Action Plan for Fighting Bias in Appraisals

The Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) has issued an Action Plan to root out racial and ethnic bias in home valuations. The PAVE task force, co-chaired by HUD Secretary Martha Fudge and Domestic Policy Advisor Ambassador Susan Rice, was directed by President Biden to evaluate the causes, extent, and consequences of appraisal bias and to establish a set of recommendations to eliminate racial and ethnic bias in home valuations. Thirteen federal agencies participated in the task force.

Task force commitments and recommendations fall into five broad categories:

• Strengthening guardrails against discrimination in all stages of residential valuation
• Enhancing fair housing and fair lending enforcement and driving accountability in the appraisal industry
• Building a diverse, well-trained, and accessible appraiser workforce
• Empowering consumers to take action against bias
• Giving researchers and enforcement agencies better data to study and monitor valuation bias