Homes in predominantly Black communities in Baltimore and its suburbs were more likely to receive an undervalued appraisal, while homes in predominantly white neighborhoods were more likely to be overvalued in appraisal, according to a report released Wednesday by the Baltimore-based Abell Foundation.

The analysis, conducted by the Philadelphia-based Reinvestment Fund, used public appraisal data from 2013 to 2022 and also found that in the city specifically, predominantly Black neighborhoods were almost twice as likely — 13.3% in 2022 — to have undervalued appraisals compared to white neighborhoods, at 7.3%. Largely Black neighborhoods also had the lowest rates of overvalued appraisals.

The study’s authors, Ira Goldstein and Alana Kim, of the Reinvestment Fund’s Policy Solutions Group, wrote that appraisals tinted by bias can have harmful, compounding effects on communities, leading to higher required down payments, aborted transactions and lower sales prices in the Black community.

“Regardless of the source of the bias,” the authors wrote, “appraisal discrimination deprives homeowners of housing wealth and equity that should accrue from rising market values.”

The authors noted that artificially lower sales prices also have ripple effects on whole communities. It can cause other appraisers to misjudge what qualifies as a “comparable value” in a given neighborhood, leading to consequences for those hoping to refinance or sell their homes. And it can create strain over time on a locality’s tax base.

The study comes about three years after a lawsuit filed by a married Baltimore couple over their home’s appraisal made national news.

In 2021, Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott, professors at Johns Hopkins University, suspected the tens of thousands of dollars of improvements they had poured into their home, and the real estate market’s increased competitiveness, weren’t factored into their quote for one clear reason: Connolly, and Mott, who died last year, were Black.

Connolly, Hopkins’ Herbert Baxter Adams associate professor of history whose research has focused on race and housing, suspected bias was at play. The couple removed their photos from the walls, invited a white colleague to stand in for them and hired a second appraiser. The valuation went up nearly $300,000.

They reached a settlement with their mortgage lender last year, while the case against the appraiser remains active. Since then, questions about the prevalence of racial bias in home appraisals have swirled.

President Joe Biden’s administration created the first-ever Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity task force and released an action plan calling for more data transparency, more case resolution from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and more required training in Fair Housing law. But the action plan has since been pulled from the federal government’s website, and some worry that President Donald Trump’s White House will be less eager to take up the charge.

“This is a difficult and entrenched situation to solve,” said Claudia Wilson Randall, executive director of the Community Development Network of Maryland, calling it “systemic” and not solely the fault of appraisers. She said mortgage lenders and real estate professionals also share some responsibility in “undermining Black homeownership.”

And the problem likely won’t get better as Trump weakens the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established to safeguard consumers and monitor financial entities, Wilson Randall added.

In 2022, Maryland lawmakers created the Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity, which asked a diverse group to adopt recommendations to prevent appraisal bias. The cohort delivered their recommendations to lawmakers at the end of 2024, which suggests some of the same actions listed on the federal action plan.

That includes more government oversight, addressing any barriers to entry and outlining a clear appeals process, said Dominic Corson, a veteran real estate appraiser who, along with Wilson Randall, sat on the state task force.

Corson said the 30-member task force disagreed at times and featured a range of perspectives. But ultimately, he said, the group agreed that the process should be fair and easy to understand.

“That’s all anybody wants, is to make sure the process is transparent and they have a chance,” he said. “The problem is, it’s really difficult to look and spot racial bias. To try to get into someone’s mind and intention is a lot harder task.”

State lawmakers are advancing bills this year aimed at addressing some of the task force’s proposals. One would expand scholarship eligibility criteria for those seeking to become home appraisers; the field skews overwhelmingly white and male. Other legislation would prohibit the state’s commission for appraisers and management companies from requiring applicants to hold bachelor’s degrees, and another would authorize sellers to request an additional appraisal if the first one comes in below the property’s market value.

The Abell Foundation-Reinvestment Fund report noted that presence of bias in home appraisals showed some signs of improvement between 2018 and 2022, but still remained observable in the data. The study may also be incomplete: The authors acknowledged that they were unable to incorporate all home appraisals associated with government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This, they said, could mean observable appraisal bias may be underrepresented.