Inspection Based Waivers In March – Now $1.6BN

For March 2026, GSE issuance totaled $72.1BN, up 13.6% from February, and up 58.5% from March 2025. For property valuations, $52.0BN (72.1%) closed using appraisals, up 11.6%, and $18.5BN (25.7%) closed utilizing appraisal waivers, up 20.3% from the prior month.

Lenders delivered $1.60BN (2.21%) with inspection based appraisal waivers in March, up 6.5% from February, and up 71.4% from a year ago. This is now a full year with over $1 billion loan balance issued, with the last 6 months averaging $1.5BN. By loan count inspection based appraisal waivers were 2.54% of issuance, up 3.8%.

Overall, inspection based waivers in March were 7.9% of the combined non-appraisal solutions by loan balance. By loan count, inspection-based waivers represented 11.2% of all waiver solutions.

Combined use of inspection based waivers and appraisal waivers in March was 27.9% by balance and 29.0% by loan count.

Agency share of appraisal waivers in March

Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data market share of inspection based waivers in March was 57.3% on volume of $914M, up 9.9% from February. There are 496 lenders who have delivered loans through Fannie Mae Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, including 261 independent mortgage companies and 140 banks and 98 credit unions. A total of 190 lenders issued loans using inspection based appraisal waivers in March with Valuation Acceptance + Property Data, up 13.2% from February, and up 156.8% from the prior year.

Freddie Mac ACE+ PDR (Automated Collateral Evaluation plus Property Data Report) market share for inspection based waivers in March was 42.7% on volume of $682MM, down 1.3% from February. Freddie Mac participation is at 513 lenders, including 203 banks, 45 credit unions, and 267 non-banks. A total of 132 individual lenders issued loans using inspection based waivers with ACE+ PDR, down 9.0% from February, and up 25.7% from the prior year.

Bank, Credit Union & Nonbank appraisal alternatives

For bank sellers, 72.9% have used appraisal waivers and 28.4% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs in the past couple of years. In March 54.4% used appraisal waivers and 10.7% used inspection based waivers.

For credit union sellers, 75.8% have used appraisal waivers and 26.9% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs, again since 2023. In March 54.2% used appraisal waivers and 10.3% used inspection based waivers.

For nonbank sellers, 80.6% have used appraisal waivers and 48.3% have used inspection based waivers to deliver loans to the GSEs. In March 76.4% used appraisal waivers and 34.3% used inspection based appraisal waivers.

Production channel

Broker channel issuance was $12.6BN (17.5%) in March, up 17.1% on last month, with 119 lenders delivering loans. Correspondent channel issuance was $23.2BN (32.2%), up 16.1% from the prior month, from 166 lenders. Retail issuance was $36.3BN (50.3%), up 10.9% from February, from 1,188 lenders.

For inspection based appraisal waivers in March, broker volume was $474MM (29.8%) up 3.1% from 38 sellers. The correspondent channel was $314MM (19.7%) up 6.5% from the prior month in the overall volume, from 39 aggregators. Retail channel utilization of inspection-based waivers was $807M (50.6%) of issuance, up 8.6% from 199 lenders.

Loan Purpose

Purchase volume using inspection based appraisal waivers in March was $870MM (59.7%), up 1.2% from February, and up 65.6% from last year. Refinance (cash out) volume using inspection based appraisal waivers in March was $195M (12.2%) down 1.0% from February, and down 29.4% from last year. Refinance (limited or no cash out) volume using inspection based appraisal waivers in March was $530M (33.2%) up 20.2% from February, and up 311.1% from last year.

More about inspection based waivers in March