Summary: Title XI of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 requires that real estate appraisals for transactions involving the federal government be written reports that conform to uniform standards and be completed by certified professionals. Overall, positive strides have been made at the federal and state levels to implement Title XI by the December 31, 1992, deadline. For example, all 50 states and the District of Columbia and most U.S. territories have come up with programs for licensing and certifying appraisers. Moreover, as of September 1992, nearly 60,000 appraisers nationwide had been state licensed or certified. Similarly, each of the federal financial institutions regulatory agencies and the Resolution Trust Corporation have issued appraisal regulations. These changes have been accompanied by controversy, however, and several issues remain unresolved, including appraiser availability and appraisal cost, the appropriate de minimus threshold, standards for evaluating real-estate-related financial transactions under the de minimus threshold, and state enforcement of appraisal standards.
