Appraisal

The Mortgage Bankers Association filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit alleging an appraiser and a lender violated federal law by lowering the valuation of a home because the owners were Black and by denying a mortgage refinancing application based on that low appraisal. The amicus brief seeks to respond to a statement of interest filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice. Read on for more details. Read on »

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council Appraisal Subcommittee released the names of the individuals who are providing testimony during its second public hearing on May 19. Read on for more details. Read on »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hosted the Appraisal Subcommittee’s first public hearing to discuss issues relating to appraisal bias. Testimony from experts offered insight from scholars, appraisers, economists, and consumers on the issues permeating the industry and recommendations they had to help rectify some of the problems. Read on for more details. Read on »

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac followed up reports of potential bias resulting in racial and ethnic valuations gaps in home purchase appraisals by conducting research and analysis to determine where these gaps are occurring, why they exist, and what steps they can take to remediate the situation.

“As one of the largest consumers of residential appraisals in the United States, we’ve asked ourselves whether we are doing all we can to identify and help prevent it,” Jake Williamson, Fannie Mae vice president, single-family collateral risk management, said.

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United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) has launched UWM Appraisal Direct, giving clients another option when ordering appraisals on UWM loans.

The program currently is in the pilot stage and will be released in all 50 states on Oct. 1, 2021.

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Envoy Mortgage has adopted an appraisal management system from Reggora, an appraisal software company, to assist in processing all loans requiring an appraisal.

Envoy said the integration is part of its “digital transformation” and investment in technology optimization to improve its overall lending solution.

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Evolve Mortgage Services has acquired the appraisal platform assets of Veptas Technology Solutions, Inc.

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Quantarium and Valligent Technologies announced the launch of QVM-Insights, an AI-powered, automated valuation model for equity lending, broker price opinions, and real estate owned valuations.

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A proposal to exempt residential real estate transactions of $400,000 or less from appraisal requirements could help alleviate industry concerns about the time and cost associated with completing such transactions.

Federal banking regulators issued a notice of proposed rulemaking to raise the residential appraisal threshold, stating that they believe doing so could provide meaningful relief from appraisal burdens without posing safety and soundness threats. 

Find out what the proposal could mean for banks if implemented.

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To stem the rise in what it called appraisal bias in reverse mortgage applications, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) recently announced that it will require a second appraisal any time it suspects a home’s value has been overestimated when being considered for a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM).

The agency was scant on details about its evaluation methodology during a media conference call. However, FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery said the agency would be looking for patterns among individual lenders, using unique attributes of its assessment tools.

Find out more about findings that led to the FHA’s new appraisal requirements and what Montgomery had to say about the move. 

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