in our Spotlight on Business Report cracking down on discrimination in the housing market acting Governor Tahesha Way on Monday signed a new law aimed at preventing racial bias in home appraisals by requiring anti-bias training for all real estate appraisers and it makes the Discrimination illegal Studies have shown homes in Black and brown neighborhoods get undervalued compared to those owned by white homeowners or in communities considered largely white it's all contributed to the racial wealth Gap not just in New Jersey but across the country for more I'm joined by Laura Sullivan she's the director of the economic Justice program at the New Jersey Institute for social justice Laura good to see you so of course this law was signed because research has shown that racial bias can skew appraisals what role do you see that playing in just the sheer fact that Black and brown residents own less homes in New Jersey and nationally it's absolutely right appraisal discrimination is a major contributor to the disparities in both who owns a home and the value of homes uh in our state and the nation more broadly so our research has shown that uh home ownership contributes to the racial wealth Gap it's actually home ownership is one of the largest contributors uh to the racial wealth Gap because most families in United States build wealth through home ownership so here in New Jersey we have about um a 35 percentage point gap between a home ownership rates of white families and uh Black and Latino families about three-quarters of uh white families in New Jersey own their homes compared to about 40% of Black and Latino families so we have this major Gap in who owns a home but we also have gaps in the financial benefits of home ownership so when families are able to become homeowners because of appraisal discrimination because of uh barriers to Fair lending and because of other factors we see that families of color benefit less financially from home ownership and Appraisal discrimination is a major contributor to that so then how will this new law prevent that from happening does it give these homeowners any teeth to go after appraisers who undervalue their properties absolutely we think this law is really an important step that shows that New Jersey is going to combat appraisal discrimination in combination with the attorney general's directive which was announced in January New Jersey is taking important steps to combat appraisal discrimination and make sure that this practice ends in our state does it bring penalties Laura because I mean we've had things like this in the past which are largely symbolic right you know don't do this but are there penalties that homeowners can bring upon appraisers and or the company companies that they work for so the attorney general has been working hard on enforcement and um also public education so we really think uh that that in combination this public education so that folks can identify when they're facing appraisal discrimination is really crucial imagine that you are going to sell your home um and you're a family of color and it comes in lower how would you know uh that it's really lower than that value and so uh than the true value of the home so um are really think it's really important that folks are able to identify that and then they can uh report those um experiences to the um division on civil rights uh who can then uh investigate and do enforcement um so we think that that's going to be really crucial um moving forward that families know when this happens in fact we heard from a realtor just after this law was signed that they actually uh were pleased to see the passage of this law because they actually advised their clients of color to depersonalize their homes before appraisals to avoid this kind of discrimination yeah it's something that we've certainly heard anecdotally and to hear it from a realtor Laura Sullivan is the director of the economic Justice program at the New Jersey Institute for social justice Laura thanks so much thanks so much for having me I appreciate it support for the business report is provided by Riverview Jazz presenting the first annual Jersey City Latin jazz festival on Saturday September 14 at Exchange Place Plaza in Jersey City performance schedule and further details for this open to all event can be found online at Riverview jazz.org [Music]