The value of a house in Jacksonville, Florida increased exponentially after the homeowners disguised any clues of Black heritage. According to First Coast News, the house initially appraised at more than $100,000 below expectations.  

That's when Abena and Alex Horton decided to see what would happen if they removed the cultural and historical decorations from their home. 

"We took down all family pictures containing Black relatives," Abena said in a Facebook post. "We took down all pictures of African-American greats that we display to inspire our son. Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison came down from the bookshelves; Shakespeare went up."

Abena, who is Black and married to a white man, also decided to hide herself when people came to see the house.

"My son and I took a convenient shopping trip during the appraisal, leaving my white male husband to show the appraiser around, alone," she wrote.

The experiment resulted in a 40% increase in the value of the home, jumping from $330,000 to $465,000. It was a heartbreaking revelation for the family.

“I know what the issue was," Abena, who is a lawyer, told The New York Times. "And I knew what we needed to do to fix it, because in the Black community, it’s just common knowledge that you take your pictures down when you’re selling the house. But I didn’t think I had to worry about that with an appraisal.”

Abena, who lives in a predominantly white neighborhood, said their home initially "appraised far lower than neighboring home sales with fewer bathrooms, fewer bedrooms, significantly lower square footage and half the land."

"We needed to get our home appraised. The appraiser came by and he was immediately unpleasant, making one rude comment after another," Abena wrote on Facebook. "He expressed exaggerated surprise when he saw me working at my home office during the walk-through. At the end of it we received an appraisal result that was so low that it was laughable."

The family appraised their four-bedroom, four-bathroom ranch-style house because they wanted to take advantage of low home-refinance rates resulting from the pandemic. When the value of the home came in much lower than expected, the bank ordered a second appraisal. Abena then shared the family's experience on Facebook and received comments from Black families who have been in a similar position. 

"Racism silently but conspicuously steals wealth," Abena wrote. "Racism wastes time. Racism raises blood pressure. Racism makes me hate myself for my calm acceptance of what I had to do, and have always had to do, to achieve a fair result. I write this from a place of absolute anguish, to sort through my emotions. I want better for my son." 

According to a 2018 report from the Gallup and the Brookings Institution, Black homeowners have suffered $156 billion in cumulative losses because of the devaluation of their property. The research also determined that a home in a Black neighborhood is likely to be valued at 23% less than a similar home in a predominantly white neighborhood. 

Andre Perry, one of the writers of the Brookings Institution report, said Black people are still seen as "risky."

“White appraisers carry the same attitudes and beliefs of white America — the same attitudes that compelled Derek Chauvin to kneel casually on the neck of George Floyd are shared by other professionals in other fields," Perry told The Times. "How does that choking out of America look in the appraisal industry? Through very low appraisals.”

Stephen Richmond, a Black homeowner in Hartford, Connecticut, said his home’s value increased by $40,000 after he took down family photos, removed posters for Black movies and asked his white neighbor to stand in for him during a second appraisal. 

Furthermore, according to research from economists Troup Howard and Carlos Avenancio-León, Black families are facing additional hurdles in homeownership because of higher tax assessments, paying 13% more in property taxes than white families in identical homes.

President of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, Donnell Williams, said "the homeownership gap between Blacks and whites is larger today than it was in 1934," referencing the year the Federal Housing Administration was established.

“Half of all Blacks born between 1956 and 1965 were homeowners by the age of 50, but Blacks born from 1966 to 1976 have a homeownership rate of just 40%," Williams told The Washington Post. "If trends continue, Black millennials may not even reach a homeownership rate of 40% by the time they turn 50.”