Tagged: discrimination

Price Fixing & Discrimination - FNMA & FHLMC Bond Price Fixing Claims 7

FNMA & FHLMC Bond Price Fixing Claims

Are the profits being reported by Fannie and Freddie being skewed because of price fixing? In an article released on CNBC by Reuters, US District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled investors can pursue antitrust claims against banks for conspiring to fix prices of bonds from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to the article, there are transcripts of chat room discussions that prove a conspiracy to price fix mortgage backed bonds from Fannie and Freddie between January 2009 and January 2016. Rakoff wrote. The chats unmistakably show traders, acting on behalf of those defendants, agreeing to fix prices at a specific level before...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisal Organizations / Appraisers News

Is Race Baked into Big Data? Who's Regulating Big Data When It Errs? 18

Is Race Baked into Big Data?

Chicago appraiser and friend (even though she calls me “fancy pants”) writes a stellar explanation of what an appraiser actual does – and what one of the panel experts got completely wrong because he didn’t understand our role in the mortgage process: Greetings Congresswoman Waters, Chairman Clay, Ranking Member Duffy, Ranking Member Gooden, and the Members of the Housing Subcommittee: My name is Maureen Sweeney, and I am a real estate appraiser. I grew up in a real estate family and lived through the savings and loan crisis of the 1980’s, which had a profound impact on my life. I...

Snippets / Trending

Race Never Considered... Emerging Narrative of Appraisers Being Racists 75

Appraisers Don’t Use Race

Appraisers don’t use race… Race is NEVER considered during a valuation Last week in a congressional hearing on the future of the appraisal profession, some research was used to suggest appraisers are showing racial bias and essentially undervaluing black neighborhoods. I was not expecting the conversation to go that way during the hearing and I’ll admit I’m deeply concerned about the emerging narrative of appraisers being racists… In the congressional hearing a panelist talked about a study that shows black neighborhoods are devalued by $48,000 compared to otherwise similar white neighborhoods. That’s alarming and society needs to have some serious...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Political Action / Trending

Racial Bias: Redlining in the Modern Era 13

Racial Bias: Redlining in the Modern Era

…are they behind this modern day redlining?… The broad definition of an algorithm according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary is “a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end.” It is pretty basic and fully understood, right? Now think back to those dreaded English classes. When did you learn about acronyms? Grade School, High School, College? Regardless, let’s just say it was a while back, so I will refresh your memory. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, an acronym is” a word formed from the initial letter of words of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound...

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

Relationships with Companies Harming Appraisers' Interests ... Wells Fargo 60

What’s In a Relationship?

Salvaging Relationships with Appraisers… Wells Fargo, one of the oldest banks in the country, is working hard to salvage relationships, not with just customers and regulators, but appraisers as well. Wells Fargo recently stopped using Appraisal Management Companies and is aggressively trying to build an appraisal panel of their own. Appraisers are excited that one of the largest banks in the country is no longer using AMC’s. We give Wells Fargo high “Kudos” for making a change in the right direction. However, there is a bit of a dilemma when making an informed decision whether to have a relationship with Wells...

AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Desirable - banned Fannie Mae words 10

Desirable, Rite or Rong?

Desirable, banned or permitted? I was caught up in a minor ‘dispute’ last week when a review appraiser wacked my knuckles when I described a ‘neighborhood’ as being “Desirable.” My original message was re-distributed on various forums and I’ve tried to read all comments to see how I might learn from this episode. Lots of appraisers offered their input. Some supportive and positive, some cautionary, and some who believe much of what we have to deal with is pretty trivial. “Banned words” were originally identified in the Fair Housing Act law many years ago (not the EEOC law as I...

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

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