Newz: Fannie Appraiser Update, Kentucky Board Approves Increase in Licensing Fees
July 24, 2026
What’s in This Newsletter (In Order, Scroll Down)
- LIA AD: Client Insists on Cost to Cure
- Fannie Mae Appraiser Update, July 16, 2026
- Glittering L.A Megamansion With ‘Dramatic’ 50-Foot Water Wall and Swim-Up Hits the Market for $88 Million
- Kentucky Board Approves Significant Increase in Appraiser Licensing Fees
- MY AD: Doug Smith’s tips on selecting UAD 3.6 software
- Honoring Jan Bellas, Our Greatest Advocate
- Where Does an FHA Appraisal End and a Home Inspection Begin? HUD Has an Opportunity to Clarify. By Shane White, SRA (REPRINT)
- Upcoming National Appraisal Conferences in Las Vegas
- MBA STATS: Mortgage applications increased 1.9 percent from one week earlier
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Fannie Mae Appraiser Update
July 16, 2026
Get practical guidance to help you prepare for the Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 and Forms Redesign transition and stay current on updates that affect your work.
In this second Appraiser Update of 2026—and our 35th edition since launching in 2017—we’re sharing timely insights, policy updates, and resources to help you navigate industry changes and support your success.
In this issue, you’ll find:
Expert insights on key UAD 3.6 topics, including terminology updates, policy changes, unit counts, and more.
What Appraisal Management Company access to Collateral Underwriter® (CU®) means and how to navigate it effectively.
List of Topics
- Changes to UAD language in 3.6
- Unit Count Differences in the Sales Comparison Grid
- UAD 3.6 Reports: Lessons Learned
- AMC Access to Collateral Underwriter
Sample Topic detail
Vet Comments for Accuracy and Necessity
Some of the most common problems we have seen in UAD 3.6 appraisal reports relate to inaccurate or unnecessary comments. Here are some actual cases that illustrate the issue:
Contradictory information: In the SCA grid, an appraiser correctly utilized the Comparable Weight field to state that Comp 1 was given most weight and Comps 2-3 were given less weight, but then the appraiser added a comment that “The final opinion of value has been weighted equally among comparable sales 1-3.” The contradiction between the information in the enumerated data versus the narrative comment is confusing to the reader and undermines the appraiser’s credibility. A more helpful and appropriate comment would explain why comp 1 merited the most weight.*
Repetitive information: Another common issue we have seen in UAD 3.6 reports is the appraiser repeating the condition rating (already stated in a defined data element) in the associated comment field.*
Outdated language: In another report, an appraiser commented in the Sketch Commentary field that “The GLA for the subject was derived by…” Of course, the term “GLA” or Gross Living Area has been replaced in UAD 3.6 with the term “above grade finished area” (see accompanying article in this newsletter), so the reference to GLA was a non sequitur and confusing to the reader.
*These cases illustrate the general principle that appraisers should not restate information already contained in the defined data elements.
To read more, Click Here
My comments: Definitely worth reading for excellent “how to” advice on UAD 3.6.
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Glittering L.A. Megamansion With ‘Dramatic’ 50-Foot Water Wall and Swim-Up Bar Hits the Market for $88 Million
Excerpts: 9 bedrooms, 9.5 baths, 1.7 acre lot, 18,000 sq.ft.,New construction
The newly completed residence, which was designed by renowned architecture firm Saota, was created to offer “true resort style living,” as evidenced by the laundry list of features that are found across the 1.7-acre spread, including a rooftop wellness pavilion and an infinity pool with a swim-up bar.
At the center of the parcel is a dazzling 18,000-square-foot home that was developed by Michael Chen’s Luxford Group. The company purchased a vacant lot for $14.5 million in 2015 and constructed this megamansion atop it. Since it was completed in 2023, the residence has been used as a venue for a number of glittering functions, including a Louis Vuitton design exhibit.
Offering sweeping views from Santa Monica to the Pacific Ocean, the residence also has a four-stop elevator and a “showroom-style” garage with custom Italian millwork and Schweiss bifold glass door that can accommodate up to nine sports cars.
To see the listing, with 30 photos and an aerial view, Click Here
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Kentucky Board Approves Significant Increase in Appraiser Licensing Fees
Source: Appraisal Institute News Release
Excerpts: The Kentucky Real Estate Appraisal Board (KREAB) has voted to substantially increase appraiser licensing and renewal fees. Under the fee schedule approved by the Board, the biennial licensing fee would increase to $1,180 every two years, representing a dramatic increase from previous fee levels.
The increase follows enactment of 2026 legislation that removed the statutory cap on appraisal licensing fees and granted the Board broader authority to establish fees through the regulatory process. While the Board has voted to approve the proposed fee schedule, the formal administrative regulations have not yet been published for public comment.
The underlying legislation was a comprehensive appraisal bill requested by the Kentucky Association of Appraisers and included several provisions supported by the Appraisal Institute, including updates to the state’s appraiser regulatory framework. However, the provision removing the statutory cap on licensing fees was not included in the original bill. Instead, it was added late in the legislative process, after many stakeholders had already expressed support for the broader legislation.
The amendment illustrates one of the inherent risks of proactively pursuing comprehensive legislation—late-stage amendments can significantly alter a bill’s impact in ways that were neither anticipated nor intended when the legislation was first introduced.
To read more, Click Here
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Doug Smith’s tips on selecting UAD 3.6 software
In the January 2026 issue of Appraisal Today
Excerpts: Many appraisers are considering software changes to meet UAD 3.6.
Before watching demos or comparing price sheets, the first step is not shopping – it is inventory
I have also included his excellent 3 PAGE UAD 3.6 Software Evaluation
Check List
Take a careful look at what you use today. Your monitor size. Laptop
speed. Internet reliability. Tablet (or no tablet). Measuring tools. Sketch program.
Photography workflow. Dictation capability. Every MLS and public records site you routinely plug into.
UAD 3.6 is not just a new form – it is a structured data workflow. The
winning software choice is the one that reduces re-entry, reduces missed data fields, and reduces revision cycles.
Vendors are generally moving in one of two directions. Some use a
WYSIWYG approach (“what you see is what you get”), where you work in a layout that resembles the finished report. Others use a questionnaire-style structured data capture model, where information is entered in guided sequences and assembled into the final output.
WYSIWYG feels familiar. Structured workflows often feel more efficient
once mastered. Neither is automatically superior – the question is which matches how you think and work in the field.
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July, 2026 issue emailed on
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 please email info@appraisaltoday.com, and we will send lt to you. You can also hit the reply button. Be sure to include a comment requesting it. Or, call 510-865-8041
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Honoring Jan Bellas, Our Greatest Advocate
Excerpts: Jan Bellas passed away on July 7, 2026, and those of us in the appraisal profession who knew her are grieving someone who was far more than a colleague. Jan wasn’t an appraiser, yet she carried the weight of our struggles as if they were her own. She understood the pressures, the unfair treatment, the isolation, the frustration, and the constant fight to be heard, and she absorbed all of it. She had a way of making appraisers feel lighter the moment they called her. You could pick up the phone in the middle of a crisis, whether it was an AMC pushing too hard or a lender making unreasonable demands, and before you even finished explaining the situation she had already steadied you. She listened with patience, responded with clarity, and fought with conviction. She made appraisers feel protected, and that is something very few people have ever done for us.
Her work at the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) was never just administrative. She was the backbone of the organization, the strategist behind the scenes, the person who took on battles most appraisers didn’t even know were unfolding. When an AMC stonewalled, Jan pushed back. When appraisers were mistreated, she documented every detail and made sure the right people heard about it. When someone felt alone, she reminded them that they weren’t. She had an extraordinary ability to take a complicated, stressful situation and turn it into something manageable. Appraisers trusted her because she earned that trust every single day. Crafts
Her work at the American Guild of Appraisers (AGA) was never just administrative. She was the backbone of the organization, the strategist behind the scenes, the person who took on battles most appraisers didn’t even know were unfolding. When an AMC stonewalled, Jan pushed back. When appraisers were mistreated, she documented every detail and made sure the right people heard about it. When someone felt alone, she reminded them that they weren’t. She had an extraordinary ability to take a complicated, stressful situation and turn it into something manageable. Appraisers trusted her because she earned that trust every single day. Crafts
What made her so remarkable was the sincerity behind everything she did. She didn’t fight for appraisers because it was her job. She fought for appraisers because she genuinely loved this profession and the people in it. She admired the integrity of the work, respected the expertise required, and understood how essential appraisers are to the housing market…
To read more, Click Here
My comment: Many thanks to Desiree Mehbod, founder of appraisersblogs, for letting us know about what Jan Bellas did for appraisers. Read the article to see a photo of Jan Bellas. (In this newsletter, the photo was too difficult to see.)
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WOOPS! This was listed in the Article List for last week. I somehow forgot to include the article excerpts!!
Where Does an FHA Appraisal End and a Home Inspection Begin? HUD Has an Opportunity to Clarify.
By Shane White, SRA
Excerpts: The agency’s Request for Information on Minimum Property Requirements raises a question the industry has been slow to ask: not about which repairs to require, but about who the FHA appraiser is supposed to be.
On May 29, 2026, the Department of Housing and Urban Development published a Request for Information in the Federal Register asking stakeholders to weigh in on FHA’s Minimum Property Requirements, the standards that govern whether a single-family home qualifies for FHA-insured financing. Comments are due June 29, 2026 (Docket No. FR-6609-N-01).
The MPR framework has not undergone a comprehensive update since Mortgagee Letter 2005-48, over two decades ago. Many FHA appraisals still result in repair conditions or additional inspection requirements that create friction for first-time and lower-income buyers, precisely the population FHA exists to serve. Those are legitimate problems worth solving. But the most important question embedded in this RFI is not about which repair conditions to remove, or how closely FHA standards should align with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
At what point does an appraisal stop being an appraisal?
That’s the question. And it deserves a more honest answer than the industry has offered so far.
Oddly enough, I don’t think this is really an MPR debate at all. It’s a role-definition debate that just happens to be playing out through the MPRs. A Profession That Has Changed Without Quite Saying So
For years, the appraisal profession has quietly absorbed additional responsibilities without much discussion about whether those responsibilities still fit within the traditional definition of an appraisal assignment.
The Line Has Moved
Most borrowers who go through an FHA transaction are told, at some point, that an appraisal is not a home inspection. Their real estate agent says it. Their loan officer says it. The appraiser may say it too. It appears in disclosures.
And then they find out what an FHA appraisal actually involves…
The Role Confusion Nobody Talks About
The ambiguity extends beyond property condition itself.
The Guidance Framework Has Not Kept Pace
Most working FHA appraisers can probably recall at least one call to the HUD Resource Center that produced more confusion than clarity.
Then There’s the Liability Side of This
What Appraisers Actually Bring to the Table
An FHA appraiser brings something to the transaction that no checklist can replicate. They evaluate the interaction between property condition and market behavior.
To read more, Click Here
My opinion: If you do FHA appraisals, read the full article. Very well written and understandable by a practicing appraiser. I got on the FHA panel in 1986, when I started my business. I quit after a year or so – they wanted too much from appraisers, much more than conventional appraisals. Maybe this will change. At least they were asking for comments.
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Upcoming National Appraisal Conferences
Why attend? Get the most recent UAD 3.6 software updates, hear what GSEs say, plus many other topics. Meet other appraisers from around the country, plus Have Some Fun in Las Vegas!!
Appraisal Summit
Dates: August 16 August 19, 2026
Location: Las Vegas, Caesars Palace
For more info Click Here
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Valuation Expo
Dates: September 8-10
Location: Las Vegas,Bellagio Hotel (my favorite Las Vegas Hotel)
For more info, Click Here
My comments: Over the years, I have been to many national appraisal conferences. Definitely worth the time and expense!!
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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 lower in 2027.
Mortgage applications increased 1.9 percent from one week earlier
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 22, 2026) — Mortgage applications increased 1.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 17, 2026.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 1.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 2 percent from the previous week and was 7 percent higher than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 6 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 6 percent compared with the previous week and was 0.2 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
“Mortgage rates reached another high point last week, with the 30-year conforming rate now at 6.69 percent, its highest level since last August,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist. “However, purchase volume increased modestly for the week. Growing home inventory in many markets is supporting more purchase activity. Incoming data showed that inflation dropped in June, but with oil prices spiking again, that improvement seems unlikely to continue in July data, and mortgage rates are likely to remain higher as a result.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 41.2 percent of total applications from 43.2 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 7.7 percent of total applications.
The FHA share of total applications decreased to 17.0 percent from 17.7 percent the week prior. The VA share of total applications decreased to 13.2 percent from 13.6 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 ($832,750 or less) increased to 6.69 percent from 6.65 percent, with points decreasing to 0.62 from 0.67 (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 $832,750) decreased to 6.44 percent from 6.62 percent, with points decreasing to 0.45 from 0.54 (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 6.34 percent from 6.33 percent, with points decreasing to 0.74 from 0.81 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 6.04 percent from 6.05 percent, with points decreasing to 0.87 from 0.88 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs increased to 5.97 percent from 5.75 percent, with points increasing to 1.11 from 0.93 (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
