Homeowners and appraisers seeing eye to eye on home values in Valley

PHOENIX — A new study shows continued improvements in the housing market across the country and in Phoenix.

The new study from Quicken Loans shows that homeowners and appraisers are starting to see eye to eye.

“It’s kind of (at) an equilibrium point,” said Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans.

Walters said Quicken Loans looked at markets around the country to see if expectations from homeowners were lining up with appraisers and found that the two were pretty even.

“The value of a home at the end of that day is an opinion,” said Walters. “So the opinion of appraisers and the opinion of homeowners are converging.”

Nationally, the study found that homeowners are slightly overvaluing their homes by about 0.13 percent, while in Phoenix the average homeowner is actually undervaluing their home by 1.22 percent.

Walter said whether below or under, the fact that homeowners and appraisers are seeing roughly the same value in homes shows marked improvement over the last few years.

“Four or five years ago we saw that homeowners thought that their homes were worth substantially more than appraisers,” he said. “(This) was not a surprise because as homes started to fall in value, appraisers started to recognize this more quickly (while) homeowners were reluctant to face the music.”

He said having a balance in opinions is important because if homeowners are undervaluing their homes too much then they are unaware of the equity they have, while overvaluing their homes means homeowners are paying inflated prices for homes.