The state bankers associations wrote to federal regulators and the Appraisal Qualifications Board today urging action to address a critical shortage of qualified appraisers in rural areas by reforming the criteria necessary to become qualified. A combination of retirements among appraisers, declining young populations in rural areas and the lengthy appraiser training process has resulted in a crunch.
“The shortage of qualified rural appraisers has dramatically increased the time to process a rural real estate loan,” the associations said. “This has created a detrimental ripple effect throughout rural economies in this country because all affected parties, the bank, the seller and the buyer, must remain at a standstill until a qualified appraisal is available to service a loan transaction.”
