(August 24, 2023, 5:21 PM EDT) -- BALTIMORE — A federal judge in Maryland declined to dismiss Black homeowners’ claims alleging that a mortgage lender and property appraiser violated several provisions of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by undervaluing their home based on their race and by denying a mortgage refinancing application based on that appraisal, but the judge also declined to dismiss the appraiser’s defamation and false light invasion of privacy counterclaims against the homeowners....