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Monday, March 31, 2025
April is Fair Housing Month in the State of Maryland: Free Trainings Available!
Civil Rights Coalition of Maryland Virtual Open House is on April 4th and 17th
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Monday, March 24, 2025
Abell Foundation Report Discovers Systematic Racial Bias in Home Appraisals in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area
A just-released report, authored by the Reinvestment Fund and funded by a grant from the Abell Foundation, examined newly available public data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) to analyze potential racial bias in home appraisals in the Baltimore metropolitan area during 2013-2022. The report found that neighborhoods with larger non-white populations tend to have a higher percentage of homes with appraised values that are lower than the contract sale price than what is observed in predominantly white neighborhoods. Conversely, predominantly white, non-Hispanic neighborhoods tend to experience a higher percentage of homes with appraised values that exceed the contract price.
While these racial differences in appraisal accuracy have lessened somewhat in recent years, negative patterns are continuing. Analysis of the public appraisal data suggests the presence of systematic appraisal bias that undervalues homes in predominantly Black communities in Baltimore City and the surrounding counties. Key observations from the neighborhood level analysis are:
• Neighborhoods with a predominant percentage of residents who are not-white, not-Hispanic tend to have higher rates of under-appraising than neighborhoods that are predominantly white, not-Hispanic.
• Neighborhoods with a predominant percentage of residents who are not-white, not-Hispanic tend to have lower rates of over-appraising than areas that are predominantly white, not-Hispanic.
• Between 2018 and 2022, these patterns show signs of improvement, but they remain observable in the data.
It is important to consider that the available federal and local data are limited because a disproportionate share of appraisals regarding Black borrowers is excluded, meaning that any evidence it provides of racial bias in appraisals potentially understates the problem.
The report also provides a summary of policies Maryland could institute to reduce the impact of appraisal bias. Among the recommendations of the Maryland’s Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity in late 2024 were: (1) Institute a reconsideration of value process in Maryland modeled after one used by the Department of Veterans Affairs which allows lenders or other interested parties to provide relevant information to an appraiser before a valuation is made and requires appraisers to contact the requester of the appraisal for additional information in cases where the appraised value appears likely to be lower than the agreed sales price; (2) Require timely reporting of sales of newly constructed residential properties to ensure that the comparable sales appraisers use to determine value reflect changes in communities; (3) Create a unit within the state government to provide a third-party review in cases where the reconsideration of value process is insufficient; and (4) Remove barriers to entry to the appraisal profession for minorities.
One recent example of this problem is that in March 2024, a Black couple - both professors at Johns Hopkins University - who claimed mortgage lender loanDepot denied a refinancing of their mortgage because it relied upon a racially biased, considerably low appraisal of their Baltimore home agreed to a legal settlement in which the lender vowed to change how it handles complaints of racially biased appraisals. The settlement filed in the U.S. District Court for Maryland also includes an undisclosed financial amount for the couple. It does not include any admission of liability or facts by loanDepot nor does it resolve complaints against the independent appraiser, who has denied liability and countersued for defamation.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Historic Redlining in Syracuse Continues to Impact Public Schools
The recent executive order limiting DEIA within the U.S. has sparked conversations regarding the importance of diversity within public schools. This article considers Syracuse, New York, as an example. While Syracuse has a population one-fourth of Baltimore, it has many parallels.
The city of Syracuse is one of the nation’s most racially segregated, most redlined, economically polarized, and poorest cities. Its Syracuse City School District (SCSD) remains highly segregated as a result of neighborhood borders drawn a century ago. The borders’ effects still surface in the school’s demographics. SCSD continues to feel the effects of segregation despite the formal outlawing of redlining in 1968 through the Fair Housing Act. New federal orders limiting diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility have local educators concerned for the future of these efforts.
SCSD (30 schools and 19,000 students) has seen low standardized test scores in recent years, according to U.S. News and World Report. From 2020-2022, 16% of students in SCSD elementary schools tested at or above a proficient level for English, while only 11% were found to be at that same level for math. Comparatively, the more suburban and predominantly white Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District (FMCSD) had 73% of students at or above the proficiency level for English, and 77% for math.
Christopher Cleveland, an assistant professor of education and education policy at Brown University, has said the current President’s policies are impacting the politicization of school segregation. While the president has not publicly spoken against integration efforts specifically, he said the cuts to federal funding likely will not help the cause. “(Integration) has not necessarily been considered a DEI issue. “So I think the question is how broadly framed DEI’s criticism is supposed to be relative to practices that have been in existence for the past 60-ish years.”
Syracuse remains one of thein the nation. When redlined maps are lined up with current maps showing the racial demographics of SCSD schools, the images reflect each other. The city still demonstrates a racial divide in schools, Searing said. The Century Foundation has reported that about 93% of Syracuse school segregation is a result of past segregation between districts. Neighborhoods that received a “D” rating from the Federal Housing Administration typically contain lower-performing schools and a majority Black student body. This contrasts neighborhoods that received an “A” rating, whose schools typically enrolled wealthier, white students and saw higher academic performance.
“Segregation has been illegal since 1964, but segregation still exists because the processes that created these realities have been in action for much longer,” Robert Searing, curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association commented. Segregation within school districts can also be traced to districts’ current catchment borders that outline school districts, frequently shaped to protect white neighborhoods and separate them from communities with more Black and Brown residents.
Christine Ashby, director of the Center on Disability and Inclusion at Syracuse University said “In the redlined neighborhoods, students with disabilities, particularly students of color, were less likely to be included, less likely to be in general education, and more likely to have particular disability labels than kids in other neighborhoods.”
To be certain, in addition to redlining, white flight - more affluent and white people moving to suburban areas for improved education options - also has played and plays a large role in the segregation of SCSD.
“Restrictive racial covenants were outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1948, but they continued to be enforced, because, as with any law, the law is only as good as the enforcement mechanism,” Searing said. “Is redlining technically illegal? Sure it is, but the practices still continue.”
Read the March 21, 2025 Syracuse University The Daily Orange article.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Anne Arundel County Hate/Bias Reporting Forum is March 29th
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Civil Rights Coalition of Maryland to Hold Virtual Open Houses on April 4th and 17th
In today's challenging times, it is important now more than ever that we come together in order to protect and promote our civil and human rights won in hard fought victories over many decades. For the benefit of all Marylanders, the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights will be relaunching Civil Rights Coalition of Maryland. Are you interested in learning more about the Civil Rights Coalition of Maryland and becoming a member? Please register and join MCCR at one of our virtual informational open houses! Please note - membership on the Civil Rights Coalition of Maryland will be reserved for organizations, agencies, nonprofits, and other stakeholder groups that want to work collaboratively to advance civil rights for all Marylanders. Private individuals will not be given membership on the Coalition. | ||||||
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