home values

[Tony_SS]

The appraisal is always available to the borrower.

That's what I thought too...

[wicked68]

Unfortunately, the appraisal is property of the lender and they are not obligated to share it with the borrower.

The HARP program is aimed at helping people keep a roof over their head, thus primary residence only.



FNMA just announced 125% as the new maximum limit.

unless they are basing their claim to require more money on their offer based no a third party appraisal then they will have to send it over to ducumen their basis or they will have to forfiet their application fee andtry to sure you and spend far more money to collect their application fee than to pay attorneys.

[tones2SS]

I just got reassessed and my property value went up all most 17K imagine that. Soon the middle class is going to be the lower middle class.

You said it brother.

[LowBuckX]

I had a bummer situation like this on my home.

The appraiser (lender sent) came to the house counted rooms took measurements of outside perimeter of house. Thats it. Then used sale price of an other home of equal size as my appraisal. And included the MLS number of the house he compared it to so Me and the wife toured the camparing house and to our dismay the house was updated in the 70s and was in horrible shape and was sold as a fixer upper. My house was renovated in 06.... So I was appraised at 116k when Im easily a 125k house......

[bretcopsey]

I have been employed with a large mortgage company for 11 years now. I am speaking from my experience when I made the comment about the appraisal. Other companies certainly may handle things differnetly.

Think of appraisals in terms of credit reports. If the lender were to deny a borrower due to credit, they do not have to give you a copy of the credit report. Instead they have to disclose that you were declined due to credit and then provide the contact information for the agency from which they obtained the information. It has been a while since I've been on the origination side of things however.

To get back to the OP's original point, home vales are suffering across the country-no suprise there. It is making it difficult for people to sell and refinance. Non-foreclosure sales are seeing prices reduced due to the glut of foreclosure homes on the market. These are beoming your comparable sales for appraisal purpposes. Appraisal guidelines require recent sales be used as comps, and appraisers seem to be more reluctant to make adjustments.

It is a good time for a first time homebuyer to get a good deal on a home they may never have been able to afford a few years ago. The tightened credit underwriting guidelines are hopefully going to prevent a repeat of what took place leading to this current mess. It would even be a good time to snatch up properties for rental if one has 20% to put down.

One part of the equation in all of this is a vast majority of people don't have 20% to put down, so they take out mortgages requiring pmi. The pmi companies have been a driving force in tightening credit requirements over the past two years. They were insuring stated income or no income loans, borrowers with no minimum FICO score requirements, 100% LTV and so on. The pmi companies stopped a lot of this by refusing to continue to insure new loans under those terms. For example, the minimum FICO score for most now is 680. The agencies are not quite as restrictive today, but they are also tightening up guidelines.

But when it comes to refinancing, the pmi companies do realize that they are better off making a modification to the coverage they are providing, rather than hinder a refinance. If the borrower is more able to afford their loan, then the pmi company is at less risk of paying a claim due to the loan going into default. The agencies are also taking this approach with restructuring what was formerly known as a streamline refinance.

[rob07002]

All should keep in mind that the home appraisers were all part of the recent housing bubble and although you might not read about it, have all gotten their hands slapped pretty hard since the collapse. Thus, the ones that are still around are ULTRA-cautious about home values so not to over-value a house and create inflated, albeit sometimes accurate valuations. Think about all those homes that sold for redicilous amounts of money back in 04-06.

I went through the refi process recently and was super-pissed at the appraisal, but luckily was able to go through and close. I did tell the refi company that their appraiser was worthless and pointed to several facts like age of home, amenities, etc. but truth was they weren't going to go our of their way to show a higher valuation or search passes 1 mile to help.

You could get a seperate appraisal and compare, argue your case to the refi company and go to another refi company entirely.

[BonzoHansen]

I just finished re-fi last week. 4.375 fixed 30 years. Been locked since like March, they were that backed up. They did give us the appraisal value but not the report. They also gave us our credit score but not the report.

I was just happy the appraisal came in as high as it did. I guessed $300k, needed $280k, came in at $309k. I did not want to give up my stupid cheap HELOC so I needed LTV ratio to be ok. Still not bad given we paid $165k in 2000.

[6'9"Witha69]

And your HELOC is still open? Most everyone I know has had theirs shut down. Even people with concrete poured waiting for a contractor, not buying big TVs and motorhomes!

[Vegas69]

I was able to subordinate mine as well. I got lucky and B of A bought my Heloc before they funded my refinance.