IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jrefec/v60y2020i1d10.1007_s11146-019-09716-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Contract Price Confirmation Bias: Evidence from Repeat Appraisals

Author

Listed:
  • Michael D. Eriksen

    (University of Cincinnati)

  • Hamilton B. Fout

    (Fannie Mae
    Kansas State University)

  • Mark Palim

    (Fannie Mae)

  • Eric Rosenblatt

    (Fannie Mae)

Abstract

Prior research has argued that upwardly biased appraised values of residential properties were a contributing factor of the 2008 financial crisis. Subsequent reforms have been enacted to reduce appraiser’s financial incentives to submit biased appraisals, but appraisers continue to receive the contract price of pending home sales. This knowledge may lead them to subconsciously interpret and select information to confirm the contract price exposing the economy to future crises. A novel data series of properties that were appraised twice within six months where one appraiser was uninformed of the contract price is used to test how appraisal practices differ when prices are known. Significant differences were found in the property descriptions and the selection, price adjustment, and weighting of comparable transactions for appraisers aware of the contract price. Appraisers aware of contract price were more than twice as likely to reach an appraised value at least equal to contract price; on average their valuations were 4.2%-to-8.3% higher than appraisers unaware of contract prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Eriksen & Hamilton B. Fout & Mark Palim & Eric Rosenblatt, 2020. "Contract Price Confirmation Bias: Evidence from Repeat Appraisals," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 77-98, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:60:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11146-019-09716-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11146-019-09716-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11146-019-09716-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11146-019-09716-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Foote, Christopher L. & Gerardi, Kristopher & Willen, Paul S., 2008. "Negative equity and foreclosure: Theory and evidence," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 234-245, September.
    2. Lei Ding & Leonard Nakamura, 2016. "The Impact of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct on Appraisal and Mortgage Outcomes," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 44(3), pages 658-690, July.
    3. Sumit Agarwal & Itzhak Ben-David & Vincent Yao, 2015. "Collateral Valuation and Borrower Financial Constraints: Evidence from the Residential Real Estate Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(9), pages 2220-2240, September.
    4. Christopher Mayer & Karen Pence & Shane M. Sherlund, 2009. "The Rise in Mortgage Defaults," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 27-50, Winter.
    5. Itzhak Ben-David, 2011. "Financial Constraints and Inflated Home Prices during the Real Estate Boom," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 55-87, July.
    6. Ronel Elul & Nicholas S. Souleles & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Dennis Glennon & Robert Hunt, 2010. "What "Triggers" Mortgage Default?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 490-494, May.
    7. Shi, Lan & Zhang, Yan, 2015. "Appraisal inflation: Evidence from the 2009 GSE HVCC intervention," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 71-90.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hamilton Fout & Nuno Mota & Eric Rosenblatt, 2022. "When Appraisers Go Low, Contracts Go Lower: The Impact of Expert Opinions on Transaction Prices," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 451-491, October.
    2. Yanling G. Mayer & Frank E. Nothaft, 2022. "Appraisal overvaluation: Evidence of price adjustment bias in sales Comparisons," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(3), pages 862-881, September.
    3. Mathieu Aubry & Roman Kräussl & Gustavo Manso & Christophe Spaenjers, 2023. "Biased Auctioneers," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(2), pages 795-833, April.
    4. Paul Calem & Jeanna Kenney & Lauren Lambie‐Hanson & Leonard Nakamura, 2021. "Appraising home purchase appraisals," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S1), pages 134-168, March.
    5. Samuel Kruger & Gonzalo Maturana, 2021. "Collateral Misreporting in the Residential Mortgage-Backed Security Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2729-2750, May.
    6. William M. Doerner & Scott Susin, 2024. "Underappraisal Disparities and Time Adjustments to Comparable Sales Prices in Mortgage Appraisals," FHFA Staff Working Papers 24-07, Federal Housing Finance Agency.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eriksen, Michael D. & Fout, Hamilton B. & Palim, Mark & Rosenblatt, Eric, 2019. "The influence of contract prices and relationships on appraisal bias," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 132-143.
    2. Conklin, James N. & Frame, W. Scott & Gerardi, Kristopher & Liu, Haoyang, 2022. "Villains or scapegoats? The role of subprime borrowers in driving the U.S. housing boom," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    3. Paul E. Carrillo & William M. Doerner & William D. Larson, 2023. "House Price Markups and Mortgage Defaults," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(4), pages 747-782, June.
    4. Paul Calem & Jeanna Kenney & Lauren Lambie‐Hanson & Leonard Nakamura, 2021. "Appraising home purchase appraisals," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S1), pages 134-168, March.
    5. Hamilton Fout & Nuno Mota & Eric Rosenblatt, 2022. "When Appraisers Go Low, Contracts Go Lower: The Impact of Expert Opinions on Transaction Prices," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 451-491, October.
    6. Agarwal, Sumit & Ambrose, Brent W. & Yao, Vincent W., 2020. "Can regulation de-bias appraisers?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    7. James Conklin & N. Edward Coulson & Moussa Diop & Thao Le, 2020. "Competition and Appraisal Inflation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 1-38, June.
    8. Chan, Sewin & Gedal, Michael & Been, Vicki & Haughwout, Andrew, 2013. "The role of neighborhood characteristics in mortgage default risk: Evidence from New York City," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 100-118.
    9. Manuel Adelino & Antoinette Schoar & Felipe Severino, 2015. "Loan Originations and Defaults in the Mortgage Crisis: Further Evidence," NBER Working Papers 21320, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Sumit Agarwal & Itzhak Ben-David & Vincent Yao, 2015. "Collateral Valuation and Borrower Financial Constraints: Evidence from the Residential Real Estate Market," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(9), pages 2220-2240, September.
    11. O’Toole, Conor & Slaymaker, Rachel, 2021. "Repayment capacity, debt service ratios and mortgage default: An exploration in crisis and non-crisis periods," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Kelly, Robert & McCann, Fergal, 2016. "Some defaults are deeper than others: Understanding long-term mortgage arrears," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 15-27.
    13. Manuel Adelino & Antoinette Schoar & Felipe Severino, 2015. "Loan Originations and Defaults in the Mortgage Crisis: The Role of the Middle Class," NBER Working Papers 20848, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Yusuf VARLI & Gökhan ÖVENÇ, 2019. "Dynamic Analysis of Defaults and Prepayments in the Turkish Mortgage Market," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society, issue 27(39).
    15. Slaymaker, Rachel & O'Toole, Conor & McQuinn, Kieran & Fahy, Mike, 2018. "Monetary policy normalisation and mortgage arrears in a recovering economy: The case of the Irish residential market," Papers WP613, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    16. Kelly, Robert & O’Malley, Terence, 2016. "The good, the bad and the impaired: A credit risk model of the Irish mortgage market," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 1-9.
    17. James Conklin & Moussa Diop & Mingming Qiu, 2022. "Religion and Mortgage Misrepresentation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 273-295, August.
    18. Cem Demiroglu & Christopher James, 2018. "Indicators of Collateral Misreporting," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1747-1760, April.
    19. Chris Cunningham & Kristopher Gerardi & Lily Shen, 2021. "The Double Trigger for Mortgage Default: Evidence from the Fracking Boom," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(6), pages 3943-3964, June.
    20. Fernando Ferreira & Joseph Gyourko, 2015. "A New Look at the U.S. Foreclosure Crisis: Panel Data Evidence of Prime and Subprime Borrowers from 1997 to 2012," NBER Working Papers 21261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jrefec:v:60:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11146-019-09716-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.