News By Edition

Valuation Review will be sharing what’s new and what appraisers should be looking out for during the new year with our special series, “2024 Appraisal Outlook.”

For our first installment, we caught up with 2024 Appraisal Institute (AI) President Sandra Adomatis for her thoughts, which included legal matters falling upon the appraiser and the progress of AI PAREA.

Read on for Part I of this exclusive series.

Valuation Review concludes its conference coverage from the 2023 ASA International Conference in New Orleans.

We caught up with Jason Tillema, an appraiser from Indiana-based Access Valuation, who shared insights from his presentation “Supporting Residential Appraisal Adjustments.”

Read on for the full conference story.

The ASA recently announced that its chief executive officer will be leaving the organization.  ASA has started the process of conducting a global search for a new CEO.

Valuation Review sat down again with Matt Stepanovich, vice president of appraisal modernization and quality control at SingleSource Property Solutions, to dive deeper into the effects of the government-sponsored enterprises’ appraisal waiver initiatives.

He discusses in detail the many facets of the topic, including the importance of “timely” data.

Read on for the full conversation with Stepanovich.

Earlier, Valuation Review brought to the attention of its readers the appointment of two individuals for the Stellar company, a venture-backed technology-driven marketplace which solves maintenance at scale for the single-family rental market.

We sat down with Stellar founder and CEO Dustin Marx for more information about what technology services are forthcoming to assist appraisers and the real estate profession.

Read on for the full conversation.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency recently announced an increase to the 2024 threshold for whether higher-priced mortgage loans are subject to special appraisal requirements. The increased threshold will be effective Jan. 1, 2024.

A North Carolina man was sentenced to a year in prison for his role in conspiring to defraud the United States in a syndicated conservation easement tax shelter scheme that claimed more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent tax deductions. The defendant was also ordered to pay more than $129 million in restitution.

Valuation Review spoke again with Dutch Mendenhall, CEO of RAD Diversified RADD America.

Mendenhall addressed commercial and market trends for 2024.

Read on for the full conversation.

The New Jersey Senate approved a bill regarding house appraisals.

Legislation supporters say the bill would help historically disadvantaged residents move up through economic ranks in a state with one of the nation’s largest racial wealth gaps.

Read on for more details.

The housing market’s headline news this year has been the affordability challenge brought on by mortgage rates reaching 20-year highs.

Looking ahead to 2024, Zillow predicts homebuyers will have a bit more breathing room, but only a bit.

Read on to learn more.

BBG’s managing director of information technology shared with Valuation Review his thoughts about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). 

What effects, in the director's opinion, will AI have upon the real estate profession?

Read on for the detailed answer to that question.

Valuation Review concludes its interview with Valcre co-founder and Vice President of Client Experience Grant Norling, and co-founder and CEO Lucas Rotter.

Both executives continued their discussion including valuing real estate assets.

Read on for Part II of this exclusive story.

BBG recently released its second annual U.S. seniors housing investor survey.

This comprehensive report offered insights from prominent market professionals on critical trends anticipated to shape this alternative asset class in 2024.

Read on to learn more.

Valuation Review recently spoke with Bill Gassett, owner and founder of Maximum Real Estate Exposure, to get his perspective on entering the real estate profession.

Gassett suggested that for some, the thought of entering the industry can be quite powerful.

Read on for the full conversation with Gassett.

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

Data released for October 2023 showed that more than half of the major metro markets reported month-over-month price increases.

Read on to learn more.

With market trends fluctuating, professionals continue to find ways to leverage data to help make strategic decisions about their business. Modex’s integration with OptifiNow enables wholesale lenders and recruiters to see loan officer production data, including volume and type, in a single click.

Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group’s last outlook for 2023 indicated the housing market will begin its slow recovery in 2024. The group also noted the economy’s growth was better than what was expected at that start of the year.

CoreLogic recently released its latest Single-Family Rent Index, which analyzes single-family rent price changes nationally and across major metropolitan areas.

U.S. year-over-year rent growth continued its slow cooling in October, slipping to 2.5 percent.

Read on for more numbers.

To begin 2024, Valuation Review begins a new round of appraisal advice and business tips from Dustin Harris, “The Appraiser Coach.”

In his “Good Cop, Bad Cop” blog post, Harris discusses many things, including the types of conversations one can have in the office.

Read on to learn more.

Fannie Mae recently unveiled a series of updates to its December Selling Guide with the intent to streamline lending processes, modernize requirements governing allowable methods for making credit determinations and bolster transparency.

Clayton, a national builder of single-family housing, is positioned to help homebuyers benefit from new appraisal guidelines recently issued by the Federal Housing Administration.

Property data curator ATTOM released its November 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 32,120 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions – up 5 percent from a year ago, but down 7 percent from the prior month.

A rural appraiser in Minnesota was recently awarded the “Accredited Rural Appraiser” designation from the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers.

Global DMS, a provider of cloud-based valuation management software, recently announced the launch of EVO-BPO. This is the company’s latest version of its platform specifically for servicers, REO assets management companies and AMCs.

Milestones, a homeowner engagement platform, recently introduced Williston Financial Group (WFG), a national provider of title insurance, underwriting and escrow services for residential and commercial real estate transactions, as a user of its homeownership portals.

JLL’s Value and Risk Advisory group recently hired a national director of agency due diligence.

This person will develop initiatives and quality service directives for the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae due diligence assignments in response to the agency’s comprehensive third-party report requirements.

Read on for more about this new hire.

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently released the latest results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices, the measure of U.S. home prices.

Data released for September showed that 15 of the 20 major metro markets reported month-over-month price increases.

Read on to learn more.

The Appraisal Foundation (TAF) Board of Trustees (BOT) recently adopted TAF’s first major governance overhaul in over a decade, making comprehensive changes that completely restructures the BOT and appointments to the Foundation and introduces a new opportunity for organizations to partner with TAF.

The latest book from the Appraisal Institute explores senior housing, nursing home and hospital properties from physical and economic perspectives, providing appraisers with an up-to-date set of tools for determining the productivity, marketability, feasibility and value of these facilities.

CBC Mortgage Agency, a Native American wholly owned and federally chartered housing finance agency, introduced a buydown feature for its down payment assistance program for Federal Housing Administration first mortgage financing. This new feature comes after the company decreased the interest rate offered on its down payment assistance.

Valuation Review, as part of its Compliance Series, hosted a third webinar, “Regulatory and Industry Outlook” with panelist George Paquette.

Paquette, the chief operating officer with Valligent, gave appraisal professionals insights on the regulatory and industry trends they will be facing in 2024.

Read on for a small preview and learn how you can order your copy of the program.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Inc released its December 2023 ICE Mortgage Monitor Report. Rising home prices, though cooling in recent months, have returned total tappable equity to near its 2022 peak.

National banks and mortgage lenders are incorporating image recognition into their appraisal review process, as the leading government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) recently announced they will use image recognition to detect incorrect quality and condition ratings. Restb.ai offers a GSE-complaint image validation solution with its computer vision technology.

An appraisal management software provider recently announced its payment processing service, streamlining appraisal management. Payment processing is a critical aspect of operations and involves navigating a variety of challenges. The company now handles payments directly, simplifying payment workflow and alleviating the administrative burden from lenders.

Valuation Review introduced Restb.ai’s use of computer vision technology and how it can make a difference in the world of appraisal data.

We reached out to Tony Pistilli, general manager of valuations at Restb.ai, for more insight.

Read on for the full conversation.

Ascent Software Group (ASG) recently announced its acquisition of technology developer Value Acceptance’.

The partnership ’strengthens ASG’s position as a market leader in the appraisal technology industry, according to company leaders.

Read on for more details about this acquisition.

CoreLogic recently released its monthly Loan Performance Insights report for September.

The national mortgage delinquency rate was 2.8 percent, which was unchanged year-over-year but still similar to numbers recorded over the previous 18 months.

Read on to learn more.

ACI, a provider of workflow solutions for the valuation industry and a member of the First American family of companies, recently introduced SureStep mobile, a comprehensive appraisal inspection solution.

In The Appraisal Foundation’s (TAF) December newsletter, President David Bunton noted many accomplishments over the past year by the TAF boards.

Fannie Mae Lender Letter (LL-2023-09) addressed the confirmation of conforming loan limit values for 2024, showing an increase.