Tagged: Wall Street

How Synthetic Appraisals Fuel a Fraud-Filled Housing Bubble 24

How Deep Fakes Have Burrowed Into Home Finance

Fannie and Freddie have been toiling at the coalface of “synthetic appraisals” – “black box valuations.”  In the 1960s, technocrats at the Pentagon used the latest IBM mainframe computers to analyze complex data related to the Vietnam War. Planners fed punch cards into the machines and ran endless simulations, hoping to determine strategies for winning the war. In 1967, analysts finally asked the computer, “When will we win in Vietnam?” The machine’s answer: “You won in 1965.” It exposed the hubris and naiveté of those who believed computer-generated models could capture and quantify millions of complex human interactions on the...

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

County Assessors' Standards - AVM Final Rule Guidance 16

County Assessors’ Standards | AVM Final Rule Guidance

County Assessors have the advantage of being able to calibrate their models specifically for one market, allowing for a more tailored and precise approach.  The OCC, FDIC, NCUA, CFPB, and FHFA (collectively, the Agencies) are adopting a final rule to implement AVM quality control standards mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). The quality control standards apply to mortgage originators and secondary market investors in determining the value of a dwelling that is the collateral for mortgage financing. Under the final rule, institutions involved in specific credit decisions or securitization activities are required to...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / CFPB

Dazzled by Wizardry, Federal Mortgage Regulators Ignore Zillow Debacle 17

Dazzled by Wizardry, Federal Mortgage Regulators Ignore Zillow Debacle

This rulemaking is one more sign that federal bureaucrats are all in on a whacky plan to use technical wizardry to tease out the value of individual properties across the country… Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was a committed technocrat. Under his direction, a team of policy advisors descended into the Pentagon’s cavernous basement in 1967. They fed punch cards into the basement’s IBM mainframe computers with everything that could be quantified about the Vietnam War. Numbers of ships, tanks, transport helicopters, gunships, fixed-wing aircraft, artillery, troop strength, machine guns, ammo. They queried the computers, “What year will we win...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Automated Valuation Models / AVM / CFPB

Look in the Mirror 15

Look in the Mirror

The phrase “take a look in the mirror” is a common idiom used to encourage self-reflection and introspection. It is a powerful statement that can evoke a range of emotions and reactions from individuals, from contemplation to defensiveness. At its core, the phrase is a call to examine oneself honestly and objectively. It asks us to step back from our assumptions, biases, and preconceptions and consider our behavior, choices, and beliefs in a critical light. When we take a look in the mirror, we are forced to confront our flaws and shortcomings, but also to recognize our strengths and achievements....

AI / AMC / Appraisal / Appraisal Institute / Appraisal Management Companies / Appraisal News

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 22

Racial Targeting Under the Heading of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

This time around, the racial targeting is masked as a virtue under the heading “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” or “DEI.” Valuation Jiu-Jitsu Will Lead to Future Addie Polks Addie Polk was a 91-year-old African-American widow who shot herself in the chest in 2008 during a Fannie Mae-initiated eviction in Akron, Ohio. It marked the low point in Fannie’s embrace of toxic mortgages. Fannie, now in federal conservatorship, bought or guaranteed subprime loans made to vulnerable borrowers in the years leading up to the 2007-2008 financial crisis. There are now signs of new abuses. Under the banner “equity and inclusion,” some...

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

Appraisers Should Closely Watch Probe of Departed Brookings Boss 48

Appraisers Should Closely Watch Probe of Departed Brookings Boss

The chief of the Brookings Institution, a retired four-star general, resigned last month under investigation of lobbying on behalf of a foreign government and then covering it up. If the allegations are true, it means the think tank, under the general’s watch, was secretly taking illicit cash from at least one outside interest group at a time it was engaged in research that irreparably damaged the reputation of the nation’s real estate appraisers. Astute appraisers wondered whether Brookings might have also been influenced by any well-placed donations from other groups, such as the powerful lobbies of the Realtors, home builders,...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News / Trending

What If the Appraisal Comes in too Low? - Contesting a Low Appraisal... 17

What If the Appraisal Comes in too Low?

…how to prevent a low appraisal in the first place… As real estate brokers in New York City, many buyers ask us what options exist if the appraised value comes below the contract’s purchase price. We explain how the appraisal rebuttal process works and how to prevent a low appraisal in the first place. Here are the most frequent questions buyers ask us. For this reason, we will draft this article like a Q&A. What happens when the appraisal is below the purchase price? What to do when the appraisal comes too low? How to contest a low appraisal? Can...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

The Honest Appraisers Warnings Should Have Prevented the Global Financial Crisis 4

Honest Appraisers Who Risked Their Careers

Meet the Honest Appraisers Whose Warnings Should Have Prevented the Great Financial Crisis The honest appraisers’ warning was ideal. It was timely, blunt, courageous, and unambiguous. If the regulators had acted on the warning, there would have been no Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Unfortunately, the Presidents Clinton and Bush (II) appointed financial regulators because they were anti-regulators, so they ignored the appraisers’ warning. From 2000 to 2007, a coalition of appraisal organizations … delivered to Washington officials a public petition; signed by 11,000 appraisers… [I]t charged that lenders were pressuring appraisers to place artificially high prices on properties [and] “blacklisting...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

The Con, We Were All Sold a LIE 11

The Con, We Were All Sold a LIE

The Con, a 5 part docu-series premiering August 5, 2020 at 8pm EDT, is an in-depth investigation into the 2008 financial crisis nine years in the making. Through interviews with regulators, former officials, foreclosure victims, industry whistleblowers, and journalists, THE CON connects the dots to what America used to be and where we’re headed in 2020, as nearly 40 million Americans are currently claiming unemployment. Stay tuned for a live conversation with the filmmakers and voices from THE CON after the screening. William Black: “Most things viewers “know” about the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) are false…. The GFC was not...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

The Con, the American Dream Dies Where Power Lies - End of Corelogic? 11

The Con, The American Dream Dies…

The Con is a 5-part series in-depth investigation into the 2008 financial crisis. If you attended the Appraisers Economic Forum, better known as AppraiserFest, in San Antonio, Texas back in October 2018, you may recall a couple of guys with video cameras. Many of the appraisers attending were  interviewed for this production. The 5 part docu-series premieres August 5, 2020. You definitely want to clear your calendar to watch. See the trailer below and sign up for updates here. From writer/director Eric Vaughan, producer Patrick Lovell and executive producer Adam Bronfman, The Con is an in-depth investigation into the 2008...

Appraisal / Appraisal News / Appraisers News

xml sitemap
blank