Tagged: Freddie Mac

Under-Valuations Unrelated to Racial Bias 11

Under-Valuations Unrelated to Racial Bias

Under-valuations that more accurately reflect the homes’ “true” value as opposed to the contract price will also alert the buyer, not just the lender, that he or she may be over-paying, which often triggers a renegotiation… when the seller and buyer settle on a new price after the appraisal, the new lower price reduces credit risk, costs to the borrower, and ultimately results in greater wealth for the buyer. The AEI Housing Center recently released an analysis revealing that reports by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and by Brookings, attributing the greater prevalence of under-valuations in home purchase appraisals...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Finance Agency / FHFA

Spear Throwers Using Census Data as Evidence for Bias 31

Census Data Used as Evidence for Bias

I’ve previously written about how the various spear throwers at appraisers have used ‘census tract data’ in their assertions that appraisers are racially biased. It’s been done by Freddie Mac, by Andre Perry in his testimony before Congress, by Ph.D Elizabeth Korver-Glenn in her dissertation paper, not reviewed by anyone with appraisal experience, to obtain that lofty status, the media, and other so called ‘studies’ and ‘reports’ since. That is information foreign to appraisers, because we don’t use or reference anything about Census Tracts in our reports. The only place that shows up is in one field on the GSE...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

Fannie Seeks Upstanding Invisibles for Long-Term Commitment 11

Fannie Seeks Upstanding Invisibles for Long-Term Commitment

Fannie’s big news about embracing the “invisibles,” under the pretext of helping the underserved, Fannie announced it had tweaked the knobs and dials on its impenetrable underwriting algorithm in order to fit “credit invisibles” for mortgages.  In the final scene of the 1990 mob masterpiece “Goodfellas,” wise guy Henry Hill recalls his life as he enters federal witness protection. “It was easy to disappear. My house was in my mother-in-law’s name. My cars were registered to my wife. My Social Security card and driver’s license were phony. I never voted. I never paid taxes. My birth certificate and my arrest...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / CFPB / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Why Are Fannie, Freddie Peddling Exotic Junk-Rated Risk Swaps? 5

Why Are Fannie, Freddie Peddling Exotic Junk-Rated Risk Swaps?

Meanwhile, cratering home prices are eroding demand for the junk-rated credit transfers.  As mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie bend the knee to their political overlords, they securitize ever riskier loans. It’s a sign of the times. But while no one was looking, the twins – who wield the full faith and credit of the U.S. government – began quietly offloading this surplus risk in the form of so-called “credit-risk transfers.” The U.S. taxpayer should be worried. As the public learned in 2008 with AIG’s credit-default swaps, hidden risk injected into the financial system doesn’t stay hidden for long. The twins,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

FTX Bought Government’s Silence; Did Fintechs Buy Attacks on Appraisers? 11

FTX Bought Government’s Silence; Did Fintechs Buy Attacks on Appraisers?

The nation’s 80,000 licensed real property appraisers should pay close attention to the manipulation of Washington by FTX, which turned out to have the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme.  Fallen crypto whiz kid Sam Bankman-Fried and his associates are a living testament to the power of political donations in American politics. It’s unclear precisely what the more than $70 million in political donations bought FTX during an 18-month period leading up to the midterms, but one can speculate the money silenced what was once a brisk debate on Capitol Hill and at the U.S. Treasury on the regulation of crypto-currency....

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

DEI Bosses at Financial Institutions Have a Problem - Diversity 12

Top DEI Bosses Have a Problem – Diversity

The ranks of the new DEI bosses at the financial institutions are no more diverse than the appraisers their institutions see as the enemy. If the lack of diversity of appraisers is inherently bad, how could the same not be said for the DEI bosses?  A full 93 percent of U.S. birdwatchers are white. Just 4 percent are African-American and a paltry 1 percent are Asian-American. Just 5 percent are Hispanic (which includes both blacks and whites). This was according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as reported in National Geographic a number of years ago. Another study found...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Are Computer Programs Biased or Unbiased? 7

Are Computer Programs Biased or Unbiased?

Whether or not computer programs are despised or supported depends on the narrative being spewed. Which is it? Are computer programs good for generating appraisal values but when the narrative is to influence an anti-police sentiment using computer programs is too problematic? Last week’s article titled “The Government Screwing Over an Entire Industry” strengthened my conviction how eager and anxious Fannie, Freddie, and certain Congress persons are to replace appraisers with computer programs. The idea is that computers will do it more fairly and with equal justice and allow for “generational wealth”. They contend that appraisers are trying very hard...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Wells Fargo Workers Went on Appraisal-Fraud Bender 14

Wells Fargo Workers Went on Appraisal-Fraud Bender

Loan officers at Wells Fargo altered values in the bank’s database, so loans would qualify for so-called appraisal waivers… It feels like Ground Hog Day all over again. Who can forget the Wells Fargo banker who, stressed from opening fraudulent accounts in the name of hapless depositors, had begun guzzling hand sanitizer? That was in 2016. New revelations from the nation’s second-largest mortgage lender will make the U.S. taxpayer want to take a good long pull on the nearest bottle of hand wash. Dozens of loan officers at Wells Fargo altered values in the bank’s database, so loans would qualify...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac

Appraiser Bias Allegations Unmask Nonbank Lenders Debt Traps 10

Appraiser Bias Allegations Unmask Debt Traps

Claims of tainted appraisal unmask something else… the renewed “churning” of mortgages by nonbank lenders. Convinced racism torpedoed valuations in their home refinancings, the owners of three properties in the San Francisco Bay Area told their stories to Julian Glover, a reporter who covers the race, culture and social justice beat for ABC’s San Francisco affiliate. Similar claims of tainted appraisals have surfaced in Philadelphia, Chicago and, more recently, Maryland. A civil lawsuit was filed in one of the cases in a federal district court. A claim was dismissed Wednesday based on a flaw unrelated to the case’s core allegation...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Federal Housing Administration / FHA

Baltimore Racial Bias Lawsuit 12

Baltimore Racial Bias Lawsuit

When reading over the Baltimore document, it appears painfully clear (to me) that there is a competency issue exposed. Folks, below is the Baltimore court paperwork for the latest appraiser bias suit that recently ‘hit the fan.’ This document is fairly specific, in that it reveals quite a lot about the two appraisals performed, including the home locations for the ‘comps’ used. The attorneys representing the plaintiffs are from the same Washington, D.C. firm that The Appraisal Foundation hired to examine USPAP. That firm was the one which has provided new ‘discrimination avoidance’ verbiage being considered in the USPAP Third...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac / Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice / USPAP

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