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Slow appraisals stall moving process

September 9, 2010 - Many families planning a relocation are being held up by appraisers who are finding themselves inundated with more work than ever.

Rising foreclosures and home price fluctuations have made appraising a home - an essential part of the mortgage process - more difficult than it's been in years, reported North Dakota's Minot Daily Herald. Additionally, appraisers find themselves slowed down by new federal regulations, which some say have bogged down the mortgage process as a whole. The delays hold up borrowers who are seeking a mortgage, as well as sellers who are already concerned with the stress of moving, said the report.

"At times we just get overwhelmed because a lot of these appraisal management companies send appraisal orders without asking and we get jammed up a little bit," local appraiser Jim Szymanski told the paper. "But generally speaking I would say in-town appraisals are 30 days or less, in some cases as little as two weeks. It all depends on the complexity of the property."

Some of those properties have become harder to appraise because they were repossessed by a bank and that can distort their value. Nearby foreclosures can also drop the value of surrounding homes by as much as 1 percent, according to a recent study by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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