It’s a story we’ve heard before, and is apparently still happening, as a Black and Latino couple had their Oakland home appraised in recent years for $250,000 less than it was worth, but now the state is forcing the appraisal company to pay the couple $75,000 in restitution.

It was a pretty big story in 2021 when the Chronicle exposed how a Black Marin County family had their home appraisal lowballed by nearly $500,000, an insulting discovery the family made when they had a white friend pose as the house’s owner, and had it appraised by the exact same firm. That story ended up making national headlines, and prompted a Department of Justice investigation into the racial bias of home appraisers.

But apparently that bias is still there, to some degree. The Chronicle reports that another appraiser, working for Reno-based appraisal management company Clear Capital, is being forced to pay a $75,000 settlement for undervaluing a Black and Latino couple’s home in Oakland. The settlement was announced last week by the California Civil Rights Department.  

“Whether it’s lowball appraisals or a history of redlining, communities of color across the country continue to confront the multigenerational harms of housing discrimination,” that department’s director Kevin Kish said in a statement. “Appraisers, lenders and brokers all have a responsibility to prevent discrimination in real estate transactions.”

The couple had their Oakland home appraised by a Clear Capital appraiser in 2022. That appraisal turned out to be $254,000 lower than another appraisal the couple had done just eight months beforehand, on the exact same house.

In addition to paying the fine, the appraiser will be required to watch the ABC News documentary about the Marin County couple who had their home appraisal lowballed.

The individual appraiser is not named, nor is the Black and Latino couple in question. “We generally withhold the names of individual complainants to protect their privacy,” California Civil Rights Department spokesperson Rishi Khalsa told the Chronicle.

The $75,000 settlement is nice for the couple and all, but the damage is largely already done. The couple was turned down on their attempts to refinance the home at lower interest rates, so they ended up having to sell the house and move out.

Related: Black Marin County Couple Lowballed by $500K In Home Appraisal Featured In New Documentary [SFist]

Image: Street in the residential area of Oakland on a sunny autumn day, San Francisco bay area, California (Getty Images)