Black homeowners in Boston lost billions due to….

Black homeowners in Boston lost billions due to….

“The typical home value of Boston-area homes with Black owners is 18% less than homes with White owners,” according to a Zillow research published in February. That has resulted in a $2.3 billion loss for Black homeowners in Boston as well as much-needed tax money for the city. Redlining originated from the appraisal industry’s past exploitation of race, and Boston’s Black areas continue to have lower property values. Black families might be affected for many generations, and the city of Boston will suffer an immediate and continuous loss of tax revenue.

Redlining is described as “the series of interlocking housing policies and practices that denied Black people equal access to housing and housing wealth over the last century” by the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA). Redlining, more specifically, refers to maps.

Black communities were always assigned a “D,” according to historian Kenneth Jackson. Redlining’s effects are still felt today.

The BPDA states that “redlined areas, with the exception of South End, tend to have lower housing values.”

As of March 14, the median price of a property sold in Boston was $697,000, according to Redfin.com. Boston has 18,502 black-owned units; if their price is reduced by 18%, that translates to $125,460 per unit, or an astounding $2.3 billion in total.

“I recently polled my homebuying counselors, and none of them had seen indications of bias when purchasing a home,” says Bob, director of community programming at Urban Edge. When someone wants to sell at the best price or refinance, bias is more likely to occur.

Real estate agent Melvin Vieira, a former president of the

the Realtors Association of Greater Boston concurs.

He claimed that it “sneaks in more on the refinance or sell side.”

Since there is no sell price for a refinance, the appraiser determines the loan’s worth. Low property value might result in lower loan amounts, higher interest rates, or even loan denial. This makes it harder for the homeowner to pay for college, fix up their house, weather hard financial times, or leave something to the following generation.

Attorney Linda Champion stated, “My friend’s parents gave her the down payment on her first home as a wedding gift.” That friend was Caucasian. In what number of Black families is that affordable? According to The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, very few. 2015 saw

Only 4.6% of appraisers are black, compared to 81% who are white, according to Zippia.com. According to a recent Federal Housing Finance Agency research,

“Value bias may arise from ongoing consideration of prohibited factors such as race.”

Urban Edge Housing Corporation (CUE) board member Champion, a managing broker, notes that she has witnessed assessors note “deteriorating market conditions” while writing down the assessed value of Mattapan residences.

Collings, one of the few black-certified appraisers in Boston and the principal and chief appraiser of Four Core Valuations, LLC, has a distinct perspective. “It’s true that bad actors exist everywhere, but is everything bad?” Because “there are built-in checks and balances in the system,” Mr. Collings disagrees.