Appraisal Today 
 
Newz Fannie CU 3.2 .Inflated appraisals .Professional attire - May 19, 2016
 
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Inflated numbers: Are builders, lenders and appraisers working together? (in Atlanta, GA)
 
Excerpts:
A local banker is blowing the whistle about what he calls improper dealings in a metro subdivision.       
 
One official told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Jim Strickland that on the surface, it smacks of the housing crisis all over again.
 
(Editor's note. The first appraisal did not "make value").
 
"And he (the builder) said, 'I want you to go with my preferred lender, Brand Mortgage. They've never had a problem getting the value needed,'" he said.
 
In a filing with federal regulators, Brand Mortgage admits it has partial ownership of its own appraisal firm, Valuation Management Group.
 
VMG dispatched a different appraiser.
 
"And they came back with a value $25,000 higher than the original appraisal. The same as the sale price, coincidentally," Laymac said.
 
Check out the article and the short video of the news story. Worth waiting for the commercial to be over.
 
My comment. Nothing new. I quit doing new home tract appraisals many years ago. Builders have been pressuring appraisers for inflated values for as long as I have been appraising - in good and bad markets. They try to get higher appraisals so they can increase their prices. Borrowers, including appraisers, just want to get their purchase loans. No comments below the original story.

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www.appraisaltodayblog.com

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Hot topic last week - Appraisal Port poll on geographic competency - lots of comments!!
 
 
One of my hottest blog topics!!
 
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5 of the oldest homes in the country (listings) Video
 
Worth waiting for the commercial to end. Very short video. All were built before George Washington was born, back to the 16th century.
 
 
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Professional attire for appraisers from Dave Towne, of course...
 
Recommended new attire to please all AMC's who demand that 'we' dress professionally.
 
But this actually looks best with white shorts and silver edged flip flops!
 

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    Confused about 1004MC? Who isn't??

Recent articles in the paid Appraisal Today about 1004MC
- Practical tips on qualifying the 1004MC and preparing a Market Conditions Summary - how to handle many of the problems with the 1004MC by Doug Smith, SRA,  AI-RRS
- 1004MC - the good, the bad, and what Fannie says by Ann O'Rourke, MAI, SRA
Statistical errors in the 1004MC by George Dell, MAI, SRA

- Issues with the 1004mc - a closer look by George Dell, MAI, SRA, ASA


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If you are a paid subscriber and did not get the May 2016 issue, emailed May 2, 2016, please send an email to [email protected]   requesting it and we will send it to you!! Or, hit the reply button. Be sure to put in a comment requesting it ;>
Starter Home Prices Are Rising Faster In The Housing Crunch
 
Excerpt:
Heading into the busiest homebuying season, one of the biggest stories about the spring market is, once again, a tale of inventory shortage and inadvertently, escalating bidding wars. In other words, this spring appears no different from 2013, 2014, and 2015, in that the limited supply of homes for sales continue to constrain would-be buyers in their ability to finding a suitable home to purchase.
 
Also making headlines everywhere is what seems to be another rather persistent phenomenon: The ongoing housing crunch appears unevenly felt by first-time homebuyers due to even lower inventory of entry-level homes. First-time homebuyers typically make up less than one third of the homebuyers, and the latest homebuyer profile surveys by the National Association of Realtors put the number more at 30%.
 
Check out the graphs!!
 
 
My comment: nothing new if you appraise in a hot market. Or, a market where new homes are large and too expensive for first time home buyers. 
The current issue of the paid Appraisal Today had The May issue of the paid Appraisal Today focused on how to handle these problems, with these articles:
- No man's land & the aggressive real estate market by Ryan Lundquist
- How to handle rapidly increasing prices in your market by Ann O'Rourke
 
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Reminder: CU Version 3.2 Coming May 21, 2016

Collateral Underwriter� (CU™) Version 3.2 will leverage the UCDP appraisal-sharing functionality to provide aggregators access to their correspondent shared appraisals in CU. Aggregators and correspondents can complete the setup today in UCDP. For more information, review the CU V3.2 Release Notes.

Collateral Underwriter Training
Fannie Mae offers a variety of live and recorded training opportunities to help use CU effectively and efficiently. Additional live webinar dates have been added, including a refresher course on the CU Score and Messages. Attend one or more sessions to learn more about CU:
For further information on CU, visit the CU web page.

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HOW TO USE THE NUMBERS BELOW. Appraisals are ordered after the loan application. These numbers tell you the future for the next few weeks. For more information on how they are compiled, go to https://www.mba.org 
 
Note: I publish a graph of this data every month in my printed newsletter, Appraisal Today. For more information or get a FREE sample issue go to www.appraisaltoday.com/products   or send an email to [email protected] . Or call 800-839-0227, MTW 8AM to noon, Pacific time.

Mortgage applications decreased 1.6 percent from one week earlier
according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 13, 2016.

The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 1 percent from the previous week. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 6 percent from one week earlier to the lowest level since February 2016. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 6 percent compared with the previous week and was 12 percent higher than the same week one year ago.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 54.7 percent of total applications from 52.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity decreased to 5.5 percent of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications decreased to 12.6 percent from 13.0 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications increased to 12.2 percent from 11.7 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.7 percent the week prior.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) remained unchanged at 3.82 percent, with points unchanged at 0.34 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate was unchanged from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) remained unchanged at 3.74 percent, with points decreasing to 0.29 from 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA decreased to 3.63 percent from 3.64 percent, with points increasing to 0.28 from 0.25 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.02 percent from 3.06 percent, with points increasing to 0.38 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 2.94 percent from 2.93 percent, with points increasing to 0.30 from 0.22 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week. 

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, and has been conducted weekly since 1990.  Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts.  Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100. 
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Ann O'Rourke, MAI, SRA, MBA
Appraiser and Publisher Appraisal Today
2033 Clement Ave. Suite 105
Alameda, CA 94501 Phone 510-865-8041
Fax 510-523-1138
Email   [email protected]