Veros Real Estate Solutions, an enterprise risk management and collateral valuation services company, released new research that shows its Automated Valuation Model does not discriminate based on redlining.
Experts have recently sounded the alarm on bias in home appraisals. Studies have shown that homes occupied by Black Americans are consistently undervalued compared to similar homes with white owners.
Automated home appraisals are supposed to reduce the problem by removing human biases altogether, but concerns persist that the algorithm, fed human-produced data, can reproduce these problems. Further, they may be harder to spot because of the apparent objectivity of the technology.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau introduced a rule intended to safeguard homeowners against this issue earlier this month.
“While machines…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Thursday that they have secured over $31 million from City National Bank to resolve allegations of redlining in Los Angeles County. City National is the largest bank headquartered in Los Angeles and among the 50 largest banks in the country. This is the largest redlining settlement agreement in the department’s history, according to a press release. Redlining is an illegal practice where lenders avoid providing credit services to individuals living in communities of color because of the race, color, or national origin of the residents in those communities. According to the complaint filed in federal court, City National avoided providing mortgage lending services to majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods…
By Randall Bloomquist In the mortgage public-policy cosmos, studies alleging racial bias in lending are like comets. They blaze across the industry skyline on a regular basis, drawing attention from the media and outrage from fair housing activists. The latest flare came from a report alleging Black applicants are nearly twice as likely to be denied a conventional mortgage as compared to White applicants with similar financial profiles. The study, which claims to advance the case for widespread lending discrimination through the analysis of newly available data about loan applicants, was generated by the non-profit investigative website The Mark-Up in partnership with the Associated Press. But according to some industry analysts, The Mark-Up’s j’accuse! moment comes up short. Those data crunchers say the…
Lawyers for the Chicago mortgage company Townstone Financial accused the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of targeting their client because of their political views – and not their business practices, as laid out by the agency earlier this week. Specifically, the lawyers say, “(CFPB Director Kathy) Kraninger is saying in this lawsuit that financial institutions are engaging in unlawful discrimination if they advertise too much on conservative media, or if their owners, executives, or staff express conservative political viewpoints, such as statements in support of the police. This is the next step in the left’s `cancel culture.’” On Wednesday, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Townstone for allegedly discouraging Black applicants from applying for loans while engaging in redlining by discouraging…
By Jim Perskie More than 50 years after redlining was outlawed, the practice still has a profound impact on the wealth and property values in neighborhoods across the country, according to a report released by Redfin on Thursday. The typical homeowner in a neighborhood that was “redlined” for mortgage lending by the federal government has gained 52 percent less – or $212,023 – in personal wealth generated by property value increases than those in greenlined neighborhoods over the last 40 years. “More than half a century after it was abolished, redlining continues to dictate the racial makeup of neighborhoods and Black families still feel the socioeconomic effects of such a discriminatory housing policy,” Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said. Redlining is…
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Wednesday it will not move forward with revisions to the nation’s anti-redlining law announced moments earlier by the Comptroller of the Currency. Comptroller of the Currency Joseph M. Otting announced the finalization of a rule to “strengthen and modernize Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) regulations,” saying the rule would make “CRA work better for everyone.” But the FDIC – which has joint rulemaking authority with the OCC over the law – responded from Chairman Jelena McWilliams moments later, telling banks its focus is on the coronavirus response and not changes to the CRA. “While the FDIC strongly supports the efforts to make the CRA rules clearer, more transparent, and less subjective, the agency is not…
