Inspection Based Appraisal Waivers In November – Highest Use by Lenders

For November 2025, GSE issuance totaled $71.0BN, down 1.64% from October, and up 2.7% from October 2024. For property valuations, $53.1BN (74.9%) closed using appraisals, down 4.4%, and $16.4BN (23.1%) closed utilizing appraisal waivers, up marginally from the prior month.

Lenders delivered $1.46BN (2.1%) with inspection based appraisal waivers in November, down 21.2% from October. This is the 8th consecutive month with over $1 billion loan balance issued. By loan count inspection based appraisal waivers were 2.25% of issuance, down 12.3%.

Overall, inspection based waivers in November were 8.8% 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 November was up 29.6% from 12 months ago.

Combined use of inspection based waivers and appraisal waivers in November was 25.1% by balance and 25.7% by loan count.

Agency share of appraisal waivers in November

Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data market share of inspection based waivers in November was 53.7% on volume of $784M, down 28.9% from October.

There are 439 lenders who have delivered loans through Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, including 239 independent mortgage companies and 121 banks and 82 credit unions. A total of 124 lenders issued loans using inspection based appraisal waivers in November with Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, up 24.0% from October, and up 79.7% from the prior year.

Freddie Mac ACE+ PDR (Automated Collateral Evaluation plus Property Data Report) market share for inspection based waivers in November was 46.3% on volume of $676MM, down 9.8% from October. Freddie Mac participation is at 505 lenders, including 199 banks, 44 credit unions, and 263 non-banks. A total of 150 individual lenders issued loans using inspection based waivers with ACE+ PDR, up 11.1% from October, and down 14.3% from the prior year.

Bank, Credit Union & Nonbank appraisal alternatives

For bank sellers, 71.4% 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 November 53.1% used appraisal waivers and 7.4% used inspection based waivers.

For credit union sellers, 74.7% have used appraisal waivers and 25.7% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs, again since 2023. In November 50.0% used appraisal waivers and 8.3% used inspection based waivers.

For nonbank sellers, 80.4% have used appraisal waivers and 47.1% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs. In November 79.6% used appraisal waivers and 29.9% used inspection based appraisal waivers.

Production channel

Broker channel issuance was $11.6BN (16.3%) in November with 121 lenders delivering loans, down 20.7% on last month. Correspondent channel issuance was $20.8BN (29.4%) from 184 lenders, down 11.6% from the prior month. Retail issuance was $37.8BN (53.3%) from 1,242 lenders, up 11.4% from October.

For inspection based appraisal waivers in November, 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.

Loan Purpose

Purchase volume using inspection based appraisal waivers in November was $936M (64.3%), down 15.3% from October, and up 89.8% from last year.

Refinance (cash out) volume using inspection based appraisal waivers in November was $158M (10.9%) down 41.4% from October, and up 64.3% from last year. Refinance (limited or no cash out) volume using inspection based appraisal waivers in November was $366M (25.1%) down 33.2% from October, and up marginally from last year.

Broader utilization of waivers

For 2025 year-to-date, the market-level utilization of appraisal waivers is 56.4% and for inspection based waivers 15.4%.

November saw 194 (14.9%) of all active sellers deliver loans to the GSEs with inspection based waivers. For appraisal waivers, 794 (61.0%) of all active sellers deliver loans to the GSEs with inspection based waivers.

This is the highest participation by lenders on a monthly basis for over 2 years.

More about inspection based waivers in November