The Appraisal Foundation Announces Initiatives to Grow Diversity and Combat Bias in the Appraisal Profession

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Appraisal Foundation President Dave Bunton this week announced new initiatives to increase diversity and combat bias in the appraisal profession.

"There is no place for discrimination in the appraisal profession," Bunton writes in a column outlining these initiatives. "This has been the goal since The Appraisal Foundation began writing national standards for real estate appraisers more than 30 years ago. But recent tragedies across our nation have highlighted how much more work we need to do to combat systematic racism in the United States, and that extends to the housing industry."

The Appraisal Foundation is taking action including:

• Creating the Diversity and Inclusion Special Committee whose charge is to promote more diversity in the valuation profession,
• Modifying education requirements for current and aspiring appraisers to include specific content to address bias, discrimination, or fair housing issues in appraisal,
• Editing the appraiser qualification criteria to underscore  the importance of continuing education courses related to fair housing issues in appraisal, and specifying in Guide Note 1 related to the Core Curriculum for qualifying education that one topic to be covered will be bias, discrimination or fair housing issues in appraisal,
• Reaching out to historically Black colleges and universities to potentially partner and get their curriculum approved through the University Degree Review program,
• Developing a mentor/trainee matching program to help aspiring appraisers identify current appraisers who would like to take on a trainee, and
• Issuing Questions and Answers reiterating language contained in the ETHICS RULE of USPAP related to bias and discrimination and updating Advisory Opinion 16 on Fair Housing.

"While The Appraisal Foundation's Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) has specifically prohibited discrimination since the first writing in 1989, it is clear that we must do more," Bunton writes.

If you are interested in publishing Bunton's column, please contact Amy Timmerman at [email protected].

SOURCE The Appraisal Foundation