‘Cautious’ Appraisals and Tight Underwriting Seen as Limiting Home Price Appreciation
July 20, 2017
Home prices aren’t increasing nearly as much as they have in other times when the inventory of homes for sale was low, according to analysts at Capital Economics. They suggest that “cautious” appraised values and tight underwriting by lenders have limited home price appreciation. Home prices are currently rising at an annual rate of around 6.0 percent. According to Capital Economics, current inventory levels and the measure of buyer and seller traffic separately suggest that annual house price growth should currently exceed 10.0 percent. “Although there is no hard data on the subject, we suspect one factor is that cautious home appraisers are preventing larger price gains,” the analysts said. Since early 2015, appraised home values have...