Black couple 'erased themselves' from their home to see if the appraised value would go up. It did..

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. For those wondering how a black owner can make a white neighborhood a black neighborhood.

A black person sitting in the kitchen makes it a “black neighborhood.” At least according to that appraiser. Apparently.

Appraisers are supposed to be really careful about who they photograph while making the report. Iirc, they are supposed to be really careful about trying to NOT include people in their appraisal photos (I remember seeing notes in reports if this was unavoidable - on a busy street for example). This rule is there to avoid bias in the person reading the report. But it’s harder to avoid bias in this case when the person MAKING the report has a bias.

This appraiser may have thought, consciously or unconsciously, she was doing the lender “a favor” by “protecting” the bank.

Worse yet, the appraiser may have been under orders to look out for “the black” neighborhoods.

I’ve been in the consumer lending business my whole career. An old-timer auto lending guy told me they used to place a discrete “X” on the top of a black person’s credit application when they would send the application to the bank. Which didn’t make sense because the car dealer would be cutting their own throat by lessening the chance of obtaining a loan for their sale. But it happened anyway.

Even reading the story in the OP my pasty white ass is thinking this couldn’t happen. Then I talk through what little I know about the history of lending in this country and it’s TOTALLY plausible.