Appraiser Income

The Appraisal Subcommittee on July 9 granted a request from North Dakota for a temporary waiver from appraisal licensing requirements after state officials claimed a scarcity of appraisers. The ASC granted the one-year waiver from licensing requirements by a 5-2 vote; an additional year is possible if state officials again seek a waiver based on the scarcity argument. 

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council still needs to approve the decision, which is expected to happen at its meeting later this month. It’s important to note that the temporary waiver is not a waiver from appraisals, but from appraisal licensing requirements. All appraisals still need to comply with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.  

Discount real-estate brokerage Redfin will partner with Opendoor, one of the leading home-buying services, allowing homeowners to get an instant offer when they want to sell with Redfin RDFN, -2.17%  , the firms announced Thursday.

The tie-up is the latest sign of the increasingly fuzzy lines between traditional ways of transacting residential real estate and the increasing popularity of new tech-enabled disruptors. Companies like Opendoor, known as “iBuyers,” buy homes from consumers directly, allowing them to skip the hassle of open houses, repairs and renovations, and uncertain closing schedules.

At a moment when consumers increasingly expect more bespoke and favorable experiences for less cost, the two companies say their initiative “gives homeowners more options for selling their home in a simple and convenient way.”

DENVER (July 22, 2019) – More than 525 real estate professionals from around the world today attended the opening session of the valuation profession’s most important annual event, hosted by the Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest professional association of real estate appraisers.

The 2019 Appraisal Institute Annual Conference, being held at the downtown Hyatt Regency Denver today through Wednesday, features world-renowned keynote speakers, 30 breakout sessions on trend-setting valuation topics, networking opportunities for industry professionals, an exhibit hall featuring cutting-edge products and services and an awards ceremony honoring the valuation profession’s best and brightest.

Veros Real Estate Solutions, Santa Ana, Calif., said average projected appreciation rate for residential real estate in the nation’s 100 largest markets should hold steady at 3.7 percent through June 2020, maintaining the same rate from the previous quarter’s forecast and marking a leveling out after a four-quarter decline from a projected appreciation rate of 4.5 percent a year ago.

The VeroFORECAST said 5 percent of markets are projected to depreciate over the upcoming year, a figure that has remained the same since fourth quarter 2018, after it jumped from 3 percent in a single quarter.

“This flattening indicates that although there is definite softness overall in the housing market the fundamentals are healthy,” said Eric Fox, Veros Vice President of Statistical and Economic Modeling. “One potential contributing factor we saw in the models is some softening of mortgage interest rates, which is helping to prop up values and stem the decline.”

(Washington, DC) August 1, 2019 – The Appraisal Standards Board (ASB), an independent board of The Appraisal Foundation, announced today that it intends to examine the concept of creating standards for evaluations, which are alternatives to appraisals used by financial institutions.

Currently, there are no uniform standards for appraisers to follow when conducting an evaluation, which leads to greater risk to the safety and soundness of the real estate transaction and diminished protection for consumers. The ASB intends to issue a concept paper around Labor Day, and will follow up with a public hearing with panels of constituents on October 18, 2019 in Washington, DC. As with all public meetings of the ASB, the public hearing will be broadcast via livestream.

IRVINE, Calif. – July 18, 2019 — ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), today released its Q2 2019 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows that U.S. single family homes and condos sold for a median price of $266,000 in the second quarter, up 10.8 percent from the previous quarter and up 6.4 percent from a year ago — reaching a new median home price peak.

Meanwhile, the report also shows that homeowners who sold in the second quarter had owned an average of 8.09 years, reaching a new peak, up 3 percent from last quarter and up 4 percent from Q2 2018. Homeownership tenure averaged 4.21 years nationwide between Q1 2000 and Q3 2007, prior to the Great Recession.