Income Inequality
True
integration is the sharing of resources, responsibilities, and power. Anything
less than that is discriminatory amounting to Apartheid America.
Why
We, The Ginicoe Family, ASSEMBLE on the Internet and invoke our 1st Amendment
Rights
to assemble and seek redress from authorities.
Example
of Racial Inequality in Real Estate:
A
mixed-race couple claims a "whitewashed" valuation in 2023 returned a
price 39% higher than the depository-approved result a year earlier.
A
mixed-race couple claims U.S. Bank and an Ohio appraiser violated fair housing
laws after a "whitewashed" appraisal delivered a significantly higher
home value than their earlier review.
Carlos
Turner, a Black man, and his wife, Diana Davoli-Turner, a Canadian permanent
resident, say the whitewashed appraisal was 39% greater than the bank-appointed
review. The couple's federal lawsuit, initially filed in December, echoes a
complaint filed in 2022 against Loan depot and follows greater attention from
feds on the issue of racial bias in the valuation process.
The
couple claims their Springboro, Ohio home was appraised by an in-state company
at $520,000 in March 2022. It was a review done with a different lender as the
homeowners mulled a refinance amid lower interest rates. Davoli-Turner later
applied for a home equity line of credit with U.S. Bank, and a review by a
different appraiser, Kevin Henley of Henley Appraisals one month later
determined a $470,000 home value.
Henley's
appraisal was filled with errors and the bank did not perform any additional
review, according to the complaint. The couple, considering rising rates, a few
months later agreed to a $34,363 HELOC with U.S. Bank for a 30-year term with
an interest rate over 10%.
"The
Henley defendants' undervaluation of the Turner plaintiffs' home reflected
their belief that, because plaintiff Turner is Black, and plaintiff
Davoli-Turner is not a U.S. citizen, they did not belong in Springboro, a
predominantly white city," the suit states.
The
Turners contacted the Miami Valley Fair Housing Center, a Dayton-based
nonprofit, to investigate their ordeal, and the organization arranged a
"whitewashed" appraisal in May 2023. The walkthrough involved
removing photographs and other markers of the family's ethnicity, and the
plaintiffs weren't present. That review determined that the home's value was
$655,000, a figure far outpacing the increase in local property values
year-over-year, an attorney for the couple said.
U.S.
bank declined to comment on the lawsuit, while attorneys for both parties and
Henley didn't respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Henley's
appraisal allegedly used the incorrect square footage of the couple's home and
used an unreliable sales comparison to help determine its value. The appraiser
also allegedly asked the couple why they sent their children to a private
school for athletics rather than the local high school, which the plaintiffs
construed as racially motivated.
The
bank, in a response earlier this month to the initial complaint, said the
school comment raises no inference of discrimination due to the couple's
national origin or race. Carlos Turner should be dismissed from the lawsuit,
the bank argues, because he did not apply for the loan nor was listed on the
appraisals.
Davoli-Turner's
earlier loan applications were denied for "major" credit report
delinquencies, U.S. Bank said, while plaintiffs said the applicant was
"unaware" of such delinquencies. Lawyers for U.S. Bank also rejected
Davoli-Turner's allegation that the bank's request to confirm her permanent
residency status was discriminatory. They point to rules by federal regulators
which permit such inquiries, to allow lenders to confirm if consumers can
continue to repay.
"No
facts suggest that any loan was denied due to her Canadian national origin —
the refinance and home equity loans were denied because she did not
qualify," wrote attorneys for the bank.
The
Miami Valley Fair Housing Center is also a plaintiff in the case. Henley has
not yet retained an attorney per court records in the U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of Ohio's Western Division. The plaintiffs, in addition
to seeking damages in excess of $25,000, want employees of the defendants to
receive fair housing law training.
Financial
regulators in recent years have focused more on appraisal bias, making
suggestions in the past year for housing stakeholders to monitor for instances
of discrimination. The White House two years ago also introduced a task force
to combat inequities in the valuations.
The
similar suit against Loan depot and an appraiser from a Black couple in
Maryland remains pending.
Reprinted
from: American Banker. 3/1/2024, pN.PAG-N.PAG. 1p. entitled U.S.
Bank, Ohio appraiser sued for biased home appraisal.
_______________________
Why We Have to Make Institutions
Form a More Perfect Union
The
head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau summarized his findings from a
yearlong probe into the Appraisal Foundation. He says the "lawmaking
body" is not accountable to the public or market forces.
The
organization tasked with writing rules for the home appraisal profession is
ill-equipped to address issues of bias that have been a focal point for
Washington regulators, according to the head of the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau.
In a
letter released Monday, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said the Appraisal
Foundation — a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit — was "essentially a
lawmaking body," albeit one that is held accountable to neither the
general public nor market forces.
"These
issues are deeply troubling as the Appraisal Foundation is one of the most — if
not the most — powerful players in America when it comes to appraisals and
plays a controlling role in key issues contributing to appraisal bias,"
Chopra wrote. "As long as the Appraisal Foundation remains an insular body
controlled by a small circle, operating behind closed doors, those issues will
continue to go unaddressed."
Banks
and other lenders rely on appraisals to ensure the collateral value of homes
they issue mortgages against. Appraisal bias became a top concern for the Biden
administration after several high-profile instances of Black homeowners
alleging discrimination by home appraisers in 2020 and 2021, amid a boom in
purchases and refinancings.
Dave
Bunton, the president of the Appraisal Foundation, refuted Chopra's findings in
a statement shared with American Banker on Tuesday.
"The
Appraisal Foundation is committed to developing high quality standards and
qualifications that uphold public trust in the appraisal profession,"
Bunton said. "We have always operated in a way that promotes transparency
and an opportunity for all voices to give input on the standards and
qualifications that impact appraisers and the public alike."
Chopra's
letter summarizes his findings from a yearlong exploration of appraisal bias
conducted by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's Appraisal
Subcommittee, an intergovernmental agency composed of the CFPB, the Federal
Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, the Department of
Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The
subcommittee has held four hearings on appraisal bias, during which it has
interviewed industry participants, academics and regulatory officials —
including leaders from the Appraisal Foundation.
"Throughout
those hearings, the witness testimonies point to an insular and contorted
governance structure that all but guarantees that the profession and practices
remain out of tune with the needs of [the] housing market, and much less likely
to address appraisal bias," Chopra wrote.
Following
one of the hearings last summer, Chopra singled out the Appraisal Foundation
and its "byzantine" approach to regulation as an area of primary
concern.
The
foundation was granted rulemaking authority over the appraisal profession in
1989 by the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act, or
FIRREA — one of several pieces of legislation passed in the wake of the savings
and loan crisis. It does this by issuing the Uniform Standards of Professional
Appraisal Practice, or USPAP, which then inform state-level licensing and
regulatory policies.
Appraisal
professionals must pay for USPAP materials. Fees from these sales and licensed
rights for related educational programs and materials fund the foundation.
In his
letter, Chopra noted that the officials that set these standards and those that
serve on the foundation's board of trustees are selected through a
nontransparent process — one that has, at times, been influenced by a
"pay-to-play" mechanism that gives special nominating priority to
paying sponsors or "partners."
The
CFPB director also raised issues with the foundation's standards for avoiding
conflicts of interest, drawing a sharp line between its code of conduct and
that of the federal government.
"The
Standards of Ethical Conduct applicable to executive branch employees are 77
pages. The Appraisal Foundation's conflict of interest policies are each under
two pages. The code of conduct is four," Chopra wrote.
"Unsurprisingly, there are substantial differences in the policies."
The
letter made no specific recommendations for how the foundation or the oversight
of it should be changed.
In his
response statement, Bunton — who is set to retire from the foundation after
more than 30 years at the helm — said the past few years have been an
"incredibly transformative time" for the organization. He said it has
tackled the issue of bias in appraisal "head-on" and taken a hard
look at its internal policies and practices.
"I
am disappointed that a hearing on appraisal bias turned to personal attacks
rather than exploring opportunities to collaborate on this critical
issue," Bunton said. "Appraisal bias is a serious matter that
requires our combined efforts, and I look forward to working with the Appraisal
Subcommittee to root out discrimination and build public trust in the appraisal
profession."
~~~~~~~~
By
Kyle Campbell
Reprinted
from: American Banker. 3/19/2024, pN.PAG-N.PAG.
1p entitled Chopra: 'Insular' Appraisal Foundation unlikely to address
bias.
Socially responsible investing (SRI) is an investment strategy that highlights the above facets of ESG. Ginicoe seeks donors who are poised for SRI by making your generous gift to us today to further our overriding legitimate business purpose of reducing political violence risk by integrating housing that leads to reducing the gap of income inequality for all U.S. Citizens – P52 and Non-P52 alike. See Segregation and the Concentration of Poverty pg. 391 - 530 . Donate Here