Since you are in a "transition" area -sorry your zip code gave youy away- the appraiser had to use that burned out, boarded up 4 family at the end of the block that sold for $15,000 last month. Sad but true. You stand a chance if you have a local lender and appraiser who understand what is going on in your neighborhood. Otherwise you have to stick out the PMI until you can refinance or can talk to someone with local knowledge who works with/for your lender. Good luck since the new appraisal laws have come into play.

I would contact your lender and ask them to do a new appraisal. If they refuse, you could always pay an appraiser yourself and ask the bank to factor the new appraisal in with the old (sometimes they will average 2 or 3 appraisals together if there are significant discrepancies).

The risk you take is that the new appraisal may come in at the same price as the old one - and if your market is similar to mine - foreclosures are fairly standard comparables when it comes to market value.

In either case, the first step is to contact your lender, and see what they have to say.

Best of luck!

-Josh

I was using the appraisal to delete PMI on my mortgage. The appraiser was a third party hired by the mortgage company.

You probably had an appraiser who was not familiar with your area. Unless your property has no other comps except for the foreclosures, your appraiser should have used valid main stream sales to do his analysis. Since it seems you are paying for it and if you have not paid them the full fee, have them meet you at the property for a one-on-one discussion and have them rerum the numbers using more valid comps. The area that you live in has not seen significant growth in value in the last 18 months and unless you have a property that is in exactly the right neighborhood on exactly the right street even when they do the new analysis you may find the numbers less than satisfactory. But at least ask them to take the foreclsoures off if possible.

What are you using the appraisal for?

You could always get another appraisal...

Chances are based on what you've said so far - the Realtor might be trying to buy your business with an inflated CMA (did you call the Realtor asking them to do comps as part of a listing presentation? or did you pay them for the CMA separately from any other implied potential agreement?)

The appraiser on the other hand is generally always going to be conservative (especially in this market) because they are held accountable for their value.