House appraisals are on the rise as more and more people want to refinance their existing mortgages. However, as Paul Sullivan of the New York Times writes, house appraisals seem to be an arbitrary and highly subjective practice. In the article, he talks about his own experience in having multiple variations in the appraisal value of his house. There are also other stories of individuals who said that housing appraisals seem to do more about how the appraiser feels about the property rather than the objective value based on location and housing improvements.
See Paul Sullivan, "Decoding the Wide Variations of Housing Appraisals," New York Times (September 16, 2011).
Posted by Marc Tan, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.
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