Appraisals

As house values continued growing, homeowners with mortgages saw their equity increase 13.3% year-over-year in the first quarter, a gain of over $1.01 trillion, according to CoreLogic.

Fannie Mae is lowering down payment requirements and lender fees on manufactured housing loans to improve affordable housing access.

Dallas-area home prices grew slightly faster than the nationwide rate in the latest comparison by CoreLogic.

In a bid to cut time and costs from the mortgage process, Fannie Mae is testing whether appraisers can accurately determine a home's value without actually visiting the property.

The removal of costly appraisal requirements on tens of thousands of smaller commercial properties could help community banks better compete for loans they say they have been losing to nonbank lenders.

Four out of five Franklin County, Ohio, homes that changed hands this year sold above the county auditor's estimated value, in some cases for two or three times as much.

If Freddie Mac's credit-risk transfer activities continue to grow, mortgage lenders could eventually see a reduction in the guarantee fees they pay to the government-sponsored enterprise, according to CEO Donald Layton.

CoreLogic, which has already acquired several appraisal technology and services vendors, snagged another one with its purchase of a la mode technologies.

TriStar Bank in Tennessee says a shortage of appraisers is slowing down its commercial real estate lending and raising the cost of appraisals. The claim has outraged appraisers, who argue that the bank is simply trying to avoid paying their fees.

The use of appraisal management companies does not result in higher quality property valuation reports, according to a working paper published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.