Newz: PAVE Problems, Outdated Mortgage Regulations
May 30, 2025
What’s in This Newsletter (In Order, Scroll Down)
- LIA ad: Should I Complete this Assignment?
- Pending Sales May Be Your Secret Weapon To Accurate Listings and Appraisals
- $3.69 Million ‘Tron’-Inspired Mansion With ’80s Speakeasy and Ferrari-Themed Office
- The Full Measure: May 2025 Housing Market Recap for Appraisers
- TEAPOTS Exposed: The PAVE Initiative’s Illusion of Justice
- Outdated Mortgage Regulations
- Mortgage applications decreased 1.2 percent from one week earlier
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Pending Sales May Be Your Secret Weapon To Accurate Listings and Appraisals
Excerpts: Bottom line: Pending sales show you what’s happening now and where prices are headed. Skip them, and you’re stuck looking at yesterday instead of today.
Closed Sales Lag—Pendings Lead
The Built‑In Delay
- A March 1 contract might not close until late April. By then:
- Rates could move 50–75 basis points.
- A new round of housing inventory could hit the market.
- Economic news—jobs reports and inflation scares can spook buyers.
Appraiser’s View: How We Use Pending Sales (Even When We’re Handcuffed to Closings)
Time adjustments
Compare contract prices to 30‑60‑day‑old closings to justify ± market‑trend tweaks. If pendings are 3 % higher, you can show upward pressure — great ammo for your list price.
Feature bracketing
No pool comps closed? A pool home pending $25 k higher becomes my clue. Helps you price premium features correctly.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Good discussion of many aspects of using pendings. Written for real estate agents, but many good tips for appraisers. I always look at pendings, including the ratio of pendings to listings. I got some good ideas from this blog post. I have been appraising for 50 years. I like learning something new!
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$3.69 Million ‘Tron’-Inspired Mansion With ’80s Speakeasy and Ferrari-Themed Office
Excerpts: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 4,853 sq.ft., 8,509 sq.ft. lot
Futuristic, three-bedroom mansion that was inspired by the hit 2010 sci-fi movie “Tron: Legacy” has made a high-speed return to the market in Dallas, where it is listed for $3.69 million.
The decked-out dwelling, which also boasts an auto showroom in the living room and a Ferrari-themed home office, has been driven right to the top of the week’s most popular home’s list, after pulling in a huge amount of interest from buyers thanks to its very unique aesthetic.
Opulence abounds in every room of the property, which is spread across 4,853 square feet and includes a 1980s speakeasy with “turquoise tufted walls,” as well as a dramatic two-story living room with soaring ceilings.
To see the listing with 40 photos and a virtual tour, Click Here
My comments: See the wild interior photos with Ferraris and many unusual features!
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The Full Measure: May 2025 Housing Market Recap for Appraisers
By Kevin Hecht, Appraiser and Economist
Excerpts: Welcome to the latest edition of The Full Measure, where we analyze the latest developments in the housing market and their impact on real estate appraisers.
Spring typically brings momentum to the housing market, but this May, the rhythm is unsteady. Builder caution, affordability challenges, and a shifting policy environment are combining to reshape sales activity and price growth. From my vantage point, this market is neither contracting nor accelerating—it is recalibrating.
Following months of gradual shifts, we now see clear evidence that the housing economy is transitioning from post-pandemic extremes toward something more sustainable. That transition, however, is not linear.
For real estate appraisers, it’s a season for vigilance: understanding where demand is softening, where affordability is driving activity, and how policy uncertainty is shaping value in ways not always visible in the data.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Discusses lots of issues, including tariffs with analyses of what they mean for appraisers.
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How to communicate with appraisers online. What’s the best way for you?
In the January, 2025 issue of Appraisal Today
Excerpts: Finally appraisers are meeting face to face in classes, meetings, conferences, etc. For networking purposes, I always advise live events. However, many of us connect online as well.
Types of online communication
There are many methods of communication used by appraisers: blogs,
YouTube videos, web based forums, email discussion groups, private email lists, podcasts, etc.
Almost all allow comments, except for podcasts (some are on YouTube or
their web sites, which allows comments). On Facebook and email discussion groups, members start a topic and other members respond.
Why connect with other appraisers online?
In this article, I give you information on many possible groups. Few, if any, appraisers follow all the groups. Join one or a few groups that seem interesting to you. See if you like it. If not, you can unsubscribe or just stop checking for any postings, and try another group.
If you are already on Facebook, join one, or more, of the appraisal groups,
as you are used to the Facebook interface. Many require moderator approval to be sure that only appraisers can post there. You can see what the
topics and posts are like. To post anything you must be a member.
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TEAPOTS Exposed: The PAVE Initiative’s Illusion of Justice
By Kenneth Mullinix, Appraiser, Veteran, Whistleblower
The PAVE Initiative’s lack of TEAPOTS case entries reveals a fraudulent scheme that betrayed homeowners, vilified appraisers, and hid the truth from Congress.
The Biden administration’s PAVE Task Force initiative was never a legally engineered program to uncover racial bias in the appraisal industry. It was, as I have now uncovered, a systemic administrative illusion: a complex, bureaucratic apparatus designed to justify federal grant funding, inflate internal performance metrics, and maintain political optics — not to administer justice.
This wasn’t enforcement. This was theft of government funds dressed in legal theater. Homeowners were deceived. Appraisers were targeted. The law was sidestepped. And no one, until now, has exposed the machinery behind the curtain.
“I Knew Something Was Wrong — Because I’d Already Been Through a Real Investigation”
What Is the TEAPOTS System — and Why Does It Matter?
TEAPOTS (Title Eight Automated Paperless Office Tracking System) is HUD’s official case tracking system for fair housing complaints. Every legitimate investigation must be:
To read more plus 20+ comments, including from the author, Click Here
My comments: Very detailed analysis of PAVE and related issues.
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Outdated Mortgage Regulations
May 27, 2025
Excerpts: At a one-day summit on the future of mortgage policy, long-time housing finance experts confronted a crisis of regulatory relevance amid mounting challenges.
With the declining relevance of landmark Dodd-Frank consumer protections, shrinking federal oversight and a hamstrung housing finance market, the rules intended to safeguard industry stakeholders after the 2008 financial crisis may now be the reason it is vulnerable again — at the very moment that state regulators have been forced to go it alone.
Long-time mortgage experts warn that the legacy of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is increasingly out of step with the reality it helped create.
“The regulatory framework built post-Dodd Frank is not designed to support the nonbank lenders and servicers dominating the market now,” said Meg Burns, executive vice president of the Housing Policy Council (HPC), an influential industry association whose member companies include some of the nation’s largest mortgage originators, lenders, servicers and insurers. “We need to stop saying this is an issue and actually step up to build a new regulatory framework.”
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Worth reading to see the “big picture” of outdated mortgage regulations, including Dodd-Frank.
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HOW TO USE THE NUMBERS BELOW. Appraisals are ordered after the loan application. These numbers tell you the future for the next few weeks. For more information on how they are compiled, Click Here.
Note: I publish a graph of this data every month in my paid monthly newsletter, Appraisal Today. For more information or get a FREE sample go to www.appraisaltoday.com/order Or call 510-865-8041, MTW, 7 AM to noon, Pacific time.
My comments: Rates are going up and down. We are all waiting for rates to drop in 2025.
Mortgage applications decreased 1.2 percent from one week earlier
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 28, 2025) — Mortgage applications decreased 1.2 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 23, 2025.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 1.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 7 percent from the previous week and was 37 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 3 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week and was 18 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
“Mortgage rates reached its highest level since January, following higher Treasury yields. Additional market volatility has added to the increase, keeping the mortgage-Treasury spread wider than it was earlier this year. The 30-year fixed rate increased to 6.98 percent, its third consecutive weekly increase,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “As a result of these higher rates, applications activity decreased, driven by a 7 percent decline in refinance applications. Conventional refinances were down 6 percent, and VA refinances dropped 16 percent. Purchase applications were up over the week and continue to run ahead of last year’s pace as increased housing inventory in many markets has been supporting some transaction volume, despite the economic uncertainty.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 34.6 percent of total applications from 36.6 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 7.5 percent of total applications.
The FHA share of total applications remained unchanged at 17.9 percent from the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 12.3 percent from 12.6 percent the week prior. The USDA share of total applications remained unchanged at 0.5 percent from the week prior.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($806,500 or less) increased to 6.98 percent from 6.92 percent, with points decreasing to 0.67 from 0.69 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $806,500) decreased to 6.93 percent from 6.94 percent, with points decreasing to 0.69 from 0.72 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA increased to 6.66 percent from 6.60 percent, with points decreasing to 0.95 from 0.96 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.23 percent from 6.21 percent, with points decreasing to 0.67 from 0.72 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 6.22 percent from 6.16 percent, with points increasing to 0.46 from 0.36 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
The survey covers U.S. closed-end residential mortgage applications originated through retail and consumer direct channels. The survey has been conducted weekly since 1990. Respondents include mortgage bankers, commercial banks, thrifts, and credit unions. Base period and value for all indexes is March 16, 1990=100.
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Ann O’Rourke, MAI, SRA, MBA
Appraiser and Publisher Appraisal Today
1826 Clement Ave. Suite 203 Alameda, CA 94501
Phone: 510-865-8041
Email: ann@appraisaltoday.com
Online: www.appraisaltoday.com
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