{"id":19223,"date":"2021-12-10T08:34:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T16:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/?p=19223"},"modified":"2021-12-16T12:23:38","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T20:23:38","slug":"50-more-if-youre-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/10\/50-more-if-youre-white\/","title":{"rendered":"50% more if you’re white"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Real estate appraiser Janette Miller of Miller & Perotti Real Estate Appraisers<\/a> is being sued for racial discrimination. She came out to value the property of Paul and Tenisha Austin, who live in Marin City, in Marin Marin County, CA. Her 2020 appraisal was $995,000 – $455,000 lower than the appraisal the couple were given in 2019, even though they did substantial remodeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Austins were rightly concerned so they white-washed their property, removed all family photos, and had their white friend, “Jan,” place her own family photos around the property and had Jan present to be the homeowner when a second appraiser toured the property. That “white” appraisal came in at $1.5 million – almost 50% more. The Austins are now suing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marin appraiser sued for alleged race discrimination<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By RICHARD HALSTEAD<\/a> | rhalstead@marinij.com<\/a> | Marin Independent JournalPUBLISHED: December 6, 2021 at 6:17 p.m. | UPDATED: December 9, 2021 at 4:11 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California and a Marin City couple have sued a San Rafael appraiser in federal court for alleged race discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Austin and his wife, Tenisha Tate-Austin, both of whom are Black, were surprised when the appraisal of their home in February 2020 came back $455,000 lower than an appraisal done in March 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Austins sought the appraisal because they wanted to take advantage of lower interest rates and obtain additional funding to complete home improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Janette Miller of Miller and Perotti Real Estate Appraisers conducted the second audit and is named as a defendant in the suit along with AMC Links LLC, which hired her to do the job at the request of the Austins\u2019 mortgage broker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe that Ms. Miller valued our house at a lower rate because of our race and because of the current and historical racial demographics of where our house is located,\u201d Austin said. \u201cThe sales comps that the appraiser chose to use were unsuitable and were guaranteed to lower the value of our house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To test their suspicion of discrimination, the Austins sought another appraisal. This time they took steps to ensure that the appraiser would not know that they are Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They packed away their family photos and removed any art that was African or African American. They also had a White friend greet the appraiser as if she was the homeowner when the appraiser visited the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact that there was nearly a half a million dollar bump in value after they erased themselves from their home is very strong evidence, we believe, of race discrimination,\u201d said Julia Howard-Gibbon, a lawyer for Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Miller nor AMC Links responded to requests for comment Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit makes clear that there were important differences between the way the two appraisers, both hired by AMC Links, arrived at their valuations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also believe that the (first) appraiser took race into account when she valued the home by comparing it to sales primarily in Marin City,\u201d Howard-Gibbon said, \u201crather than a larger radius around the home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit asserts that appraising a house in Marin City using comparisons of other property sales located exclusively or primarily in Marin City results in a skewed and race-based valuation of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarin City has a long history of undervaluation based on stereotypes, redlining, discriminatory appraisal standards, and actual or perceived racial demographics,\u201d the suit states. \u201cChoosing to use comps located in Marin City means that the valuation is dictated by these past sale prices, which were the direct product of racial discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When doing her sales comparisons, Miller used three properties in Marin City, two in Mill Valley and one in Sausalito. The second appraiser used two properties in Marin City and six in Sausalito.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPulling comps within the neighborhood of the home and near the home isn\u2019t in and of itself problematic, if there are recent comparable sales,\u201d Howard-Gibbon said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit asserts this was not the case. It quotes Miller as writing in her appraisal that she based her valuation on five years of Marin City homes sales, where no one year had more than four sales. As a result, the suit says, Miller\u2019s opinion is fundamentally flawed because of the small number of home sales per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit also identifies other problems with the approach that Miller took. It says Miller\u2019s market analysis was dated, looking at no sales more recent than 2008. It faults Miller for lowering the valuation per square foot on the houses located outside of Marin City that she used for comparison purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMiller opined that she looked at several years of data and determined that houses in Marin City were worth \u2018conservatively\u2019 25% less per square foot than those in \u2018surrounding areas,’\u201d the suit alleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suit asserts that two of the three Marin City homes used in the sales comparisons were unlike the Austins\u2019 home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Brookings Institution study released in 2018 reported that houses in majority Black neighborhoods in U.S. metropolitan areas were appraised for 23% less than properties in mostly White neighborhoods, despite having similar quality and amenities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The response from appraisers at the time was that their job is to assess local market conditions, not to create the conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plaintiffs in the Marin City suit are seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory damages, statutory damages and punitive damages, in addition to attorneys\u2019 fees and expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the suit, the Austins have suffered \u201cemotional distress with attendant physical injuries, and violation of their civil rights.\u201d The plaintiffs have requested a jury trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Spero in San Francisco. The defendants have not filed responses and have no attorneys listed in the court docket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An initial case management conference is scheduled for March 4.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mortgage industry has always been discriminatory towards black and brown people, particularly with lending. I hope the Austins get some relief in court and perhaps the outcome can change the tide for others facing the same discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thank you for reading today's post. \r\nHave an InterStellar Day! ~PrP <\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Real estate appraiser Janette Miller of Miller & Perotti Real Estate Appraisers is being sued for racial discrimination. She came out to value the property of Paul and Tenisha Austin, who live in Marin City, in Marin Marin County, CA. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,32],"tags":[1755],"class_list":["post-19223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-society","tag-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orderlyrandomness.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}