News By Edition

Valuation Review continues its “2024 Appraisal Outlook” series by sitting down with John Brenan, long-time appraiser and industry veteran, who shared his thoughts as to what appraisers can look forward to in the new year.

Brenan notes soaring interest rates and slowdowns in the real estate market may have created a “painful” scenario for some in the profession, but it also gave them time to prepare.

Read on for another installment from our special appraisal series.

Valuation Review caught up with Mark Buhler, a state licensed Certified Residential appraiser at CMP Appraisals.

Buhler, who has over 25 years of experience in the Southern California area, shared his insight on the many facets of solar appraisals.

Read on for the full conversation.

BBG CEO Chris Roach reached out to Valuation Review to share his thoughts on what the new year commercial real estate arena could be like.

The company executive discussed many areas of recovery including “cooling inflation.”

Read on for more commercial trends to look for in 2024.

ASA International President Garrett Schwartz began 2024 by delivering the message that to begin the new year, ASA’s international officers and board of governors are focused on the important strategic issues, as well as starting the process of replacing former CEO Johnnie White.

A new president of the International Association of Assessing Officers took over on Jan. 1. As the 2024 president, she also is chair of the board of directors.

Boxwood Means, LLC, a national provider of small-cap commercial estate property valuation and risk assessment services, recently welcomed a new senior director for client services.

The Indiana Legislature introduced a bill that would address appraisal discrimination.

The bill would add to the duties of the homeowner protection unit of the Office of the Attorney General.

Read on to learn more about this proposed legislation.

The ICE Mortgage Monitor recently reported home price growth continued to show resiliency in November.

Demand also edged higher. ICE will have its next Home Price Index out in February.

Read on for more details from this report.

CoreLogic recently released its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report for October 2023.

The report showed the U.S. serious mortgage delinquency rate remained at an all-time low.

Read on to learn more.

With inflation cooling but still making raising children more costly than usual, the personal-finance website WalletHub recently released its report on “2024’s Best & Worst States to Raise a Family.”

Single-family home sales likely bottomed out in Q4 2023 and, due to the recent pullback in mortgage rates, are expected to begin a slow but meaningful recovery over the course of the next year, alongside upward-trending mortgage origination activity, according to the Fannie Mae Economic and Strategic Research Group.

The median U.S. mortgage payment was $2,361 during the four weeks ending Dec. 31, according to a new report from Redfin.

Opteon AMC recently announced its short-term rental analysis (STR) product, which aims to change how non-qualified mortgage lenders assess properties for STR investment.

Williston Financial Group, a Portland-based provider of title insurance and real estate settlement services, recently announced its marketing and technology subsidiary, MyHome, completed the acquisition of a national provider of technology and marketing services for banks, credit unions, and mortgage lenders.

Pulse, the SaaS solution for Salesforce’s mortgage CRM, recently announced it’s partnering with Reggora. The partnership allows lenders to manage their appraisals directly from Salesforce along with Reggora’s core functionality that is now available inside the CRM.  

Vesta announced a new integration of its modern and intelligent loan origination system with ValueLink Software, a provider of valuation management technology. This partnership empowers lenders to streamline the loan process, improve efficiency, and deliver superior borrower experience, according to Vesta.

Greg Stephens, veteran appraiser and owner of GE Stephens-Compliance, Consulting and Training, joins Valuation Review’s “2024 Appraisal Outlook” Series with his views and perspectives on the industry.

Stephens said he expects technology to continue driving changes in the mortgage valuation sector, particularly with GSE and HUD-related activities.

Read on for another installment from our exclusive appraisal series.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin announced the launch of the state’s Home Appraisal Discrimination Initiative to address persistent systemic inequities in real estate appraisals.

The initiative encompasses a number of key actions the Department of Law and Public Safety is taking to address bias and discrimination in home appraisals.

Read on to learn more.

Accurity Canada Consolidated Corp. recently announced the successful acquisition of three Canadian real estate appraisal firms.

The firms are in western Canada, Ottawa, and southwestern Ontario.

Read on for more information about these acquisitions.

The Senate voted not to override President Joe Biden’s veto of a joint resolution to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final rule on small business lending, which the bureau is mandated to issue under Sec. 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The rule stipulates data collection and reporting requirements for financial institutions originating 100 or more small business loans per year.

Cloud-based technology provider Blue Sage Solutions launched a digital service platform to support lenders through the entire lifecycle of a mortgage. The initial version of the system has all of the necessary functions for interim servicing, with full-scale servicing functionality to follow.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register to update regulations for the Community Development Block Grant and Indian Community Development Block Grant Programs.