The lender in the FL case can be discovered because FL has excellent online public record transparency.
By quoting no appraiser interviewed for the NY Times article, the source can be deduced. I guess Mr. Perry does not like criticism, not that he receives much.
Mr. Perry wrote a paper and appeared before a Subcommittee hearing on appraisal a year ago last spring. Many of us here live-streamed it. It was the one with the head of TAF, the head of AI, and Joan Trice subbed in at the last minute when appraisers had written in support of Jonathan Miller, actually licensed, being invited to the panel. Mr. Perry, has a PhD, so Dr. Perry is appropriate. Dr. Perry is invited to the panel too.
The scholar presented his findings that day. Working appraisers do their part and send written responses to the subcommittee saying we are impartial, independent, objective…licensed.
This article appears this month in the NYT with accounts of black people having a bad time in real estate finance. Angle: black people in "mixed-race or predominantly white neighborhoods". One of the borrowers is the aforementioned Ms. Horton. She had written a FB post that goes viral. (I am not on FB because I can read Russian propaganda elsewhere and dumb stuff right here on this site.) Her lender is persuaded to send a second appraiser. Low appraiser bad, high appraiser good. Rather than say, advocate the power of effective complaint, this borrower tells of hiding her blackness, removing family photos and books, and sending in her white husband to host the second appraiser's inspection. A DIY of a classic testing scenario, which if we supported functions of government instead of gutting them, could be done again routinely. Still, we can guess the second appraiser is tipped off to the existence of a complaint though we cannot know it. Given her employment in the industry, this borrower has more of an arsenal than taking down books and family pics.
There is just something about it. No appraiser was interviewed for this article in a major newspaper. Instead, a quote is lifted from a letter written by an accomplished Chicago appraiser’s letter to that committee, back then, following Dr. Perry’s appearance.
All along I have said Dr. Perry’s work has been treated uncritically. Someone should do him the honor of reading and fairly critiquing it. If he appears on a news show, the host should ask him questions. I note again that appraisers are the focus or useful prop. So, in your daily work, whether it will end up as just another document in a loan file or could appear in a piece of political theatre, be your impartial, objective, and independent best. It is all we have.
