Appraiser Income

One year ago this week, I was in Montgomery County, Tennessee to break ground for a new data center in Clarksville. It was clear from the excitement at the event that the jobs and economic investment meant a great deal to the community. I’ve seen that same optimism in communities around the country that are helping to power our digital economy. And I’m proud to say that our U.S. footprint is growing rapidly: In the last year, we’ve hired more than 10,000 people in the U.S. and made over $9 billion in investments. Our expansion across the U.S. has been crucial to finding great new talent, improving the services that people use every day, and investing in our business.

Today we’re announcing over $13 billion in investments throughout 2019 in data centers and offices across the U.S., with major expansions in 14 states. These new investments will give us the capacity to hire tens of thousands of employees, and enable the creation of more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. With this new investment, Google will now have a home in 24 total states, including data centers in 13 communities. 2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it.

A federal appeals court sided with Zillow in a long-running lawsuit over the accuracy and marketing of the real estate giant’s controversial Zestimate tool.

A group of homeowners in Illinois sued Zillow in 2017, alleging that the Zestimate tool is often inaccurate and difficult to get changed, and that Zillow markets it as roughly equivalent to an appraisal. The homeowners argued that the tool undervalued their homes and made it harder for them to sell.

The homeowners appealed the case last year after their claims were twicedismissed. In a brief opinion, The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately agreed with the judges’ prior rulings.

The court found that Zillow is honest about labeling Zestimate as only an estimate, not an appraisal. The process is most accurate “when errors are not biased to favor sellers or buyers,” so Zillow shouldn’t have to change Zestimate values when they come in lower than what homeowners expect, Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote in the opinion.

MCLEAN, Va., March 21, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey^® (PMMS^®), showing that mortgage rates dropped with the beginning of spring homebuying season.

Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “Mortgage rates have dipped quite dramatically since the start of the year and house prices continue to moderate, which should help on the homebuyer affordability front. The combination of improving affordability and more inventory than the last few spring selling seasons should lead to improved home sales demand.”

News Facts

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.28 percent with an average 0.4 point for the week ending March 21, 2019, down from last week when it averaged 4.31 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.45 percent. 
• 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.71 percent with an average 0.4 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.76 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 3.91 percent. 
• 5-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 3.84 percent with an average 0.3 point, unchanged from last week. A year ago at this time, the 5-year ARM averaged 3.68 percent.

Average commitment rates should be reported along with average fees and points to reflect the total upfront cost of obtaining the mortgage. Visit the following link for the Definitions. Borrowers may still pay closing costs which are not included in the survey.

WASHINGTON (March 20, 2019) – New findings from a National Association of Realtors® survey show that more Americans believe that now is a good time to purchase a home. Consumer opinions about home buying bounced back in the first quarter of 2019, with 37 percent stating that they strongly believe now is a good time to buy, up from 34 percent in the last quarter of 2018 but down from 38 percent one year ago. Only 35 percent of respondents said that now is not a good time to buy a home, compared to 37 percent in 2018’s fourth quarter.

NAR’s first quarter Housing Opportunities and Market Experience(HOME) survey ¹ also found that a majority of those polled, 53 percent, said that the economy is improving – down slightly from 59 percent at the end of last year. In 2019, optimism is the greatest among those who earn $100,000 or more and those who reside in rural areas. Fifty percent of Generation X said the economy is improving, while 42 percent of urban area residents reported the same.

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WASHINGTON, DC – Full-year real GDP growth is estimated to come in at 2.2 percent in 2019, unchanged from the prior forecast but down markedly from 2018’s 3.1 percent, according to the Fannie Mae Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group’s March outlook. The expected deceleration in growth is largely attributable to the fading fiscal impact from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as well as continued sluggishness in business investment and consumer spending. Economic growth in the first quarter of 2019 is forecasted to slow to 1.3 percent in part due to consumer caution following significant volatility in households’ financial assets in the fourth quarter. The ESR Group also noted that risks to its forecast exist primarily on the downside, including slower global growth and ongoing U.S.-China trade uncertainty, but that sustained improvement in productivity and the central bank policy response to fourth quarter volatility will play an important role in shaping the full growth picture.

The ESR Group also continues to expect home sales to stabilize in 2019, with housing demand supported by a solid labor market and strong household formation.  Affordability, too, has improved by slowing house price appreciation and more attractive mortgage rates. Purchase mortgage originations are expected to expand in 2019 while refinancings contract.

Three themes anchor the U.S. commercial real estate investment outlook: U.S. economic performance, cycle maturity and the monetary policy outlook, said Cushman & Wakefield, New York.

“By and large these elements combined with the broader economic outlook point to continued strength and liquidity in the commercial real estate investment realm,” Cushman & Wakefield Chief Economist Kevin Thorpe said in the firm’s U.S. Macro Forecast. “With the threat of rapidly rising interest rates unlikely, most immediate valuation concerns have abated. However, a mature cycle still means that late-stage strategies are becoming more common and that the performance of the commercial real estate investment market will only become more nuanced.”

The report called sales activity “very robust” last year, the third-strongest year on record largely due to significant merger and acquisition activity. “Generally investment volumes saw sustainable growth across single-asset, mega-deal and portfolio sales–trends that are expected to continue–whereas we expect entity transactions to revert to more typical levels as a base case,” Thorpe said.

Retail and hospitality volumes increased more than other CRE sectors last year, reversing several years of declines for both. Cushman credited the retail sector’s increase entirely to merger and acquisition, but called the recovery in hospitality volumes more broad-based.

“The most favored asset classes at this point in the cycle continue to be multifamily and industrial, strength that seems set to continue,” the report said. “Suburban office sales appear to be stabilizing near record highs while central business district office sales recovered on margin following a sharp slowdown in 2016 and 2017.”

As the cycle continues to mature and fewer asset types and geographies see appreciation, aggregate pricing will likely decelerate, Cushman said. The Real Capital Analytics pricing index rose 6.5 percent in 2018, but the report predicted that index will increase 5.0 percent this year and only 3.8 percent in 2020.

“Although downside risks persist, the most probable scenario is that the U.S. expansion will continue, the momentum will continue and 2019 will be another healthy year for the property markets,” Thorpe said.

I have noticed a big uptick in domain renewal scams going out to our members over at the Appraisers Club, but other real estate appraisers have contacted me about this as well.

I am sure most of you check the validity of all bills that come to your company, but this one seems to be focusing on real estate appraisers for some reason. Who knows why, maybe we pay our bills without asking too many questions?

So if you have a website and you get a notice in the mail to renew your domain name, make sure it is your company domain name first. Check every character, maybe even type it in to your browser to make sure it pulls up your website. I have seen notices going out that are very similar to your domain name and they are trying to trick you in to buying it through them.

If it does match your domain name, make sure that is the same company you purchased the domain name from in the past. Log in online if possible and renew the domain name there if needed. Many of the letters that are sent to you in the mail are stating they are for a ‘renewal’, but it is actually requesting you to transfer the domain name to their company. They are not trying to take ownership of the domain name, just have you pay to ‘register’ it with them.

There really is no need to change a ‘registrar’ unless you want to change it yourself. Most of these companies are just trying to scam you in to paying a higher annual fee.

Most places like Moniker or GoDaddy will be the registrar for only $10-$20 a year.

When it comes to domain name billing, always take a close look, these scams have been going around for decades, but they seem to be targeting real estate appraisers now.

The sky will fall, economically speaking, on that most economists agree.

Where they do differ, is when exactly they expect America’s economy to suffer two straight quarters of negative economic activity and what factors may lead up to a future recession.

In the latest survey from the National Association for Business Economics, 281 members reported their economic predictions.

“Three-fourths of the NABE Policy Survey panelists expect an economic recession by the end of 2021,” said NABE President Kevin Swift, CBE, chief economist at the American Chemistry Council. “While only 10% of panelists expect a recession in 2019, 42% say a recession will happen in 2020, and 25% expect one in 2021.”

The United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed on Feb. 28 the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board’s petition for review of a Federal Trade Commission decision that disallowed the LREAB from asserting its state-action immunity defense in ongoing administrative proceedings. The court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the petition. A stay of action by the FTC has been in place pending the outcome of the review petition.   

In dismissing the petition, the court noted that the Federal Trade Commission Act only allows it to review cease and desist orders issued by the FTC, stating, “The Commission’s order denying the Board’s motion to dismiss and granting the FTC’s motion for partial summary decision is not a cease and desist order, [so] the statute does not expressly authorize us to exercise jurisdiction here.” 

The Appraisal Institute on Feb. 19 received notice from the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that a request for a hearing on the proposal to raise the residential appraisal threshold from $250,000 to $400,000 was denied. AI was one of six valuation organizations that submitted a letter Feb. 4 requesting the hearing. “After reviewing your letter and considering the discussion in our conference call, we do not believe that holding a public hearing would elicit relevant information that could not be conveyed through the comment process,” the agencies stated in their letter. “While the agencies are, therefore, declining your request for a public hearing, we will carefully consider your written comments.” The comment period closed Feb. 5. In addition to the Appraisal Institute, the letter requesting the hearing was signed by: 

• American Guild of Appraisers, OPEIU, AFL-CIO;
• American Society of Appraisers;
• American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers;
• MBREA | The Association for Valuation Professionals; and
• RICS.

Read the original letter requesting the hearing.