How Three Black Women Hope to Change the Home Appraisal Industry
Two veteran appraisers and a newcomer have different but compatible approaches to combating discrimination against Black homeowners.
The home appraisal industry is overwhelmingly white, male and aging: the
Bureau of Labor Statistics says that of the 75,000 appraisers in the United States, 97 percent are white, and other surveys show that nearly three-quarters are both male and above the age of 45.
This lack of representation, Black real estate professionals say, is a glaring problem, contributing to a
persistent, widespread practice in the home appraisal industry to give higher values to homes when the occupants are white, and devalue them if the
owners are Black.
“The issue of discriminatory appraisals is a major challenge in our community,” said Lydia Pope, president of the
National Association of Real Estate Brokers, an advocacy organization for Black professionals in the industry. The simplest solution, Ms. Pope said, is recruiting more Black appraisers, and
particularly Black women. After a 20-year career as an appraiser, Jillian White said she has become a consultant so she can guide Black homeowners who feel they have been discriminated against
There needs to be mandatory bias training within the appraisal industry. And there has to be a more active role by lenders in banks to develop an appraisal bias review process. Yetunde Oshodi is training to become an appraiser through a
New York State program for Black people,
especially women, who want to become appraisers. She tried, and failed, to buy a home for three years.
