The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced Thursday that it would be terminating key polices from the Biden administration’s Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) Task Force—an initiative launched to address racial bias in home appraisals.
According to a release from HUD, the termination of “specific policies” is meant to eliminate regulatory hurdles, allowing the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to better serve homebuyers and homeowners.
“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. “Under President Trump’s leadership, the Biden-era’s obsession with DEI and overregulation is over. At HUD, we’re restoring common sense and putting the American Dream of homeownership back within reach.”
The specific terminated policies related to the reconsideration of Value and Appraisal Fair Housing Compliance include:
- ML 2024-16, Extension to the effective date of Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value (ROV) updates
- ML 2024-07, Appraisal Review and Reconsideration of Value
- ML 2021-27, Appraisal Fair Housing Compliance and Updated General Appraiser Requirements
Eliminating PAVE’s core policies is in line with President Trump’s Executive Orders, including Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis.
Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the OMB, Jeffrey B. Clark, referred to “wokeism” as a corrosive social policy.
“In reality, wokeism at HUD was brass-tacks economic policy that snatched away the American Dream of homeownership from an entire generation,” said Clark. “That ends today.”
The release cited data from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which concluded that other characteristics unrelated to race—including educational attainment, average credit score and family formation—are more likely significant drivers in differences between home values and appraisal outcomes.
“We’re encouraged that HUD and other agencies are beginning to roll back certain PAVE-inspired policies adopted by the Biden administration,” said Tobias Peter and Ed Pinto, Co-Directors at the AEI Housing Center. “These actions were driven by claims of race-based disparities in home values, mortgage denial rates and appraisal under-valuations.”
Task force background
Created by the Biden administration and HUD in 2021 as part of a broader campaign to attack wealth inequality, the PAVE Task Force released an action plan in 2022 to address racial and ethnic biases in the home appraisal process.
According to a fact sheet released by HUD, the median white family holds eight times the wealth of the typical Black family and five times the wealth of the typical Latino family.
“For generations, millions of Black and brown Americans have had their homes valued for less than their white counterparts simply because of the color of their skin or the racial makeup of the neighborhood,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge in a statement. “Black and brown homeowners in communities just like mine have not felt that they have had a voice or that the Federal government was doing enough to redress the issue of racial bias in the appraisal process.”
According to a study cited by HUD in 2021, eliminating racial disparities in the amount of wealth families gain from owning a home would narrow the wealth gap by an additional 16% between Black and white households and 41% between Latino and white households.
