News By Edition

As is tradition, Valuation Review brings to its reader an exclusive interview with the newly appointed Appraisal Institute (AI) president.

We caught up with Craig Steinley to get his thoughts on the profession, goals as the organization’s president, and what he sees for appraisers during 2023.

Read on to find out what he had to say.

BBG Alternative Practice Groups Managing Director R.J. DeBee, III reached out to Valuation Review to share thoughts from his article “Active Adult Communities Riding the ‘Grey Tsunami’ Wave.”

DeBee spoke to the baby boomer population swing and how it affects adult communities/multifamily housing for seniors.

Read on for more from the BBG director.

The strengths and weaknesses of the market, as well as location, federal, state and local regulations and renting will be areas of focus in real estate for 2023.

Valuation Review spoke to Cignature Realty CEO Lazer Sternhell about these concepts of marketing and other topics appraisers will find educational.

Read on for more of our conversation with Sternhell.

Earlier, Valuation Review reported Colliers, a diversified professional services and investment management company, appointed Anjanette “AJ” Hutson as executive managing director/ portfolio management director.

We sat down with Hutson to learn more about her new role with Colliers Valuation & Advisory Services.

Read on for more of the conversation.

Sometimes, it’s not the actual size of the property that matters, but the peace of mind it brings to the owners.

Valuation Review analyzed this rather unique subject by sitting down with ECLIPSE Cottages founder and CEO Justin Draplin, who discusses how smaller home options can produce big dividends.

Read on for more of the conversation.

At a recent event at the Brookings Institute, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge announced that HUD, through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), is creating a process that people seeking FHA financing can use to request a review of their appraisal. This can be pursued if it is believed the results may have been skewed by racial bias.

CoreLogic recently released its Home Price Index (HPI) and HPI Forecast for November 2022.

The November numbers showed the lowest rate of appreciation in exactly two years.

Read on for more numbers.

Veros Real Estate Solutions recently released its 2022 Q4 VeroFORECAST that anticipates home prices will turn negative overall and depreciate on average by -0.5 percent for the next 12 months.

This is a significant drop from the 1.5 percent annual appreciation forecast just one quarter ago.

Read on for more from the forecast. 

More than 2 million homes across the country no longer require a jumbo loan, according to a new analysis by Zillow Home Loans.

This means customers will have additional available inventory that is covered by a more accessible financing option.

Read on to learn more.

Single-family home prices increased at a non-seasonally adjusted annual rate of 9.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from the previous quarter’s revised annual growth rate of 13.1 percent. This is according to Fannie Mae’s latest Home Price Index.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced they filed a Statement of Interest to explain the Fair Housing Act’s (FHA) application to algorithm-based tenant screening systems. The Statement of Interest was filed in Louis et al. v. SafeRent et al., a lawsuit pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging that defendants’ use of an algorithm-based scoring system to screen tenants discriminates against Black and Hispanic rental applicants in violation of the FHA.

Reggora recently announced its order management platform can embed the borrower’s appraisal experience into a lender’s custom point of sale system. This will improve the borrower’s experience by resolving some of the most common issues that arise during the appraisal, according to the company.

The land market momentum that began in late 2021 accelerated into 2022 and was driven by competition for high quality cropland; it resulted in both record sales and overall increases in land values across the country, according to a press release from Farmers National Company. Strong demand across all of the country’s regions brought opportunities to landowners interested in capitalizing on the current land market.

Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The survey showed the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.31 percent.

In his blog, “P.U.– No Longer Just a Bad Smell,” Dustin Harris, “The Appraiser Coach,” talks production units (PUs).

This method, which came from one of his students, can help structure one’s appraisal business.

Read on to learn more.

Valuation Review hosted the first installment of its compliance webinar series.

Guest panelists were Greg Stephens, veteran appraiser, Michelle Czekalski Bradley, chief appraiser of Czekalski Real Estate Inc. Appraisal Services and The Appraisal Foundation’s Lisa Desmarais speaking on the program titled “Proposed Changes to USPAP.”

Read on to find out how you can order your copy of the program.

FundingShield, LLC. recently announced it entered into a strategic partnership to deliver its consumer wire fraud prevention technology to clients of the Milestones.ai company.

This protects homebuyers from real estate wire fraud.

Read on for more news about this partnership.

It is no secret the real estate industry experienced record-breaking highs during the COVID-19 pandemic. That, combined with the sharp drop in home sales this past year, prompted Fannie Mae to look into what actually drove purchase demand in 2020 and 2021 and what has changed.

New data from ATTOM’s year-end 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report found that the number of foreclosures in the U.S. had more than doubled from 2021. Foreclosure filings were reported on 324,237 properties in 2022, up 115 percent from 2021, but down 34 percent from 2019, before the pandemic put the housing and foreclosure markets in flux.

Valuation Review is in Washington, D.C., at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters for the Appraisal Subcommittee Hearing on Appraisal Bias. 

Invited witnesses representing key stakeholder groups will share their views.

Stay tuned for live updates.

The total number of homes for sale rose 18 percent from a year earlier during the four weeks ending Dec. 25.

This is the biggest increase since at least 2015, according to a new report from Redfin.

Read on for more from this marketing analysis.