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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and The Appraisal Foundation reached a conciliation agreement yesterday that resolved a December 2021 investigation ordered by former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge into allegations of discrimination into the foundation’s real property appraiser qualification criteria. However, the two parties put significantly different spins into their respective announcements of the agreement.

In a press statement, HUD declared the conciliation agreement was a “groundbreaking settlement” based on “a Secretary-initiated complaint against TAF alleging discriminatory barriers preventing qualified Black people and other persons of color from entering the appraisal profession on the basis of race in violation of the Fair Housing Act.” The department insisted there was a “lack of diversity in the appraiser workforce” because the foundation’s “experience requirement [was] a significant barrier to entry for underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, including Black people and other people of color.”

HUD stated the agreement “provides, among other items, for increased funding for an alternative, more inclusive path for fulfilling the experience requirement. These new requirements bring us closer to correcting historic discriminatory patterns in the appraisal industry.” HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman declared, “To help eliminate racial and ethnic bias from home appraisals, we must ensure that the industry looks like America.”

However, HUD waited until the very end of its press statement to acknowledge it “did not issue findings prior to entering into the Agreement,” although it claimed the agreement was “intended to resolve the issues raised in the Secretary-initiated complaint.”

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For its part, The Appraisal Foundation declared “no findings” resulted from HUD’s investigation, which it dubbed “a rare secretary-initiated political complaint” while declaring the agreement included a full list of activities “undertaken since 2020, a year prior to the start of the investigation, to promote diversity equity and inclusion in the appraisal profession.”

And whereas HUD announced The Appraisal Foundation “is required to establish a $1.22 million scholarship fund, which will be utilized to cover the cost of aspiring appraisers to attend Practical Applications of Real Estate Appraisal (PAREA) programs,” the organization insisted this fund was “a continuation of the Foundation’s Pathway to Success initiative with funding aided by grants and donor contributions.”

Foundation President Kelly Davids added, “We appreciate HUD’s recognition of our proactive efforts to lead the appraisal profession to welcome a new, diverse generation of appraisers and their support of our forthcoming scholarship program to aid new entrants to the field.”

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