Appraisals, and Such
You may have heard about a recent agreement involving Fannie Mae, the Office of Housing Enterprise and the New York Attorney General's Office that could change the way that credit unions do appraisals. This snippet comes from NAFCU Regulatory Alert 08-EA-06 (NAFCU Members Only), which indicates:
(They agree)Â to adopt a Home Valuation Protection Code (Code)...Fannie Mae has requested comments from its customers and other market participants regarding the implementation and deployment of the Code.
The Code would apply to single-family mortgage loans (except government-insured loans) nationwide that are originated on or after January 1, 2009. Among other things, the Code would require credit unions to select appraisers and not use reports completed by appraisers selected by any other party, to establish a hotline and email address for appraisal related complaints and report improper conduct to the Institute, to report appraisers that the credit union reasonably believes is violating applicable laws to the Institute and certifying agency, and to the quality control test. It would also prohibit credit unions from influencing appraisers.
In short, this agreement would create a new appraisal system for anyone who wants to sell a mortgage to Fannie or Freddie. Hmmm.  But don't we already have an appraisal reg? I wasn't the only one who thought so. Here's a critical response to the agreement from OCC Comptroller John Dugan. And here's NAFCU's response. Â
Only time will tell what happens here. The agreement would be one more thing for credit unions that do mortgage lending to monitor and follow. But it has created a hail-storm of opposition from some pretty big players.Â
Stay tuned.