Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Appraisers’ opinions of home values are mostly falling in line with home owners’ estimates, according to the latest reading of Quicken Loans' Home Price Perception Index.
Indeed, appraisers’ opinions of home values were only 0.18 percent higher than home owners – the closest the two opinions have been since September 2013. The previous month, the difference between appraiser and home owners’ price opinions was 1.43 percent.
While the value perception is closing, home values have also been on the rise. The national median single-family home price at $208,700 in the fourth quarter, up 6 percent year-over-year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Quicken Loans, the nation’s second largest retail mortgage lender, uses its index to evaluate perceptions of the housing market. Appraisers in more than 74 percent of the metro areas the company examined continued to have higher opinions of home values than the home owners – which means that many may have more equity in their home than they realize.
“Interest rates have dropped and we have seen more and more Americans refinance their mortgage,” says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans.
“These consumers have been watching their local housing market and realizing their home’s true value more accurately than any time in the last year and a half. This is encouraging, but I urge home owners to continue to watch the ebbs and flows of the market, especially in their neighborhood, so they understand the direction of home values in their community when it comes time to sell.”
