🏠 PHILADELPHIA HOME APPRAISAL BIAS TASK FORCE

Councilwoman Parker made a working group last year called the Philadelphia Home Appraisal Bias Task Force, working partially in tandem with Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) that President Biden created in June 2021. Parker had previously published an op-ed on the subject with Ira Goldstein of Reinvestment Fund and Gregory Squires of George Washington University. The Task Force had several key findings: a lack of local data, a low number of appraisers that were not reflective of communities, homeowners not understanding the appraisal process, and the city not recognizing appraisal bias as a fair housing issue. These findings have now been compiled and released as a final report.

According to the report, there is a lack of quantitative and qualitative data for the entire appraisal process. The Task Force had numerous recommendations that revolved around working with all organizations that are involved in appraisal and housing, as well as community organizations to interview homeowners. The idea is to identify any existing or potential discriminatory appraisals at a variety of angles.
The report found that the demographic makeup of appraisers can influence the valuations. 95% of Philadelphia appraisers are white, and national figures for female appraisers is between 21% and 30%. The report recommended a clearinghouse of neighborhood information, favoring local appraisers, and training appraisers through various programs that are easily accessible through community college or online courses. Some Task Force members also suggested to remove the supervisor/trainee model that encouraged nepotism and replace it with a licensing model. However, the recommendation to partner with Better.com for training is concerning. Better.com is an online-only mortgage lender that has come under scrutiny for labor issues and is being investigated by the SEC. (Forbes has a timeline of events.) Partnering with Better.com may be a costly mistake for a city already mired in sketchy business deals.
Lastly, the report talked about educating homeowners and homebuyers and the lack of advocacy from the City. The recommendation from the Task Force is to support local housing counseling services and have the City put more resources into all of these efforts.
From the tone of the report, it is unclear whether Councilwoman Parker intends that more houses be appraised upwards, or that the lackluster appraisal process is influencing higher property taxes. We will be watching what comes from Parker's Task Force and City Hall to see what's next.

Download the full report here: https://www.reinvestment.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/PHL-HomeAppraisalBiasTaskForce_Report_July2022.pdf