Tagged: black

HUD Hands $54 Million to Nonprofits in Quest to Cow Appraisers 17

HUD’s Private Inquisitors Will Chill Protected Speech of Appraisers

HUD awarded $54 million to 182 nonprofits to serve as posses in a a Spanish Inquisition-style drive. The deep pockets of the federal government will be used to help the nonprofits chill the protected First Amendment rights of appraisers to develop disinterested opinions of value of the properties they appraise.  In the early 1990s, the Texas Legislature established an unusual nonprofit known as the Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. The times were dire. A near-biblical plague of weevils had descended on the state’s cotton crop. So, state lawmakers granted the private organization the powers of government to combat the malevolent creatures....

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / HUD / The US Department of Housing and Urban Development

Slew of Negative Reviews for Appraiser Miller 45

Slew of Negative Reviews for Appraiser Miller

Her Google & Yelp business pages have received a slew of negative reviews from people living as far away as New Zealand! As real estate appraisers, we understand the importance of accuracy and fairness in our work. We are expected to perform valuation services competently and in a manner that is independent, impartial and objective. We also know how important it is to uphold ethical standards in order to protect ourselves and our clients from potential legal action. The recent case of Austin v Miller serves as a reminder that even when we do our best, things can still go...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Marin City Discrimination Case Settled 30

Marin City Discrimination Case Settled

It’s unfortunate that this case was SETTLED in the way it was, because in reality, nothing about racial discrimination and disparate treatment was actually proven at a full trial…  The first case that’s been adjudicated claiming appraiser discrimination has been SETTLED by the defendant appraiser and the plaintiffs, with the judge “dismissing all claims with prejudice”, meaning it cannot be re-opened by the plaintiffs, but it can be appealed to a higher court by the defendant. From what I know, this case never went to a full trial. Motions were only presented to the presiding judge, who made this ruling....

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Freddie's Study, NPR Story Recall Notable Academic Hoax 10

Freddie’s Study, NPR Story Recall Notable Academic Hoax

NPR topped the online edition of its article with the headline, “Black and Latino Homeowners are About Twice as Likely as Whites To Get Low Appraisals.” The problem? Freddie never called the appraisals “low.” While the Freddie Mac study finds no evidence of undervaluation, the NPR story about the study somehow does. Almost 30 years ago, Alan Sokal, now a professor of mathematics at University College London, perpetrated a memorable hoax. He submitted a pseudoscientific article to a cultural studies journal called Social Text. By design, his paper was strewn with nonsense. Titled “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Finance Agency / FHFA

Two Cheers for an 'Evolved' Beltway Entrepreneur... David Bunton 27

Two Cheers for an ‘Evolved’ Beltway Entrepreneur… David Bunton

We come not to bury David Bunton, the public figure, but to praise David Bunton, the evolved Beltway organism. Who is David Bunton? Bunton has made a small fortune and canvassed the world at the helm of a 16-employee Washington, D.C., nonprofit that publishes a copyrighted code of conduct. The code gives his tiny fiefdom a big say in how collateral in the nation’s $11 trillion mortgage market is valued. He is a figure with outsized power in an immense market. His day-to-day funding source? For 30 years, his nonprofit, known as the Appraisal Foundation, has sold copies of its...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / The Appraisal Foundation

The Real Cause of the Home Value Gap Is the Income Gap 77

The Real Cause of the Home Value Gap Is the Income Gap

Blaming appraisers for the income gap will never solve the real underlying problem… Blaming appraisers for the income gap is as ridiculous as blaming appraisers for gun violence and gas prices. I watched the January 24, 2023 ASC Appraisal Bias hearing. Comments were requested after the hearing. This letter is my comment. I’ve been a real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California for 40 years. I’ve been a licensed California Certified Residential Appraiser since licenses were first offered in 1993/1994. I’m a Latino woman who speaks English and Spanish. I appraise property in the diverse county of Los Angeles and...

AI / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisal Subcommittee

Bringing More People Into a Dying Profession! 84

Bringing More People Into a Dying Profession!

Some people want to bring more people (primarily of color, which is great) into a dying profession. But the profession is being killed off by (mostly white!) people who think technology is the golden spoon to accurate valuations.  Appraisers, I’ve been studying, and writing about since 2006, all kind of issues surrounding our profession, and frankly some currently does not make sense. As many know, ‘we’ have been accused of not having “enough black people” in appraiser ranks. The claim is that blacks only represent 3% or so of the total population of appraisers. The people engaged in blaming appraisers...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Technology / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 22

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

This time around, the racial targeting is masked as a virtue under the heading “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” or “DEI.” Valuation Jiu-Jitsu Will Lead to Future Addie Polks Addie Polk was a 91-year-old African-American widow who shot herself in the chest in 2008 during a Fannie Mae-initiated eviction in Akron, Ohio. It marked the low point in Fannie’s embrace of toxic mortgages. Fannie, now in federal conservatorship, bought or guaranteed subprime loans made to vulnerable borrowers in the years leading up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. There are now signs of new abuses. Under the banner “equity and inclusion,” some...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Trending

Appraisers Should Closely Watch Probe of Departed Brookings Boss 48

Appraisers Should Closely Watch Probe of Departed Brookings Boss

The chief of the Brookings Institution, a retired four-star general, resigned last month under investigation of lobbying on behalf of a foreign government and then covering it up. If the allegations are true, it means the think tank, under the general’s watch, was secretly taking illicit cash from at least one outside interest group at a time it was engaged in research that irreparably damaged the reputation of the nation’s real estate appraisers. Astute appraisers wondered whether Brookings might have also been influenced by any well-placed donations from other groups, such as the powerful lobbies of the Realtors, home builders,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Fannie's Equity Plan: The Drinking Game 32

Fannie’s ‘Equity’ Plan: The Drinking Game

What makes equity so invidious as a governing tenet is that it involves not just helping people of one racial or cultural group but it has the effect of knocking struggling members of disfavored groups out of the game. One type of parlor game relies on players’ ability to maintain their memory, logic and articulation – all while getting blotto. These alcohol-fueled “think and drink” games are highly challenging. Even Britain’s royal family engages in such diversions if Netflix’s “The Crown” is to be believed. The games have names like “Bizz Buzz,” “Ibble Dibble,” “Never Have I Ever” and “Roman...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Finance Agency / FHFA

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