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Builders Hammer Home Concerns on Low Appraisals
Meeting in Washington last week on multiple fronts related to problems that home builders are encountering in today’s down market, NAHB leaders aimed at resolving low appraisals that are undermining new home sales and went to members of the Federal Reserve to outline “Fix Housing First” proposals designed to increase consumer demand for homes.
At the request of Fannie Mae to help document the extent of problems with the appraisal system, NAHB is now asking its builder members who have run into difficulties with appraisals to e-mail their stories to: appraisals@nahb.com.
Accompanied by leaders from the Appraisal Institute, NAHB Chairman Sandy Dunn met in Washington on Jan. 6 with credit and appraisal staff at Fannie Mae and later with senior staff of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).
In her meetings, Dunn relayed reports of instances where properties have been significantly undervalued because foreclosure and distressed property sales have been inappropriately used as comps.
She joined the Appraisal Institute in expressing concern that some appraisers do not have sufficient experience and training to undertake the more complex appraisals that are required to establish values in volatile markets.
Fannie Mae and FHFA agreed to consider steps to address these problems and asked NAHB to provide some specific examples of the problems that builders have encountered. A similar meeting is planned with Freddie Mac.
On the broader issue of providing a housing stimulus to revive the nation’s badly ailing economy, NAHB representatives last week met with two Federal Reserve Board governors to discuss the merits of "Fix Housing First" proposals to significantly enhance the home buyer tax credit and provide a government mortgage rate buy-down for home purchases in 2009.
In meetings with Federal Reserve Governor Randall Kroszner on Jan. 7 and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn on Jan. 8, both gentlemen expressed interest in the plan but did not expressly endorse it.
In particular, Kroszner noted that some means of reviving housing demand is key to a recovery.
 Construction Forecast Conference Webcast Available
An on-demand webcast of the 2008 Fall Construction Forecast Conference is available for purchase.
The webcast fee includes access to the webcast archive and electronic copies of the conference handout and presentation materials. Multiple viewers in one office can purchase the webcast for one fee.
The on-demand webcast also gives viewers complete flexibility in their viewing experience — pause, skip forward and backward, or jump directly to your topics of interest.
To purchase and download the webcast, click here.
 Want to Know the Housing Forecast for the Top 100 Metros?
Find out in HousingEconomic.com’s 2008 to 2009 Metro Forecast (free preview).
Get the metro forecast with in-depth analysis, overviews and downloadable Excel tables.
To learn more, visit www.HousingEconomics.com.
 Free NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips to Navigate the Slowdown
What was once expected to be a relatively mild housing slump following three years of record new home construction and sales has given way to a significant downturn.
To help members navigate the uncharted waters of this slowdown, NAHB has compiled a comprehensive “Back to Basics” online toolkit — the best of the basics, the tried and true and the truly new. To access the toolkit, click here.
To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar.
For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242.
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