Mac and other industry leaders have confirmed that traditional modelling based on comparable sales and a variety of other factors (income, credit score, etc.) cannot explain the appraisal value gap minorities face. Some would argue that these pricing disparities are partially explained by neighborhood quality, which opponents say is a byproduct of historical redlining. Russia In Russia, on par with many other former Soviet Union economies, the profession emerged in the first half of 1990, and represented a clean break with the former practice of industry-specific pricing specialists and with activities of statutory price-setting authorities in the Soviet Union. Currently, property valuation, as it is called, is a specialism within general-purpose "valuation profession", which functions in a self-regulatory mode overseen by "self-regulated professional organizations" of valuers (SROs), i.e. public supervisory entities established under provisions of special legislation (which very loosely can be likened to trade unions). The principal among those is Russian Society of Appraisers, established in 1993 and presently exercising oversight over about half of the valuation profession membership. Among its 6000+ members a sizeable majority are real property valuers, rubbing shoulders with business and intangible assets appraisers. The latter categories of valuers are also allowed to value property, though valuation professionals tend to specialize. In late 2016, it was mandated that valuers should pass through compulsory state-administered attestation process to verify their competence, the details of which as to breakdown in specialization or otherwise remain to be hammered out. As of mid-2016, Valuers in Russia, including real property valuers, are deemed to be purposely-educated individuals maintaining their Valuation SRO membership and bearing unlimited property liability for the result of their services, that is their professional status is modeled on the organization of public notaries. Regardless of the fact, over 80% of valuers tend to be employed by valuation or consulting companies, and thus do not enter practice as stand-alone individual entrepreneurs. High-end appraisal services are principally represented by valuation arms of the International "Big-four" consultancies in the country, but there also exist reputable national corporate valuation brands. Most of valuations in the country tend to be performed for statutory purposes envisaged by the Federal Valuation Law (the latest amendment in 2016) and other related laws, such as the Joint Stock Companies Law. Such pieces of legislation provide for more than 20 so-called "mandatory cases of valuation", including valuations for privatization purposes, lending purposes, bankruptcy and liquidation etc. Valuations