The real estate lobby fights reforms by stoking white homeowners’ fears of falling values.

Evidence

The real estate lobby is powerful, however, and here’s how they will likely argue against neutrality: Any repeal of the mortgage interest deduction will have consequences for current home values. The price of the mortgage interest deduction is believed to be factored into the price of homes by anywhere from 1 percent to 13 percent; such a repeal, the lobby would argue, will reduce the value of homes by a comparable amount. (The National Association of Realtors estimates a 10 percent decline, while the Council of Economic Advisers says the impact is likely to be merely “modest.”) History has shown us that stoking fear in white homeowners is a powerful tool, and one that the real estate industry has used freely. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 1288

Categorization

• QUESTION: What precise mechanism links white-homeowner fear campaigns to blocking racial equity reforms — is the 1-13% home value impact figure well-sourced enough to countersue the lobby with?
• XREF: connects to: Housing fears proved the most emotionally charged white grievance for extremists to exploit. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 104; Professional real-estate doctrine convinced white homeowners that black entry destroyed property values — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 148; Blockbusting panic drove white homeowners and civic institutions to mobilize for neighborhood stabilization — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 196