UPDATE: 03/24/23 Marcia Fudge just said the same thing in a video almost word for word. Notice how different her tone of voice is in this video compared to other videos. Here she is speaking slow, politely, calmly and even has an interesting accent which is very different than her normal speaking voice. She's not as sharp, condescending, abrasive, abusive or calling all appraisers and whites racists like she usually does. She is flat out lying when she says data proves that "appraisal bias is real." There is no data or research which proves that. There is research based on the government's data which proves it does not exist in the reports and valuations.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/hud/videos/native/urn:li:ugcPost:7044684730058895360/
ORIGINAL: Today the White House claimed they "fixed" the alleged "racial and ethnic bias in home valuations." They claim the Biden-Harris PAVE task force has "fixed" the "wealth gap" among whites and blacks, browns related to home value. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/23/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-tackles-racial-and-ethnic-bias-in-home-valuations/ This is beyond misleading and couldn't be further from the truth.
Let me preface this by stating I'm a Latino Democrat woman who voted for Biden. I support Biden in most of his policies. I do not support his policies related to real estate appraisers and the appraisal industry. Biden, Harris merely created a non-existent problem to get black, brown votes. They stated they alone can fix the problem if elected. They formed the PAVE task force to fix the made up problem. Then they claimed they fixed the problem. Ta da! Pat on back. No easier problem to solve than a nonexistent one.
Nothing has really changed. The main reason is because the problem never existed. The "fixes" also already existed. Black, brown owned homes are worth less than white owned homes because of the income gap. It's a fact that blacks, browns make less money than whites. If you make less money, you have less money in general and less generational wealth. If you have less money, you buy a less expensive home than someone who makes more money. That less expensive home is in a less expensive area. Here is research provided to the PAVE task force which proves this https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/aei-housing-center-response-to-perry-and-rothwell-2021/ . Appraisers are not appraising the homes differently based on race! People who make less money also buy and own less expensive cars. Are car values also the fault of "biased" real estate appraisers?
The release states "In just 12 months, the PAVE Task Force has made critical progress towards fully implementing the Action Plan, including by empowering consumers with new tools and greater awareness of appraisal bias; leveraging data to identify trends and crack down on offenders of appraisal bias; and supporting a well-trained and dynamic appraiser profession." Let's take a look at these three areas of "success."
1. "Empowering consumers to take action against appraisal bias."
They claim borrowers can now file a Reconsideration of Value if they don't like the value. Borrowers have always been able to file a ROV! I've seen ROVs for at least 30 years. HUD stated they're giving $54,000,000 to private non-profits to help them educate the public about ROVs and related items. A huge waste of funds that should have been used to solve the income gap problem and actually help people. This also shows the agenda of the private nonprofits receiving the funds. They will support this flawed idea to get millions of dollars.
2. "Increasing transparency and leveraging federal data to inform policy and improve enforcement against appraisal bias."
They've released similar data for at least 20 years. This is how people have been able to do research on appraisals and home sales, values. This research on this "new" data proved there was no racial bias by appraisers. It also proved that the values are based on location. Remember the three biggest indicators of value are location, location, location. This data proved that the main correlation between home value and borrower is income and not race.
3. "Cultivating an appraiser profession that is well-trained and looks like the communities it serves. The Administration is taking steps to remove unnecessary educational and experience requirements that make it difficult for underrepresented groups to access the profession and to strengthen anti-bias, fair housing, and fair lending training of existing appraisers."
They proposed adding education on bias as part of license requirements and it's not even final yet. This was already a requirement and had been a requirement since at least 1989. Appraisers were talking about using different types of experience i.e. PAREA, to get a license long before Biden was elected or any talk of racial bias. The apprentice experience program is difficult for people of every color and race. They still have not finalized a change in the requirements for experience. While they talked about making appraisers more diverse there has not been an actual change in the diversity of appraisers. Luring black, brown people to become a new appraiser in a market with no business that requires three years minimum experience to get work is actually a cruel thing to do to lower income people.
Most upsetting in this puff release is they mention the Austin lawsuit in Marin, California, "Austins' home was appraised at roughly $500,000 more than its initial appraised value after having a white friend stand in for them. Earlier this month, the Tate-Austins settled a housing discrimination lawsuit." They forget to mention that the Defendant not only didn't admit wrong doing but there was no wrong doing on the part of the first appraiser. They assumed the second appraisal was correct when it wasn't. The first appraiser only settled because of legal fees and harassment which the Federal government encouraged and aided. Having a white friend stand in for them had no effect on value. They requested another appraiser and appraisal from the same AMC. That appraiser knew the borrower's target value and wanted to please the borrower for fear of a lawsuit and AMC, lender to keep getting work.
This entire issue of alleged bias in appraising is beyond frustrating, maddening and sad. It makes me wonder how many other fake problems were created in politics just to get votes. How many other "we fixed the problem!" statements were just fake puff statements like this one. The worst part is the administration hasn't helped the people who are suffering from the income gap among white and black, brown. It's clearly easier to call appraisers "racists" and blame them for the wealth gap than fix the real problem of income disparity.
*I'm using "black," "brown" because that is what the release states to be clear.
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.
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