Feds raise appraisal exemption for higher-priced mortgages

The government is raising the exemption for special appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans to $34,200.

The loans are defined as any mortgage with specifically higher annual percentage rates than the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's average prime offer rate. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the CFPB raised the limit from $33,500 this past year, based on a specific consumer price index. 

The threshold for HPMLs is an annual percentage rate 1.5 percentage points higher than the APOR for first liens; 2.5 percentage points higher for jumbo loans; and 3.5 percentage points higher for subordinate liens. 

Mortgage lenders issuing HPMLs must obtain a written appraisal based on a physical visit to the property. 

Loans under the new threshold don't have to apply with appraisal rules, an exception created in the 2013 Dodd-Frank Act rulemaking. The annual updates are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which rose 2.1% between April 2024 and April 2025, when inflation surged.

The threshold has stood pat in years past, but has crept up steadily since it was established at $25,000 in 2014.

The APOR which the rule relies on was briefly in jeopardy earlier this year, when the Trump Administration halted much of the CFPB's work. The regulator however confirmed it would continue to publish the APOR, and ICE Mortgage Technology this summer also launched its own publicly available APOR index.