Carlette Duffy wanted to refinance her home, which she bought in 2017. She never expected the frustrating and disheartening experience she was about to endure.
Carlette is Black and lives in a historically Black neighborhood of Indianapolis. She planned on using the equity in her house to buy her grandparents' home.
Her first appraisal came back suspiciously underpriced. So did her second one. Carlette raised some questions, but the appraisal company refused to make any changes.
Then Carlette happened to hear about an article in The New York Times about the link between discrimination and home appraisals.
Could the fact she be Black have anything to do with the appraised value of her house?
Carlette decided to conduct a little experiment to find out.
First, she removed all the photos of her family and friends. She removed every single piece of African artwork and every book about ethnicity and African culture. And she put her academic degrees on full display.
Then Carlette had her white male friend attend her third appraisal — and she left any questions about race, in her application or otherwise, completely blank.
And what do you know? It was this third appraisal that afforded Carlette the opportunity to purchase her grandparents' home — because this new appraisal was more than double the first two …
