Appraisers

35 appraiser organizations including the Appraisal Institute are asking Congress to prevent Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from issuing appraisal waivers. Freddie and Fannie recently announced plans to no longer require appraisals for first purchase loans, as well as for mortgage refinancing. In a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Banking,…

Freddie Mac announced that it will utilize automated collateral evaluations to determine when an automated appraisal can be used for new home mortgages and refinancing. ACE uses data from multiple listing services, public records and historical home values to determine collateral risks. This decision was criticized by the Appraisal Institute. “Since 1994, the government sponsored…

Federal agencies are considering raising the threshold for commercial real estate transactions requiring an appraisal from the current level of $250,000 to $400,000. The agencies including the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have stated that they believe raising the floor will greatly reduce…

Tennessee has enacted a law establishing a new statute of limitations regarding civil lawsuits and disciplinary actions against real estate appraisers. Under HB 376, any action to recover damages against a real estate appraiser must be brought within one year from the discovery of the act of omission giving rise to the action. However, in…

Florida has enacted a bill changing its appraiser licensing law. HB 927 includes changes advocated by the Appraisal Institute.

The law defines an “evaluation” as a “valuation permitted by any federal financial institutions regulatory agency for transactions that do not require an appraisal” and clarifies that a state-licensed appraiser may perform an evaluation. According to…

The Appraisal Institute reported April 17 that 37 bills affecting the valuation profession are pending in 23 states. According to the Appraisal Institute, the proposed legislation includes:

Arizona SB 1197 which makes various changes to the state’s appraiser licensing law and appraisal management company oversight and registration law.

California SB 70 which allows a state-licensed…

The PA State House is considering a bill that would amend the state’s Real Estate Licensing Law. According the Bill’s sponsor, HB863 would define “a Broker Price Opinion (BPO) as ‘an estimate prepared by a broker, associate broker or salesperson that details the probable selling price of a particular parcel of real property and provides…

A Texas appellate court recently affirmed the dismissal of the city of Austin’s lawsuit claiming commercial and vacant property are being undervalued during property tax appraisals.  Austin sued the Travis Central Appraisal District after an appraisal review board in Travis County denied the city’s formal challenge to what it said was the systematic undervaluation of…

The Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance will hold a hearing entitled “Modernizing Appraisals: A Regulatory Review and the Future of the Industry” at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 16, 2016. This hearing will examine the appraisal industry since the creation of the Appraisal Subcommittee in 1989, review the Dodd-Frank Act’s impact on appraisers, consumers and…

A Pennsylvania state appellate court recently held that a taxing authority could not present an appraisal prepared by a non-testifying expert for the taxpayer. In Millcreek County School District v. Erie County Board of Assessment Appeals v. Wegmans Food Markets Inc., 39 C.D. 2015, the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County allowed the…