PAVE task force 2.0? Senate Democrat introduces appraisal bias legislation

The Trump administration has “effectively disbanded” the interagency Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) task force, but a Democratic senator wants to revive it.

Raphael Warnock of Georgia introduced the Appraisal Modernization Act on Thursday. The legislation seeks to address systemic bias in the appraisal process, effectively writing into law many of the measures the PAVE task force implemented.

The bill would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to maintain an online database with home valuation information that lenders use to evaluate mortgage applications. It also would allow homebuyers to initiate reconsideration of value (ROV) requests when they believe bias might have played into the appraisal.

The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) applauded the bill, calling it a “critical piece of legislation.”

“NAMB will always support legislation that ensures fairness, protection, and privacy for homebuyers,” NAMB President Jim Nabors said in a statement. “We must remain diligent in our efforts to protect consumers, and NAMB urges all members of Congress to give this important item their full consideration.”

Introduction of the bill comes one week after the Trump administration eliminated two rules pioneered by the PAVE task force. One was related to enforcement of the Fair Housing Act and anti-discrimination laws, and the other required appraisers to follow a process for weeding out bias in their valuations.

Scott Turner, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Jeffrey Clark of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said that the repeal of these rules comply with President Donald Trump’s executive orders that call for the end of regulations tied to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Biden-era’s obsession with DEI and overregulation is over,” Turner said in a statement after the move. “At HUD, we’re restoring common sense and putting the American Dream of homeownership back within reach.”

The Biden administration started PAVE in 2021, with former HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge and former White House adviser Susan Rice co-chairing it. PAVE used a study by the Brookings Institution, a liberal think tank, to conclude there was systemic bias in the appraisal industry.

But appraisers pushed back on the study, claiming its use of Zillow’s Zestimate unfairly skewed the results. The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI) published a rebuttal to that study, saying that discrepancies in valuations were caused by socioeconomic differences, not racial bias.

There wasn’t much doubt that PAVE was going to be eliminated under Trump. Project 2025 — the policy blueprint for Trump’s second term produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation — called for an end to PAVE, and the task force’s website was taken down shortly after Trump assumed office in January.

Warnock’s Appraisal Modernization Act faces long odds under the Republican-led Congress. The party’s assault on DEI is almost certain to make it a nonstarter, to say nothing of whether Trump would sign it into law.

“Home valuations are a critical part of the mortgage lending process and ensuring families can build generational wealth through homeownership,” Warnock said in a statement. “This bill is an important next step in helping Georgia families and all Americans realize the full value of their homes, and it empowers them with more data and tools to fight bias that would lower their home values.”