Inspection Based Waivers In October Surge 28.7% to $1.85BN

For October 2025, GSE issuance totaled $72.2BN, up 14.1% from September, and up 9.1% from October 2024. For property valuations, $54.0BN (74.8%) closed using appraisals, up 7.7%, and $16.3BN (22.6%) closed utilizing appraisal waivers, up 39.9% from the prior month.

Lenders delivered $1.85BN (2.57%) with inspection based appraisal waivers in October, up 28.7% from September. This is the 7th consecutive month with over $1 billion loan balance issued, and single highest month since programs began. By loan count inspection based appraisal waivers were 2.78% of issuance, up 27.9%. Appraisal waiver issuance jumped 39.8% to $16.3BN (22.6%) from last month, driven by a 116% increase in non cash-out refinances.

Overall, inspection based waivers in October were 10.8% of the combined non-appraisal solutions by loan balance. By loan count, inspection-based waivers represented 10.8% of all waiver solutions. The use of inspection based appraisal waivers in October was up 70.5% from 12 months ago.

Combined use of inspection based waivers and appraisal waivers in October was 25.2% by balance and 25.7% by loan count.

Agency share of appraisal waivers in October

Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data market share of inspection based waivers in October was 59.5% on volume of $1.1BN, up 44.7% from September. This is the first time the program has exceeded $1BN in production since introduction.

There are 429 lenders who have delivered loans through Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, including 233 independent mortgage companies and 119 banks and 80 credit unions. A total of 100 lenders issued loans using inspection based appraisal waivers in October with Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, up 7.5% from September, and up 39.9% from the prior year.

Freddie Mac ACE+ PDR (Automated Collateral Evaluation plus Property Data Report) market share for inspection based waivers in October was 40.5% on volume of $749MM, up 10.7% from September. Freddie Mac participation is at 500 lenders, including 199 banks, 43 credit unions, and 259 non-banks. A total of 135 individual lenders issued loans using inspection based waivers with ACE+ PDR, down 5.3% from September.

Bank, Credit Union & Nonbank appraisal alternatives

For bank sellers, 71.7% have used appraisal waivers and 26.9% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs in the past couple of years. In October 50.3% used appraisal waivers and 8.0% used inspection based waivers.

For credit union sellers, 74.5% have used appraisal waivers and 25.3% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs, again since 2023. In October 46.8% used appraisal waivers and 5.39% used inspection based waivers.

For nonbank sellers, 80.1% have used appraisal waivers and 46.6% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs. In October 77.2% used appraisal waivers and 24.4% used inspection based appraisal waivers.

Production channel

Broker channel issuance was $14.6BN (20.2%) in October with 123 lenders delivering loans, up 7.0% on last month. Correspondent channel issuance was $21.7BN (30.0%) from 170 lenders, the same as the prior month. Retail issuance was $35.9BN (49.7%) from 1,250 lenders, up 1.8% from September.

For inspection based appraisal waivers in October, broker volume was $790M (42.7%) up 33.3% from 32 sellers. The correspondent channel was $272MM (14.7%) up 17.5% from the prior month in the overall volume, from 27 aggregators. Retail channel utilization of inspection-based waivers was $789M (42.6%) of issuance, up 28.5% from 144 lenders.

Top lender utilization of waivers

For 2025 year-to-date, the market-level utilization by loan count of appraisal waivers is 16.4% and for inspection based waivers 2.1%. Volume is heavily skewed to top banks and nonbank lenders who have optimized, and in a few cases, automated production processes to take advantage of any waivers offered by the GSEs.

More about inspection based waivers in October