Appraiser Income

Following his appearance yesterday before the House Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance to advocate passage of HR 2852, which would allow licensed appraisers to perform appraisals for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans, Appraisal Institute President Stephen S. Wagner is expressing optimism that the legislation will find its way through a Congress which seems to become increasingly divided along party lines. 

“We have positive thoughts on that,” said Wagner in an interview with National Mortgage Professional. “I don’t see where there’s much criticism with this, as it seems to be reasonably well accepted. We’ve not heard any resistance to it.” 

Thought I would include a link to this article in Rolling Stone. Creepy but interesting.

The Zonda / Metrostudy teams recently gazed into their crystal balls to provide financial analysis for the homebuilding industry, which includes bad news for the end of year 2021. “We’re predicting a fairly healthy year for the remainder of 2019 with about 2.575 million jobs being created this year,” said chief economist Mark Boud of Metrostudy. “This forecast was done before the recent news on tariffs so this may be revised downward. As time goes on we do predict a recession and predict job losses to begin at the latter part of 2021 and going into 2022.”

The good news is Boud and his team don’t believe the recession will be nearly as bad as what happened during the housing crises. The timing of the recession prediction is based on the 2-10 treasury yield spread, a key economic metric that measures the difference of yields on short term (2-year) treasury bonds versus long term (10-year) treasury bonds. When the short term bonds are worth more than the long terms the yield curve is “inverted” and a recession typically follows about 18 months later.

The current 2-10 yield spread has been dropping since 2014 and was very close to inversion the last time it was measured which was in the fourth quarter of 2018. “We expect it to go inverted sometime this year and that corresponds with a recession in the later part of 2021,” said Boud.

If you are like me, you spend a lot of time driving around doing your appraisal work. This is a good show! Especially their coverage on advocacy!

http://www.voiceofappraisal.com/

“Voice of Appraisal” is a show designed to deliver the most up to date news and information for the working real estate valuation professional. The show provides top analysis of real estate trends and issues that affect appraisers nationwide.  Our no-nonsense approach to appraisal, real estate, banking and politics creates a cutting edge program that provides an insight into the appraisal profession that is seldom heard.

The past 25 years of appraisal organizations, affiliations, and designations have left our industry splintered and broken.  We have become a group too caught up in our own egos and titles to see how our profession is now crumbling before us.

We have divided ourselves, and our house will not stand!

We don’t need any more regulations to hinder us, or unions to protect us, or dwindling organizations to speak for us, or financial institutions to threaten us.

What we need is a voice, a movement, to take back our industry, and control our own destiny.

This show exists to offer such a voice to this lone wolf profession, that real estate appraisal has now become.  Welcome to the movement!

When the Republican Party first put forth its plan to reform the country’s tax laws, housing experts worried it could put a damper on home-buying activity. Now that the GOP’s tax plan is the law of the land, some fear those predictions may be coming to fruition.

A new report from analysts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York examined the drop in home-sales activity between the fourth quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018. The figures in the respective quarters were adjusted for any seasonal factors impacting the housing market at those times of year. In that period, new home sales fell 7.6% nationwide — with the Northeast and West regions sustaining the most substantial drops in sales activity.

New Federal Reserve Bank of New York findings suggest that the recent changes to the federal tax code have contributed to the slowdown in home sales that occurred throughout much of last year.

Bank of America is committing $5 billion to help boost homeownership for “low- to moderate-income and multicultural homebuyers and communities” across the country, the bank announced Tuesday.

According to the bank, it plans to commit an additional $5 billion over the next five years to its Bank of America Neighborhood Solutions program, which “will help more than 20,000 individuals and families thrive through the power of homeownership.”

And as part of the program, Bank of America is rolling out a host of new loan programs and options, including grants of as much as $10,000 to help a borrower close a loan.

Happy Birthday to US! Hope everyone is having a great 4th with friends and family!

YOU better be taking the day off. Yeah, I’m talking to you. You know who you are.

NEW YORK–Representatives from government housing agencies said they are making progress in breaking down barriers that discourage mortgage lenders and servicers from working with them.

FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery, speaking here at the MBA National Secondary Market Conference & Expo, said FHA is at an “important crossroads.”

“It’s clear that our regulatory compliance standards discourage depository institutions from participating as FHA partners,” Montgomery said. “I strongly believe this discouragement has a huge impact on FHA products.”

Montgomery said he is committed to evaluating policies to encourage more FHA lending, citing efforts to increase transparency and ease regulatory burdens. Last week, for example, FHA announced changes to its loan level and annual certifications and defect taxonomy; in March, FHA announced changes to its TOTAL Scorecard.

WASHINGTON (May 16, 2019) – Continued economic expansion, rising home sales and an increase in wage growth that is on par with home price growth are some of the expectations for the second half of 2019, according to speakers at today’s residential real estate forum at the 2019 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo.

Dr. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist at the National Association of Realtors®, delivered his 2019 midyear forecast, which predicted changing future migration patterns as buyers search for more affordable markets. Inventory in the U.S. has grown for eight straight months on a year-over-year basis, and Yun expects that to continue.

“Home sales should be much stronger based on the economic fundamentals of jobs, interest rates, population and consumer confidence,” said Yun.