Tag Archives: Appraisals

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) introduced a House companion for the Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act, which seeks to cut through red tape in homeowner refinancing to make the option more broadly available.

Inflated appraisals were identified as one of the causes of the housing bubble, and now undervalued appraisals are viewed as a reason for a stalled recovery. In a National Association of Realtors survey related to home appraisals over the past three months, 11 percent of Realtors said a contract was cancelled because a home was appraised at a value below the negotiated price. One reason for the low values, according to the NAR, is because some appraisers are not taking into account the difference between distressed and non-distressed homes when making comparisons.

The pressure is on now for a nationwide appraisal management company that says it will start paying its appraisers on a weekly basis. United States Appraisals made the announcement Tuesday, and explained the capability to make payments weekly follows the adoption of a new proprietary operating system.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a $7.8 million settlement with eAppraiseIT and its parent corporation, CoreLogic, formerly known as First American Corporation. The settlement is in regards to allegations that eAppraiseIT violated appraiser independence laws by conspiring with Washington Mutual (WaMu) to inflate home values.

Collateral valuation technology provider Veros announced Tuesday a major upgrade to VeroSCORE, its appraisal report analysis product.

FNC, Inc. received a U.S. patent for Appraisal Score, making it the first patented appraisal review tool.

Appraisals may assign a home with one exact specific value, but in reality, a home's value tends to fall into a price range due to a number of different factors, according to a Home Value Forecast report released by Pro Teck Valuation Services and Collateral Analytics. To address this issue, Home Value Forecast suggests establishing a range of value in addition to an appraisal and improving data to support market condition conclusions.

A study completed by the University of Miami School of Business Administration suggests that fragile market bubbles could be prevented if the public were aware of how assets are valued. The research, set to be published in the Journal of Financial and Qualitative Analysis, analyzed China's 2007 stock market. The study found that stocks with a bigger amount of analyst coverage experienced significantly smaller bubbles than those that weren't covered as well.

Nationwide Appraisal & Settlement Network (NASN) announced Friday that the company upgraded its vendor payroll process, resulting in a rolling 21-day pay period for appraisers.

United States Appraisals and Bradford Technologies partnered to offer the latest version of the Collateral Valuation Report - CVR 2.0.