Homeowners & property appraisers see eye-to-eye

Homeowners and real estate appraisers are finally seeing eye-to-eye (almost!) following years of contrasting opinions over the valuation of properties.

The latest Quicken Loans Home Price Perceptions Index reveals that the average residential property appraisal was only 1.15 percent lower than the expectations of homeowners. That compares to a difference in homeowner and appraised values of 1.26 percent in the previous month – September – which shows how the gap has narrowed even further. Bob Walters, Chief Economist of Quicken Loans, said this is the fourth straight month in which homeowners’ and appraisers’ valuations have drawn closer.

“This information can be helpful to home owners to either prevent bumps in the mortgage process or realize they may have more equity available to them than they think,” Walters said.

In the West, appraisal values tended to rise past home owner estimates. On the other hand, in the East and Midwest, home values tended to fall below home owner expectations. Take a look at the chart below for a breakdown across the U.S. of home value expectations between appraisers versus home owners:

In a second update from Quicken Loans, the company published the latest version of its Home Value Index (HVI) – which is the only measure of home valuation based solely on appraisals. The index shows that annual home value growth is steadily slowing. Nationally, appraised values rose a strong 5.97 percent year-over-year in October. However, this is a dip from September when home values rose 7.78 percent from the year prior.