Appraisal discrimination: when skin color affects the value assigned to a home [Video]

Philomena Asante couldn’t believe it when she saw the appraisal on her home by the ocean in Nahant — a home she had purchased a year and a half earlier.In the red-hot real estate market and near the water, the appraiser working on her mortgage refinance decided her home was worth less than what she bought it for. He appraised it at $350,000, which is $23,000 less than what she paid.”There was nothing about the property that would say that the value had gone down,” Asante said.The only reason she could think of? “I think that appraiser was surprised to see me as the owner,” she said.Asante, who is Black, believed she was discriminated against.She said even the lender was surprised at the lower appraisal but told her there was nothing they could do and declined to refinance the mortgage, meaning she lost out on thousands of dollars in savings …