A group of stakeholders — including homeowners, real estate agents, appraisers and brokers — faced questions like this one at Wednesday’s Fair and Unbiased Appraisal Advocates roundtable held at the Country Club at Woodmore. The meeting came on the heels of a WUSA9 investigation on why some homes in Prince George’s County are appraised differently than others, leading to lower valuations and ultimately lower wealth accumulation.
Two families who spoke with WUSA9 say they lost thousands of dollars because their homes were appraised differently. They believe their houses were valued differently because they are black homeowners in a black-majority neighborhood.
“It’s pervasive. I’ve been fighting appraisal values for years,” said Angelique Best a mortgage broker for over 20 years. “After the market crashed and Dodd Frank came out … when we order an appraisal, we have to order it through the lender’s appraisal management company. So, we don’t have any relationship with the appraiser. We don’t even know who what appraiser is or even where they’re coming from.”
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed in 2010. The bill overhauled financial regulations and put in place safeguards to ensure what led to the 2008 crash did not happen again.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Larry Miller over at WUSA9
