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The annual peak has passed.

Every year around this time the market softens as the Spring and Summer market transitions to Fall. Through June 2023, Zillow reports...

Sub-prime mortgage crisis: 2.0

At one point in 2021, 50% of mortgage's never had a human being enter the property. From 2020 to 2022 this average floated above 40%....

America's Racist History... and your pool.

Throughout the South in the early 1960's racism closed public pools, often times, for good. In the era of desegregation, public officials...

Why can "values" differ?

Recent news coverage of appraisals has included often baseless complaints of racial bias being rampant in the appraisal industry (New...

LIDAR/iGuide: is it worth it?

There are many new LIDAR services that all claim to be accurate... but are they? I've had the opportunity to go behind some of these...

Zillow misinformation: What adds value?

Zillow continues to miss the plot, and get blinded by big data. In stunning stupidity Zillow claims that steam ovens will add $24,788 in...

Zillow has no clothes.

In a hilarious article, the CEO of Zillow said that the current market turmoil is exposing a lot of companies' poor management. Barton...

Condos and Townhomes

In the last week I've had "comps" provided by agents for condominium sales, and in both cases they included single-family residential...

Baseball and appraising are changing.

Ask any baseball fan and you'll hear an opinion on the pitch timer. The simple rule change has decreased game times by about 15%. Further...

Lead Based Paint

Lead is a heavy metal that has been used by humans for thousands of years. Its malleability and low melting point made it a popular...

Housing Affordability

The last time housing was this unaffordable, it took a Great Recession to bring affordability back to the market. The current housing...

I talk to my comps...

"Why are you so low?!" "What happened with you?" "What are you hiding?" These are common comments that you might hear from me while I'm...

Did a bank robber "appraise" your house?

Recently it has become known that a convicted (and yet to be sentenced) 1.2 million dollar bank robber was hired to inspect a property....

If you see this... you might not be closing.

Jeff Foxworthy popularized the "If XYZ... you might be a redneck," joke formula. In appraising, I often come across property conditions...

The underbelly of closing.

The appraiser, as a non-interested party to the transaction, sees a side of the process that few others do. By the time the deal hits our...

Homelight.com doesn't know what "increase" means.

In a recent article Homelight offers 9 "renovations" that will "increase" your "home value." Why are all of those in quotes... because...

Prince George County update

This is a report of market trends for resold homes in northern Prince George County between 1400-1900sf in size. After a historic...

Edgewood Home Trends

While mid 2022 was a rough period for many markets, the north side of Richmond among affordable homes (750-1150sf) faired relatively...

Why do the wealthy pay less property tax?

In "Property Taxes Rob From the Poor, Give Breaks to the Rich," Alan Greenblatt details some of the reasons for a phenomenon that I...

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