Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have agreed to only buy mortgages for properties that have had appraisals by firms independent from lenders. This is a huge change for the mortgage industry. This came about because of an agreement between the two largest mortgage brokers and the New York Attorney General. This will largely benefit independent appraisal companies. Lenders may now have to divest themselves of in-house appraisal services. After investigating billions of dollars of home loans it was found that lenders often put pressure on appraisers to inflate values of homes. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see how that may have contributed to the unprecedented amount of foreclosures over the last few years. Appraisers often were pressured to come with an amount that would justify the amount being considered for mortgages.

This agreements ends the practice of using lenders own appraisers and also ends the practice of lenders owning appraisal companies. It will be interesting to watch them as they divest themselves of these functions. Interestingly, Countrywide Financial Corp. is one of the lenders who owned that type of company. We all know their current financial situation. It goes without saying that this change will cause massive ripples through out the industry. Independent appraisal firms are poised to reap huge financial benefits as they step up to replace the lenders in house service. Expect to see new firms springing up to handle this huge volume of work. How these changes will affect new home buyers remains to be seen. It might be reflected in higher costs to the borrower.

Most of the types of homes you will find in Wisconsin real estate are going to be vacation homes, farm homes, small houses, and apartments. For vacation homes you will find a choice of log homes or some of the more palatial style homes for the rich and famous. Often the style of home is the western look with a lot of rock or slate and wood inside and out. The real estate usually offers a fire place to keep the heating bill lowered during the cooler months. The economy is mostly based on manufacturing, agriculture, and health care around the state and especially the larger cities. This means that the housing available will cater to the needs of the state.

Currently real estate in Wisconsin is seeing a hit. As you can imagine with the sub prime mortgages and foreclosures around the United States Wisconsin is just one of the places feeling the crunch. This means for those who have the budget to build or buy a home they are looking at some really great deals on the buying side. Already in some areas of Wisconsin they are seeing changes in the number of homes being sold. In Racine County for single family homes they have seen a decrease in the number of sales in the past three years. In 2004 74% of homes were sold that were on the market. For the 2007 year only 42% of the homes on the market were sold. This means that more than half of the homes on the market have not sold.