A new report has shed light on how racial bias has affected the value of neighborhoods and homes owned by people of color in Richmond. The report, released by Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia in partnership with Richmond City Councilmember Ellen F. Robertson, is based on years of research and local and national studies.

The findings reveal the toll this devaluation has had on Black residents, with thousands of dollars in value lost compared to white-majority homes and neighborhoods. One study featured in the report found that homes in Black-majority neighborhoods were worth 17% less than those in neighborhoods where the Black population was 1% or less, even between statistically identical neighborhoods, except for the race of the majority residents.

“I think it’s absolutely devastating that African Americans’ properties are still being devalued,” Robertson said. “We need to do a lot more aggressive action to protect the integrity of African Americans’ properties and their values, and when we are blatantly being discriminated against there needs to be a fair housing agency that is supporting us and helping us to eliminate this discrimination.”

According to HOME of VA’s analysis, the racial composition of neighborhoods predicts roughly half the inequality in average home values. A study showed home appraisals in majority-white neighborhoods resulted in an average home value of over $436,000 versus over $256,000 in neighborhoods where people of color are the majority.

“The racial demographics of a neighborhood are a better prediction of the home values than home size, their type or their condition,” said Thomas Okuda Fitzpatrick, HOME of VA executive director. “That’s something we might have intuitively known, but this report presents it in stark contrast.”

HOME of VA, a nonprofit focused on housing-related inequities, cited decades of underinvestment in neighborhoods of color and intentional investment in white ones by local, state, and national governments as the cause for this disparity. The devaluing traces back to bias in the modern day and historic, systemic discrimination by home appraisers required to rate the credit worth of homes in Black neighborhoods as “hazardous.”

While changes in appraisal policy have ended this form of discrimination, the report states that racial bias and the lingering effects of these ratings have persisted to the present day.

“One problem with current appraisal methods is that they fail to correct for the unequal positions from which neighborhoods began their appraisal histories,” the report reads. “Appraisers intentionally devalued homes in neighborhoods with Black residents in the early 1900s. This cycle has carried the discrimination of initial appraisals into the present, even though appraisers are no longer allowed to consider racial demographics in their valuations.”

As a result, rising housing costs and community displacement have hit Black neighborhoods especially hard, with some Richmond neighborhoods seeing an 18% to 45% loss of Black residents from 2010 to 2019.

The report includes interviews with Black residents facing pressures like rising property taxes, lowering homeownership opportunities, and frequent offers to buy their homes in devalued neighborhoods.

“We’re gonna do until we can’t do anymore,” said Carrie David, one of the Black residents interviewed for the report. “Personal property tax, like I said, they try to price you out of your area.”

In a statement released with the report, Mr. Robertson described the findings as “an urgent reminder of what we must do to retain longtime residents and ensure fair housing values” for all Richmond residents, stressing how considerate Richmond leadership would need to be in addressing this disparity.

HOME of VA has recommended several proposals to the City of Richmond to tackle devaluing and reduce displacement, including preserving affordable housing, increasing affordable housing through zoning changes, and encouraging lenders to offer credit programs to improve homes in Black neighborhoods.