Black couple settles lawsuit over home valuation that rose 0.5 mil when white friend posed as owner

A black couple has settled a lawsuit with a property appraiser who undervalued their California home by almost half a million dollars.

Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin’s four-bedroom residence in swanky Sausalito, near San Francisco, was valued at $998,000 by Janette Miller, co-owner of Miller and Perotti Real Estate Appraisers. That figure was $455,000 lower than an appraisal done for a prior mortgage refinance in 2019.

Feeling that their home was worth much more money, the Austins asked one of their white pals to pose as the owner of their residence. They had the home reappraised — and it was suddenly worth $1.48 million.

The Austins decided to sue Miller and her company claiming that her appraisal was “the direct product of racial discrimination.”

The case has now been settled out of court, with Miller agreeing to pay an undisclosed sum of money to the couple. The settlement also includes an unusual twist: The appraiser was also required to watch “Our America: Lowballed,” a documentary about their “white-washed” saga.

“Having to experience everything that came with receiving the lowballed appraisal was overwhelming,” Paul Austin, 47, said in a statement. “Being able to tell our story and knowing we had legal recourse helped.”

Wife Tenisha, 43, added: “The ongoing undervaluation of homes in black neighborhoods perpetuates the wealth gap between black and white families. We hope by bringing attention to our case and this lawsuit settlement, we can help change the way the appraisal industry operates, and we can start to see a different trend.”

The Austins purchased the home for $550,000 in 2016, feeling that they had obtained “a slice of the American Dream,” ABC 7 reported.

Several years after purchasing the home, the Austins decided to have it appraised, with an expert saying it was worth around $890,000.

The couple subsequently decided to renovate the home, which was built in the 1960s, pouring more than $400,000 into an overhaul, adding an entirely new level, as well as a new deck, a fireplace and flashy new appliances.

When Jeanette Miller came to value the home in 2020 they were confident the home would be worth well over $1 million and were stunned by her $998,000 figure.

“It was a slap in the face,” Paul told ABC7, while his wife added that the sum seemed “unbelievable.”

The Austins were eventually approved for a second appraisal with Miller and Perotti Real Estate Appraisers — but this time decided to have one of their white pals pose as the home’s owner.

“We had a conversation with one of our white friends, and she said ‘No problem. I’ll be Tenisha. I’ll bring over some pictures of my family,’ ” Tenisha recalled. “She made our home look like it belonged to her.”

The home was reappraised at $1.48 million — roughly $500,000 more than it was valued at just weeks prior.

“There are implications to our ability to create generational wealth or passing things on if our houses appraise for 50% less than its value,” Tenisha told ABC7.

The Austins decided to sue, with Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California participating in the suit as a co-plaintiff.

https://nypost.com/2023/03/08/black-couple-sue-white-appraiser-who-undervalued-home-by-500k/amp/

 

it just doesn’t stop

examples all across the country

Abena and Alex Horton wanted to take advantage of low home-refinance rates brought on by the coronavirus crisis. So in June, they took the first step in that process, welcoming a home appraiser into their four-bedroom, four-bath ranch-style house in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Hortons live just minutes from the Ortega River, in a predominantly white neighborhood of 1950s homes that tend to sell for $350,000 to $550,000. They had expected their home to appraise for around $450,000, but the appraiser felt differently, assigning a value of $330,000. Ms. Horton, who is Black, immediately suspected discrimination.

The couple’s bank agreed that the value was off and ordered a second appraisal. But before the new appraiser could arrive, Ms. Horton, a lawyer, began an experiment: She took all family photos off the mantle. Instead, she hung up a series of oil paintings of Mr. Horton, who is white, and his grandparents that had been in storage. Books by Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison were taken off the shelves, and holiday photo cards sent by friends were edited so that only those showing white families were left on display. On the day of the appraisal, Ms. Horton took the couple’s 6-year-old son on a shopping trip to Target, and left Mr. Horton alone at home to answer the door.

The new appraiser gave their home a value of $465,000 — a more than 40 percent increase from the first appraisal.

Race and housing policy have long been intertwined in the United States. Black Americans consistently struggle more than their white counterparts to be approved for home loans, and the specter of redlining — a practice that denied mortgages to people of color in certain neighborhoods — continues to drive down home values in Black neighborhoods.

Even in mixed-race and predominantly white neighborhoods, Black homeowners say, their homes are consistently appraised for less than those of their neighbors, stymying their path toward building equity and further perpetuating income equality in the United States.

 

imagine being in an area where homes are typically valued around 1.5-2mil, and u get a 900k valuation because you’re black

just evil