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Whitewashing: the rewritten past of a home

Jun 28, 2023
Families of color must often take extreme measures to show the value of their home.
After the experience with her parents house, Jillian White says she doesn't know if she'd whitewash a home again.
Tim Boyle/Getty Images

What would the Biden administration's new plan do to fight racial bias in home appraisals?

Mar 24, 2022
The plan offers a number of steps to improve oversight of the home appraisal industry, and train appraisers.
Though the Fair Housing Act requires appraisers not to discriminate based on race, there are still big discrepancies between the value of homes owned by white versus Black or Latinx households.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

When it comes to the racial wealth gap, home appraisals are part of the problem

Aug 9, 2021
Sociologist Junia Howell shares her research on how appraisals contribute to inequality between Black and white homeowners.
The key to understanding racial inequality and appraisals is not through individual appraisers’ decisions, says sociologist Junia Howell. It’s “how the system or the way that we appraise houses more generally is structured or arranged."
Tim Boyle/Getty Images

Can changing home appraisal language help close the wealth gap?

Jul 27, 2021
Descriptions in appraisal reports can create racial bias and reduce the selling price of a home. Fannie Mae is trying to clamp down on tha
Fannie Mae issued new guidance to appraisers to avoid terms it labeled racially problematic, like “crime-ridden” and “integrated community."
Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images

Racial gap in appraisals devalues homes owned by people of color

Jun 8, 2021
Lower home appraisal values contribute to the wealth gap between white communities and communities of Black and Latinx people.
Real estate agent Don Robinson said he has seen the devaluing of homes in Black neighborhoods in Chicago with little recourse for the owners.
Manuel Martinez/WBEZ