News By Edition

Megan Johnson Judd, co-owner and chief valuation officer at Metropolis Real Estate Solutions, shared that she was "immediately hooked" on becoming an appraiser.

She was a humanities student at UCF when she took a back-office job at a large appraisal firm, which began her path towards a career in valuation.

Read Part I of our exclusive interview with Johnson Judd.

Earlier, our publication brought you the news that the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA) named a new CEO/executive vice president replacing the retired Brian Stockman.

Amanda De Jong now has this role with the ASFMRA and is excited to lead her members,.

 “It’s an honor to have been selected by the search committee and officer team to serve as the next steward of the organization,” De Jong said. Read on for the full conversation.

In August, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced its adoption of the modernized Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 beginning early spring 2026.

The implementation of the industry-wide initiative will preserve FHA’s alignment with the industry and strengthen its collateral risk management capabilities, according to a release from FHA.

Valuation Review spoke with ServiceLink's Liz Green for her thoughts on this announcement. Read on to find out what she told us.

Tobias Peter, a senior fellow and co-director of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Housing Center who conducts empirical research on housing markets, mortgage finance and appraisal practices, sat down with Valuation review to discuss a variety of topics, including his findings on appraisal bias.

Peter, who has been with AEI for 10 years, also has experience as an expert witness in appraisal bias cases.

Read Part I of this exclusive interview.

ServiceLink Vice President, Valuations Product Management, Phillip King, shared his views as to what might be keys to successful mortgage practices for lenders in today’s dynamic market.

Regarding the borrower in technology valuations, King stressed that lenders must exceed expectations of the customer.

Read on for the full conversation.

Anneta Pope is the new chief brand officer at Atlas VMS. In her new role, Pope will play a critical role in articulating the Atlas VMS corporate strategy as the company expands into new markets and continues to develop technology-driven solutions that better serve lenders and appraisal management companies nationwide.

WalletHub compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 across 45 key indicators of livability in its "2025's Best Small Cities in America" report. Where are the best small cities to reside in?

According to the 2025 U.S. Home Flipping Report from ATTOM, 78,621 single-family homes and condominiums were flipped in the second quarter. This accounted for 7.4 percent of home sales from April through June where previously, flipped homes accounted for 8.3 percent of all sales.  

Restb.ai Chief Product Officer Nathan Brannen had some thoughts and key takeaways regarding artificial intelligence's ability to identify major risks in real estate appraisals such as when a "repurchase" request is made.

“Repurchase requests occur when an appraisal is deemed to be inaccurate, misleading or non-compliant with USPAP,” Brannen said.

Read on for the full conversation Valuation Review conducted with Brannen.

Some big news regarding the appraisal industry has just been revealed. Today, Aivre announced the launch of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered appraisal platform, the first in the U.S. to complete the Uniform Appraisal Dataset 3.6 verification process with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for compliance with the new data standards.

To provide a few more scares on this Halloween Eve, Valuation Review offers this “encore” presentation of a story we ran on Oct. 30, 2024.

Last year, CoreLogic (now Cotality) attempted to put the scare in readers with its “A 13-Stop Tour of Some of the Most Haunted U.S. Places.”

This terrifying tale suggests there are many things that must be disclosed when buying or selling a home but listing whether a building qualifies as haunted is not required. Read on for more scary cites.

Fannie Mae recently announced some major executive changes within the organization. First, President and CEO Priscilla Almodovar stepped down after nearly three years leading Fannie Mae with the company announcing her departure with two other changes to senior leadership on Oct. 22. Fannie Mae Chief Operating Officer Peter Akwaboah will serve as acting CEO, and the company promoted John Roscoe and Brandon Hamara to serve as co-presidents.

With more than 20 years of experience, Michael Ardizzone specializes in the valuation of tangible assets for financial and tax reporting, collateral financing, insurance and management planning purposes. Bober Markey Fedorovich, a “Top 200” accounting and advisory firm, recently announced that Ardizzone has joined the firm as managing director in its valuation advisory services practice.

Eight of the 10 largest Central Appraisal Districts (CADs) in Texas now rely on the same technology partner, TrueRoll.

This is helping the appraisal community to modernize and automate property tax processes, including homestead application and monitoring, property transfer automation, and other document-driven workflows to help administer their homestead exemptions. 

Read on to learn more.

Cotality's recently recently released Home Price Index for August.

The analysis revealed price growth was at  1.3 percent year-over-year, while the housing market remains the strongest in the Northeastern states.

Read on to learn more.

VeroFORECAST evaluates home prices in over 300 of the nation’s largest housing markets.

Recently, the Q25 VeroFORECAST from Veros was released projecting an average nationwide home price appreciation rate of 1.8 percent over the next 12 months. The U.S. housing market remains in a holding pattern despite a modest easing in borrowing costs.

Read on to learn more. 

A new report from Redfin analyzes new listings of home sales. Prices rose 2.3 percent year-over-year during the four weeks ending Oct. 5, the biggest increase in over three months. But will lower rates lure more buyers? Redfin says "no," buyers aren’t budging.

ICE Mortgage Technology recently released October 2025 ICE Mortgage Monitor Report shows data revealing home affordability reaching its best level in 2.5 years.

The housing bill, ROAD to Housing Act, which was recently passed, aims to incentivize communities to rethink policies that may inhibit new home construction and small-dollar mortgages. The Senate broke its gridlock on the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) when it voted 77-20 on Oct. 10 to move the measure forward with the housing bill included within the $924.7 billion defense spending bill for fiscal year 2026. The Senate Banking Committee voted 24-0 to advance the ROAD to Housing Act in July. 

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is seeking feedback on its proposal surrounding housing goals benchmarks for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2026-2028. Adjustments are being recommended based on econometric forecasts and recent market developments showing limited affordable inventory, persistently high mortgage rates and affordability challenges for low- and moderate-income borrowers. 

In Part II of our conversation with Tobias Peter, senior fellow and co-director of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Housing Center, we further examined Peter’s research into court cases surrounding appraisal bias.

According to Peter, his findings indicate the courts are asking plaintiffs to demonstrate actual discrimination rather than statistical disparities that can be explained by legitimate factors.

In a private seller commercial land sale, United Country Real Estate | AltaTerra Realty and Auction, LLC’s agents negotiated a deal.

The transaction saw the Anna, Texas, Independent School District (ISD) acquire 192-plus acres in Collin County.

Read on to learn more.

Where are the safest states in the U.S.? In order to determine the most secure and safe states, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 52 key metrics. The data set ranged from assaults per capita to the total loss amount from climate disasters per capita to the unemployment rate.

Evolving Technology 2025, a webinar hosted by October Research, sought to illuminate the technology solution landscape with perspectives from leading consultants. Speakers included executive consultant and strategic advisor Cheryl Baillis and Kay Underwood-Zach, owner of Title Insurance Consultants. Chris Ruvo, content manager with Qualia, moderated the discussion.

Fannie Mae is providing temporary guidance on selling and servicing policies that may be impacted by the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1. In Fannie Mae's Lender Letter (LL-2025-03), numerous guidelines and requirements were highlighted to guide single-family sellers and servicers, including lenders and borrowers until the government resumes full operations.

The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) President Kelly Davids spoke to a recently launched and new seven-hour USPAP Continuing Education Course on Oct. 1. Davids highlighted this achievement, and others by way of TAF's October newsletter.

An Appraisal Institute (AI) milestone marks a defining moment in the evolution of appraisal education and training coming as AI PAREA graduates who have taken the state licensing and certification examinations to date maintain a 100 percent first-time pass rate. One individual noted the exam was passed on the first try with no refresher, and was "thrilled."