Federal Reserve signs off on appraisal rule change, making change official
Appraisals under 400k Not Always Needed: For the first time since 1994, certain home sales of $400,000 and under will soon not need an appraisal after federal regulators approved a proposal to increase the threshold at which residential home sales require an appraisal.
Last November, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve released a proposal that would increase the appraisal requirement from $250,000 to $400,000, meaning that certain home sales of $400,000 and below would no longer require an appraisal.
The agencies deliberated the rule for nearly a year, taking into consideration the more than 560 comments the agencies received about the rule change.
Last month, the FDIC and OCC signedoff on the rule, but were still waiting on the Fed to approve the rule change as well.
Now, the Fed has also given the rule change its stamp of approval, and with all three agencies signing off, the appraisal rule change will soon go into effect.
“The appraisal threshold was last changed in 1994,” the federal agencies said in a joint statement. “Given price appreciation in residential real estate transactions since that time, the change will provide burden relief without posing a threat to the safety and soundness of financial institutions.”
According to the final rule, which can be read here, the change will go into effect as soon as the final rule is recorded and published in the Federal Register.
Appraisals under 400k Not Always Needed: More Details: