How New Technologies Can Possibly Solve Race-Based Challenges In America

First, let’s consider the issue of biased home appraisals. Numerous stories have circulated in the media about appraisals being more dependent upon racial composition than upon objective data. For example, in early 2021 in San Francisco, California, a Black couple saw the appraisal of their home increase by $500,000 after they removed every photo of themselves and had a white friend pose as the homeowner during the appraiser’s visit. This is a large increase in estimated home value that may not have been possible if the Black couple did not request the help of a white friend.

A 2018 study from the Brookings Institution revealed that homes in majority Black neighborhoods were appraised for 23% less than properties in mostly white neighborhoods — even when the homes were of similar quality and space, with similar amenities, and in neighborhoods of equal socioeconomic status. To that point, even in majority-white neighborhoods Black-owned homes are often appraised for less than those of their white neighbors. These discriminatory actions block efforts to build equity while exacerbating wealth inequality, adding up to $156 billion in lost value for Black homeowners. Implicit bias in real estate appraising has caused severe and unnecessary economic loss to Black Americans.

PropTech and emerging technologies can help reduce appraisal bias. For example, vision recognition and machine learning could be used to remove the existence of cultural bias in valuing a home (i.e., ignoring bias against certain cultural preferences of furnishings, pictures, art or even the owners). Utilizing these technologies in the digital appraisal process would allow for a digital valuation of the asset’s true value.

As this technology matures, homeowners could create a video walk-through to conduct the appraisal, eliminating the need for in-person physical interaction. The benefits are time saved in scheduling an appraisal, faster processing, and allowing refinancing or home sales to occur faster. These changes provide a more objective appraisal process that is fair to sellers, buyers, banks and local governments.

Another PropTech innovation is image recognition within apartment buildings and biometric identification that could alert residents when visitors arrive on their floor, or when a person tries to enter the wrong apartment. In 2018, former police officer Amber Guyger murdered her neighbor, Botham Jean, in his own apartment. Guyger, who is white, claimed that she thought she was entering her own apartment in the same building and believed that Jean, who was a Black man, had broken into her home. Biometric security systems evolving under PropTech can hopefully stop these tragedies from occurring in the future.

Although there’s no technology that can remove bias from a person’s mind, PropTech can prevent someone from entering a home, if they aren’t authorized, by way of their thumbprint, their eyes or even through voice recognition. This is essentially the same way that many people unlock their smartphones.

Imagine a scenario where a home had an outdoor motion-detecting camera that could immediately (and accurately) identify a trespasser who is violating a restraining order and immediately contact 911. In Washington, DC, during the Summer of 2016, a mother was brutally murdered in her home by an ex-boyfriend right after an emergency protective order had been granted at her request. Such technology might have prevented this tragedy.

What if a camera could identify the license plate of a vehicle that is registered to someone who is violating a restraining order? Currently, the EZ-Pass toll system has converted to license plate recognition for account management. Home security systems could easily be updated with similar technology to identify the license plates of anyone entering a property without permission from the resident.

As seen above, PropTech can be a force for combating bias and harm. But at the same time, the more technology there is, the more potential concern there is about civil liberties and having the government know each person’s every movement. Potential privacy, surveillance and bias concerns require attention so that PropTech is not viewed with suspicion (in part) by Black and brown communities, much like COVID-19 vaccines or law enforcement personnel are viewed in certain spaces.

In Toronto, an urban innovation firm developed a “smart” environmentally focused revitalization project that would have raised the bar in terms of environmental standards. Eventually, the entire project was scrapped due to community concerns about surveillance and privacy. Data is vital to PropTech and more users want to own their data or control who has access to this information. To do so, safeguards are needed to reduce community suspicion in order for innovative and sustainable public-private projects to be realized.

Similarly, in 2019, legislation was introduced in the New York City council, which would require landlords to provide their tenants with traditional metal keys to enter their homes and buildings. This bill would block landlords from requiring that tenants use biometric scanning, facial recognition or any other smart-key technology to access their homes, demonstrating distrust of some elements of the PropTech industry. If residents express unease about certain technologies in their neighborhood due to privacy concerns, the chances of allowing these same technologies into their homes are pretty low.

It is therefore important that technologies are developed in consultation with civil liberties and privacy advocates to ensure that they cannot be wrongfully used to spy on the purchasers of these technologies or their neighbors. The likelihood that these technologies will be accepted on a wide scale basis is directly correlated with the safeguards put in place and blessed by advocates to ensure that these technologies cannot be misused. Examples of these solutions involve encryption of data, strong cybersecurity protections and legal protection to prevent misuse of data. Once validators can explain that these safeguards are present, they can be fully deployed to create transformational societal change.

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The power of technology is such that almost any problem can either now or soon be addressed with a technological solution. PropTech has the power to positively transform the way we live, work and solve problems that used to give rise to daily negative interactions. The key is to embrace this technology with this positive spirit of problem-solving so that the anxieties of today can turn into the solutions of tomorrow, thus promoting social harmony.

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John H. Jones, MBA, M.A, B.A., is an expert on the intersection between the real estate and technology industries. John served on Capitol Hill for over 15 years, where he worked as a chief of staff to a senior member of Congress. John holds an MBA from the University of Minnesota, a dual Master’s degree (M.A.) in corporate and public communications and diplomacy and international relations from Seton Hall University, and a B.A. degree from Clark Atlanta University.

Connect with him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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