Quick Take: Appraisal Gap Normalizes Amid a Cooling Housing Market
December 7, 2022
Since May 2022, the appraisal gap has seen a precipitous decline at the same time that higher mortgage rates are squeezing buyers.
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Yanling Mayer holds the position of principal, economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at CoreLogic. She conducts analysis of housing and mortgage markets. A financial economist by training, Mayer has a great depth of professional experience in economic and market research.
Prior to joining CoreLogic, she was director of research with FNC, Inc., a mortgage technology company and industry leading provider of appraisal workflow and collateral valuation platforms, where she was responsible for housing analysis and collateral-focused analytics research. She earned her bachelor’s degree in finance from Shanghai University of Economics and Finance, her master’s degree in economics from the University of Mississippi and her doctorate in finance from the University of Mississippi.
Since May 2022, the appraisal gap has seen a precipitous decline at the same time that higher mortgage rates are squeezing buyers.
At a time when record-low interest rates prompted home-buying frenzies, surging property values and mortgage lending, piggyback financing has missed out in the current pandemic housing boom.
Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) are up significantly amid rising interest rates and homebuyers and investors are flocking to ARMs for better affordability and yields.
PACE is an abbreviation for Property Assessed Clean Energy. PACE loans provide financing for green and renewable energy home improvements, although it is not limited to such. Retrofitting properties with energy upgrades is costly, and PACE provides incentives such as 100% long-term financing.
The real savings that many potential buyers expected from record-low interest rates were quickly outstripped by the pandemic-fueled housing demand and price increases that followed a temporary market shutdown.
The housing market’s recovery in summer 2020 from the outbreak of the pandemic was largely unexpected: by July, despite a high unemployment rate with more than 16.3 million people out of work, home sales rebounded strongly to climb back to pre-pandemic levels and surpassed the same-period sales from a year ago.