trader Joe's locations. They tend to choose locations "located in cheaper parts of expensive areas." "The company is selective about new markets, taking a gander at median household income, education, population density, distribution efficiencies and labor force." " Stern and David Livingston, an expert in supermarket location research, said Trader Joe’s typically looks for median household income in excess of $100,000. The perfect storm, Livingston said, is high incomes and expensive homes within the first 2 miles of the potential site, with maybe a major university or large medical complex sprinkled on top." “They are not going to open a store based on a petition because everyone wants a Trader Joe’s,” Livingston said. “But only people who are educated and have high disposable incomes will actually support one.”

Grocery stores are not a government service or a nonprofit. They don't have to invest in poorer areas. They are a business. They don't care about race. They do care about safely making net profits. If an area has lots of potential clients but has high crime, theft, vandalism, they probably wouldn't choose it because net profits would be reduced by crime. Some shoppers might not even want to shop in a high crime area because they don't want to get mugged, robbed, car broken into, raped or killed. A good example of this is Whole Foods markets closing in a prime area of San Francisco. https://kesq.com/money/cnn-business-consumer/2023/04/11/whole-foods-closes-san-francisco-flagship-store-after-one-year-citing-crime-2/#:~:text=An%20enormous%20Whole%20Foods%20in,over%20the%20past%20six%20years.

Instead of calling Whole Foods a racist piece of shit the County Supervisor said this about the closure. "San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Matt Dorsey said on Twitter that he was “incredibly disappointed” by the closure. “Our neighborhood waited a long time for this supermarket, but we’re also well aware of problems they’ve experienced with drug-related retail theft, adjacent drug markets, and the many safety issues related to them,” Dorsey wrote. Appearing on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday, Dorsey said he’s “seen a lot of issues of people acting out and shoplifting” at the store. “Fingers crossed we can turn things around here and I do have some optimism, but hopefully we can get this supermarket back open,” he said." Reducing crime in the area is the solution here not calling people racists. If you call Whole Foods racists, they may never want to open a store in that market area.

Per research there is a correlation between income, age, class, gender, race and increased street crime, see link below. Lower income, 15-24 age group, lower class, males, black then Latino commit most street crime per research. Lower income areas tend to have more 15-24 year olds, lower class, males, blacks and Latinos which commit more crime. More correlation. Increased crime levels is another reason why Trader Joe's would not want a store in a lower income area. Crime reduces sales, adds costs and eats into profits. https://open.lib.umn.edu/socialproblems/chapter/8-3-who-commits-crime/

Andre Perry's article looks at premium markets. Premium markets like Trader Joe's sell specialty items, organic food and higher priced items. It makes sense to be located in an area where people make more money. If you don't have a lot of money and went to Trader Joe's, you wouldn't be able to afford to buy as much food. You'd rather shop at the 99 cent store where I shop or Dollar General. There is plenty of good, healthy, affordable food at the 99 cent store. I buy beans, rice, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables at the 99 cent store at a better price than Ralphs, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I'd be pissed if I didn't have a 99 cent store not a Trader Joe's. Only uppity people like Andre Perry would demand a Trader Joe's. If you want to shop at Trader Joe's to buy $11 lavender flavored organic nuts, just go to one. If you can't travel, the 99 cent store is fine to buy regular nuts. People don't need specialty grocery stores. They just need to buy good affordable food. Next Perry will be whining that there's no Gucci store in low income areas.

I'm Latino and live in a predominantly Latino area because it's a poorer area in Los Angeles. We have a 99 cent store and a Ralphs. I eat good, healthy, cheap food and am happy. I don't want or need an expensive Whole Foods or Trader Joe's store. Maybe I should be like Andre Perry and yell that markets are racist against Latinos because I personally don't get what I want. Perry seems to always forget that his predominantly black areas (10% or more black) also have 90% poor Latinos, whites and others. He only cares about black people because he has a personal agenda. I read most of his book "Know your price" and he basically admits that he's racist against white people. He blames every problem on white people.

Maybe I should lie and state that all companies that don't cater to poor Latino me are racists against Latinos. I'd probably get a good following of poor angry Latinos who think all their problems are caused by others. I bet I could write a book about Latino hate and make money writing hate books, giving hate speeches and spewing racist lies to further divide our country just like Andre Perry. I would never do that because that would be dishonest and racist. Andre Perry is doing it because of his racism and he likes the money and false accolades. He needs to make more money so he can shop at more expensive Trader Joe's.

Mary Cummins

Monday, April 10, 2023

HUD only cares about appraisals UNDER contract price which is dangerous by Mary Cummins

appraisal value over under contract sales price, mary cummins, real estate appraiser, real estate appraisal, fannie mae, percent sales price, contract price, appraisal, value

Dave Towne sent out this linked article about bias and appraisal gap.

"The article below was in the Inside Mortgage Finance Publications e-newsletter on 4/06/23:

"FHFA Data Fueling Looks into Appraisal Bias

dhollier@imfpubs.com

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is a is a critical provider of the data necessary for oversight, enforcement and research, FHFA Director Sandra Thompson noted during a discussion in late March.

According to aggregate statistics from the Uniform Appraisal Dataset released by the FHFA, roughly 57% of appraisals were above the contract price in 2021. Just 15.2% were below the eventual sale price, but these are the under-valuations that could possibly reflect bias.

And the important datum here is that this percentage is growing. In 2013, only 8.4% of appraisals came in under the contract price.

In addition to providing data, Thompson noted that FHFA has coordinated with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice “to provide additional information for fair lending enforcement and oversight.”

If this actually reflects the true thinking of Ms. Thompson, she has aligned with so many others who believe SALE PRICE is immutable, and is the ultimate indicator of Value, and apparently, of bias, when not accepted as gospel by the appraiser. My gosh, what a misguided opinion!

Apparently Ms. Thompson didn’t see, experience or understand what happened during the ‘pandemic era’ in mid-2020-early ‘22, when overly emotional, and irrationally exuberant buyers paid astronomical prices for homes way above what their actual value was. The same thing happened in 2006-2008.....but it wasn’t considered ‘bias’ then due to the different political climate and attitude at that time.

Conversely, how can it be said that valuing a property lower than its eventual sale price based on current market evidence is tantamount to BIAS? And, if 57% of the appraised values were ABOVE the sales price, couldn’t that also reflect BIAS? Seems to me that if one comparison in one direction is considered bias, the other in the opposite direction can be equally judged the same.

To better understand this concept, look up the definition of bias.

The political drumbeat of appraisal bias just because an appraisal Value doesn’t reflect Sales Price is blatantly wrong-headed. In fact, it reflects internal personal bias at worst, and exhibits a definite lack of understanding of the appraisal process, by the person promoting such falsehoods.

More appraisers should stand up and challenge Ms. Thompson’s assertions."

I agree that we should be looking at the over valuations. That is probably where most of any alleged "bias" would be. In the major media cases of alleged bias the first lower appraisal is considered the wrong one when it was actually the higher second appraisal that was wrong and above market value.

The second higher appraisals were influenced, biased by the AMC, Lender and borrowers who stated the first appraisal was too low. The second appraiser knew there'd be a complaint or lawsuit if they didn't come in high. Clearly the second appraiser was influenced to come in over market value. In the appraiser's eyes he has much to lose coming in at market and much to gain by coming in above market. That's all fine until the borrower goes under and the gov reviews the appraisal in default which they stated they will do. This is a concern because the current economy and real estate market is going down. People are losing jobs as interest rates rise. More homeowners could end up under water and in default.

Things are a little similar to the beginning of the Great Recession. We all know what happened after the Great Recession. The gov pushed appraisers to come in high to meet higher values. After values dropped the government blamed appraisers! We report values. We don't set them. The gov caused the huge run up with reduced financial regulations and programs which helped lower income people take on loans they couldn't easily afford. The gov caused great financial damage to the people they said they were helping.

Image above came from this article
https://www.fanniemae.com/research-and-insights/perspectives/opportunities-improve-value-appraisals

Nice quote from the above linked article, "Reforms following the 2008 housing crisis attempted to improve the independence and accuracy of appraisals, and some early research indicated these reforms were marginally successful, with the percent of transactions confirmed falling from a high of 98 percent in 2007 to 94 percent in 2009. Confirmation rates, however, have since drifted back up as we have moved further away from the financial crisis."

So was it the financial crisis or reforms which caused change in % of appraisals meeting contract price?

What's interesting is there were appraisals done pre and post contract. When the appraiser knew the contract price, the value was more likely to meet or exceed that contract price. Maybe appraisers shouldn't know the contract price because it clearly influences them. Fannie Mae even makes that suggestion in their article.

Fannie Mae knows the industry and what's really happening. They can't speak freely because they are dependent upon HUD and the government no matter how "independent" they claim to be. For this reason they kiss HUD's ass and support all this false alleged appraisal bias. AEI's research has shown there is no appraisal bias based on race in the government's own data. HUD still falsely insists there is for political reasons. 2024 elections are coming. I bet Dem candidates will still be hawking racial appraisal bias in their campaigns to get the black, brown vote. They will claim they already solved most of the alleged bias but will continue to do more.

Mary Cummins

Mary Cummins, Real Estate Appraiser, Animal Advocates, Los Angeles, California

Friday, April 21, 2023

Tucker Carlson speaks the truth about real estate appraisals now?! Last show. by Mary Cummins

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Andre Perry falsely states grocery stores are racist. More bad "research," by Mary Cummins

Monday, April 10, 2023

HUD only cares about appraisals UNDER contract price which is dangerous by Mary Cummins