Inspection based waivers in January: 42% higher in a year

For January 2025, GSE issuance totaled $59.3BN, up 11.0% on December, and up 47.4% on January 2024. For property valuations, $50.3BN (84.9%) closed using appraisals, up 14.1%, and $8.1BN (13.7%) closed utilizing appraisal waivers, down 4.4% on the prior month. Lenders delivered $863M (1.46%) with inspection based waivers in January, up 3.7% on December.

Overall, inspection based waivers in January were 9.6% of the combined appraisal waiver (non-appraisal) solutions by loan balance. By number of loans delivered, inspection-based waivers were 11.7% of all waiver solutions.

Combined use of inspection based waivers and appraisal waivers in January was 15.1% by balance and 17.0% by loan count.

Agency share of appraisal waivers in January

Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data market share of inspection based appraisal waivers in January was 62.5% on volume of $540MM, down 3.6% on December. There are 403 lenders who have delivered loans through Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, including 217 independent mortgage companies and 115 banks and 72 credit unions. A total of 67 lenders issued loans using inspection based appraisal waivers in January with Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, down 5.6% on December.

Freddie Mac ACE+ PDR (Automated Collateral Evaluation plus Property Data Report) market share for inspection based appraisal waivers in January was 37.5% on volume of $324MM, increasing 18.9%. Freddie Mac participation is at 449 lenders, including 176 community banks, 36 credit unions, and 234 non-banks. A total of 153 individual lenders issued loans using inspection based waivers with ACE+ PDR, up 25.4% on the prior month.

Bank, credit union & nonbank using appraisal alternatives

For bank sellers, 69.1% have used appraisal waivers and 25.5% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs in the past 2 years. In January 44.4% used appraisal waivers and 9.2% used inspection based waivers.

For credit union sellers in 2024, 72.8% have used appraisal waivers and 23.7% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs, again in 2023 and 2024. In January 47.9% used appraisal waivers and 6.7% used inspection based waivers.

For nonbank sellers in 2023 and 2024, 79.0% have used appraisal waivers and 45.2% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs. In January 69.5% used appraisal waivers and 22.6% used inspection based waivers.

Production channel

Broker channel issuance was $10.5N in January with 129 lenders delivering loans. The correspondent channel issuance was $19.8N from 193 lenders and retail issuance was $29.0BN from 1,230 lenders.

For inspection based appraisal waivers in January, broker volume was $267M and 30.9% of loan delivered, up 16.9% from 30 sellers. The correspondent channel was $119M and 13.8%, up 11.6% of the overall volume from the prior month, from 29 aggregators. Retail channel utilization of inspection-based waivers was down 4.0% to $478M at 53.3% of issuance from 146 lenders.

More about inspection based waivers in January