News By Edition

Veteran appraiser Bill Waltenbaugh sat down with Valuation Review for his thoughts and insights on the appraisal profession.

Waltenbaugh recently accepted the position of chief appraiser at Nationwide Appraisal Network.

Read on for Part I of this exclusive feature.

Kevin Hecht, a Certified Residential appraiser in Missouri and ChE Chartered Economist at McKissock, recently put together a market analysis for March in his installment of The Full Measure.

After studying his findings, Valuation Review sat down with Hecht for an in-depth picture surrounding the March 2024 housing market insights, plus key takeaways for residential appraisers.

Read on for more of Part I of this exclusive feature story.

On May 1, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the Federal Housing Administration, announced a new step in the department’s work to protect borrowers from racial or ethnic bias in home appraisals.

Valuation Review reached out to appraisal organizations and others for their comments on this decision.

Read on to hear what they told us.

Reggora announced its partnership with Loan Originator Networks, a trade promotion optimization portal solution for mortgage lenders.

According to analysis and statistics recently posted by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, appraisal gaps persist between white and both Black and Hispanic/Latino majority neighborhoods.

But updated data indicated the gaps have narrowed following actions by stakeholders and federal, state, and local agencies, including the release of the PAVE Action Plan.

Read on for more from this analysis.

The CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights report for February revealed key delinquency numbers.

The statistics favor a strong mortgage performance.

Read on for more analysis.

Property data curator ATTOM released its annual analysis of the best days of the year to sell a home, which showed that based on home sales over the past 13 years, the months of May, February and April offer the highest seller premiums.

Single-family home prices rose by 5.3 percent year-over-year in March, marking the 146th consecutive month of annual growth.

Over the next 12 months, year-over-year home price gains are projected to range between 5.6 percent and 3.7 percent, according to the CoreLogic Home Price Index report.

Read on for statistical information.

Texas and Florida metros dominate the best places for homebuyers in Zillow’s new market heat index, securing seven of the top 10 spots.

But most of the country’s 50 largest metros, and the U.S. at large, favor sellers, according to the latest Zillow market report.

Read on to learn more.

Fannie Mae recently announced an appointment to its board of directors. She brings years of technology and financial services expertise to the board.

A May 13 report from Reuters showed roughly two-thirds of economists predicting two cuts to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s key interest rate, with the first coming in September.

Attendees at this year’s National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in Naples, Fla., helped bring smiles to the faces of young cancer patients during the “Make a Child Smile” community service event.

The event is sponsored by Qualia.

Read on for a preview.

In Part II of our exclusive interview with Voxtur Chief Valuation Officer Ernie Durbin, Valuation Review examined the effects of the “overhaul” of the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Uniform Appraisal Dataset.

Durbin further assessed the role of the GSEs regarding report content and tone.

Read on for the conclusion to this feature story.

On the west coast of Florida, housing supply is surging, sellers are cutting their asking prices and the time it takes to sell a home is soaring — all at a faster rate than anywhere else in the country. The story is similar in parts of Texas, according to a new report from Redfin.

Recently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reiterated a change regarding the government-sponsored enterprises’ Universal Appraisal Dataset (UAD) system was on the horizon.

Valuation Review spoke with Voxtur Chief Valuation Officer Ernie Durbin for his thoughts on the UAD overhaul, and other appraisal matters.

Read on for more from Part I of our conversation with Durbin.

S&P Dow Jones Indices recently released the February 2024 results for the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

The report showed 18 out of the 20 major metro markets reported month-over-month home price increases.

Read on to learn more.

Reps. Mark Alford (R-Mo.), J. Luis Correa (D-Calif.), Tracey Mann (R-Kan.) and Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) are being credited with the creations of the Bipartisan Congressional Real Estate Caucus. The group is tasked with addressing the lack of housing affordability and inventory across the country.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently launched its new division of public interest examination (DPIE) to provide oversight of the agency’s regulated entities with respect to affordable housing, community development, diversity and inclusion, consumer protection and fair lending.

Elliot Eisenberg, Ph.D., chief economist at GraphsandLaughs, LLC, will share his passion and knowledge of the housing market and economy as a featured speaker at the National Settlement Services Summit (NS3) in Naples, Fla.

Among the topics he plans to cover is the question he hears a lot: when will the Fed cut interest rates?

Read on for a preview of Eisenberg's talk.

Kevin Hecht, a Certified Residential appraiser in Missouri and ChE Chartered Economist at McKissock, concluded his market analysis with Valuation Review.

Hecht outlined more takeaways for residential appraisers.

Read on for the conclusion.

Borrowers who have or had a loan serviced by Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC and paid for broker price opinions or hybrid valuations between 2010 and 2017, may be entitled to the benefits of a class action settlement.

Estimated payments are $60 per broker price opinion and $70 per hybrid valuation.

Read on for more details surrounding this case.