In a move that has drawn sharp criticism from housing experts, the Trump administration in July disbanded a key federal task force designed to address racial bias in home appraisals.
The Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) task force, which was launched in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, had coordinated multiple agencies to tackle systemic discrimination in property evaluations.
A South Florida housing expert told WLRN the administration's action ignores a longstanding hurdle for minority homebuyers who now face an uncertain future.
“To have this task force to be able to coordinate and integrate this and focus very much into the systemic aspects of the issue of appraisal bias or discrimination was really important,” said Ned Murray, Associate Director of Florida International University’s Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center.
Murray was the lead author of a first-of-its-kind 2023 study on racial inequities in homeownership in Palm Beach County. He found that — even after controlling for income, education, and neighborhood quality — significant racial disparities in property values persist.
Murray pointed to historical segregation policies that have left physical and economic scars on the community, including unfair government actions and discriminatory zoning and lending practices.
“We made it very clear in the Palm Beach County equity study the long history of segregation,” he said. “They [Black communities] remain separate physically in many ways.”
READ MORE: Racial inequities in housing persist in Palm Beach. New study seeks to address it
The visual and structural disparities, Murray said, often lead to lower home appraisals in majority-Black neighborhoods, impacting both property values and long-term wealth.
“You begin to see a real lack of public infrastructure. That devalues properties too, because investors and lenders see that.”
The White House has argued that socioeconomic factors — not race and racial segregation — drive disparities in home values.
“By tearing down these onerous hurdles, we’re freeing professionals from a tangle of red tape that drove up costs, inhibited access to homeownership, and discouraged market participation,” said HUD Secretary Scott Turner in a statement in early July.
Murray strongly disputes the administration's argument.
“No, it doesn’t,” he said bluntly. “When we're talking about very specific lending discrimination or appraisal discrimination, there's clear data that supports that.”
Murray cites studies by Freddie Mac, Brookings Institution, an independent research nonprofit, and his own research, all confirming that Black communities face disproportionate obstacles to building credit and equity.
These are barriers rooted in decades of exclusionary policies and redlining, discriminatory housing practice from the 1930s that labeled minority neighborhoods as high-risk, denying residents fair access to mortgages, loans, and insurance.
The practice persisted until 1968, when the Fair Housing Act was passed, making housing discrimination based on race illegal. At least on paper.
Home values are strongly linked to persistent wealth gaps, access to resources, and residential segregation.
Palm Beach County is home to more than 255,000 Black residents, representing nearly 12% of the population, according to the report, which uses the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. The largest Black communities are in West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Riviera Beach.
The Palm Beach County Housing Equity Study was conceived on the back of a $200 million bond approved last year to build 20,000 affordable and workforce housing units to address the county's dire housing crisis. It noted, for example, that almost 30% of renters were "severely cost-burdened," meaning they spent more than half their income on housing.
With PAVE rolled back, Murray worries enforcement of fair housing laws will weaken, especially at the already under-resourced Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Murray emphasized the CFPB’s key role in holding lenders accountable, noting it has returned $17.5 billion to consumers since 2010. He warned its future, and that of fair housing enforcement, is now "uncertain."
“It’s really the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that is really the lead agency holding financial institutions accountable for predatory practices,” Murray added.
“The concern would be what’s the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other agencies that oversee lending practices?” he said,
