WHYY, February 25, 2021, Home appraisals drive America’s racial wealth gap — 95% of Philly’s appraisers are white.
Racial bias in the appraisal industry — an industry that is dominated by white people — is an understudied contributor to historical and ongoing segregation and wealth disparities in Philadelphia and across the United States.
President Biden’s recently released Memorandum on Redressing Our Nation’s and the Federal Government’s History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies addresses the subject, stating:
“During the 20th century, Federal, State, and local governments systematically implemented racially discriminatory housing policies that contributed to segregated neighborhoods and inhibited equal opportunity and the chance to build wealth for Black, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Native American families, and other underserved communities. Ongoing legacies of residential segregation and discrimination remain ever-present in our society. These include a racial gap in homeownership; a persistent undervaluation of properties owned by families of color…”
