Inspection Based Appraisal Waivers In July Delivered More Than $1.2BN

For July 2025, GSE issuance totaled $57.2BN, down 9.7% on June, and down 2.7% on July 2024. For property valuations, $46.8BN (82.0%) closed using appraisals, down 10.9%, and $9.09BN (15.9%) closed utilizing appraisal waivers, down 4.8% on the prior month.

Lenders delivered $1.23BN (2.15%) with inspection based appraisal waivers in July, up 1.15% on June. This is the fourth consecutive month with over $1 billion loan balance issued, and second highest month after May. By loan count inspection based appraisal waivers were 2.50% of issuance, down 4.14%.

Overall, inspection based waivers in July were 11.9% of the combined non-appraisal solutions by loan balance. By number of loans delivered, inspection-based waivers were 12.8% of all waiver solutions. The use of inspection based appraisal waivers in July was up 34.3% from 12 months ago.

Combined use of inspection based waivers and appraisal waivers in July was 18.0% by balance and 19.5% by loan count.

Agency share of appraisal waivers in July

Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data market share of inspection based waivers in July was 60.7% on volume of $746MM, down 7.0% on June. There are 417 lenders who have delivered loans through Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, including 225 independent mortgage companies and 118 banks and 76 credit unions. A total of 93 lenders issued loans using inspection based appraisal waivers in July with Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, up 16.3% on May.

Freddie Mac ACE+ PDR (Automated Collateral Evaluation plus Property Data Report) market share for inspection based waivers in July was 39.3% on volume of $483MM, up 16.9%. Freddie Mac participation is at 485 lenders, including 192 banks, 42 credit unions, and 251 non-banks. A total of 117 individual lenders issued loans using inspection based waivers with ACE+ PDR, down 14.6% on the prior month.

Bank, credit union & nonbank using appraisal alternatives

For bank sellers, 70.4% have used appraisal waivers and 26.4% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs in the past couple of years. In July 44.4% used appraisal waivers and 4.1% used inspection based waivers.

For credit union sellers, 73.5% have used appraisal waivers and 24.7% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs, again since 2023. In July 44.2% used appraisal waivers and 5.6% used inspection based waivers.

For nonbank sellers, 79.5% have used appraisal waivers and 46.1% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs. In July 69.6% used appraisal waivers and 24.1% used inspection based appraisal waivers.

Production channel

Broker channel issuance was $8.6BN in July with 93 lenders delivering loans, down 17.7% on last month. Correspondent channel issuance was $17.1BN from 143 lenders, also down 17.3%. Retail issuance was $31.5BN from 1,209 lenders, up 5.9% on June.

For inspection based appraisal waivers in July, broker volume was $487M and 36.2% of loans delivered, up 11.0% from 26 sellers. The correspondent channel was $172MM and 15.5%, down 8.8% of the overall volume from the prior month, from 25 aggregators. Retail channel utilization of inspection-based waivers was down 3.0% to $569MM at 49.8% of issuance from 140 lenders.

Top lender utilization of waivers

For 2025 year-to-date, the market-level utilization by loan count of appraisal waivers is 17.0% and for inspection based waivers 2.50%. Volume is heavily skewed to top banks and nonbank lenders who have optimized production for waivers.

More about inspection based waivers in July