[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 22, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17224-17226]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-05838]


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FEDERAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS EXAMINATION COUNCIL

[Docket No. AS23-02]


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Information 
Collection: Appraiser Profession Survey

AGENCY: Appraisal Subcommittee of the Federal Financial Institutions 
Examination Council (ASC).

ACTION: Notice and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The ASC is seeking approval from the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, ASC is requesting comments 
from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. 
The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

DATES: Comments will be accepted until May 22, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Commenters are encouraged to submit comments by the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal or email, if possible. You may submit comments, 
identified

[[Page 17225]]

by Docket Number AS23-02, by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
     Email: [email protected]. Include the docket number AS23-
02 in the subject line of the message.
     Mail: Address to Appraisal Subcommittee, Attn: Lori 
Schuster, Management and Program Analyst, 1325 G Street NW, Suite 500, 
Washington, DC 20005.
     Hand Delivery/Courier: Appraisal Subcommittee, 1325 G 
Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005.
    In general, the ASC will enter all comments received on the Federal 
eRulemaking (Regulations.gov) website without change, including any 
business or personal information that you provide, such as name and 
address information, email addresses or phone numbers. Comments 
received, including attachments and other supporting materials are part 
of the public record and subject to public disclosure. At the close of 
the comment period, all public comments will also be made available on 
the ASC's website at https://www.asc.gov (follow link in ``News and 
Events'') as submitted, unless modified for technical reasons.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lori Schuster, Management and Program 
Analyst, [email protected], (202) 595-7578, or Juan Burgos, Acting General 
Counsel, [email protected], (202) 792-1170, ASC, 1325 G Street NW, Suite 
500, Washington, DC 20005. The above phone numbers are not toll-free 
numbers. Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access these 
numbers through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at 
(800) 877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice informs the public that the ASC 
is seeking approval from OMB for the information collection described 
in Section A below.

A. Overview of Information Collection

    Title of Information Collection: Appraiser Profession Survey.
    OMB Number: New Collection.
    Type of Request: New Collection.
    Form Number: N/A.
    Description of the need for the information and proposed use: The 
importance of the appraisal industry and appraisers in the mortgage 
financing industry and other financial services cannot be exaggerated. 
Appraisals provide an objective assessment of a property's value and 
condition, which is essential for lending industries to mitigate risks, 
and for current and prospective homeowners or sellers to make informed 
decisions regarding moving forward with a transaction. Under section 
1103 of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement 
Act of 1989 (FIRREA), the ASC has the authority to monitor the 
requirements established by States for the certification and licensing 
of individuals who are qualified to perform appraisals in connection 
with federally related transactions, including a code of professional 
responsibility.\1\ In addition, under section 1106 of FIRREA the ASC 
has the authority to take testimony, receive evidence, provide 
information, and perform research, as it considers appropriate.\2\ On 
June 1, 2021, President Biden launched the Property Appraisal and 
Valuation Equity (PAVE) Task Force, made up of 13 Federal agencies and 
offices, and charged with developing actions and recommendations to 
foster a more equitable home appraisal industry. In the PAVE Action 
Plan, released last year, the PAVE Task Force recognizes the barriers 
presented to women and communities of color in gaining access to the 
appraisal profession.\3\ Additionally, various studies, and other third 
party information from across the country indicate that there are 
significant barriers to entry to the appraisal profession that are 
negatively impacting diversity and supply in the profession.\4\ Hence, 
the ASC is proposing a collection of information directly from 
appraisal professionals, who belong to underserved communities that 
historically have been denied equitable treatment due to their race or 
ethnicity, or both.\5\ The Appraiser Profession Survey will result in 
data that are needed for the ASC to better understand the challenges 
facing the appraisal industry today including barriers to entry into 
the profession and appraiser shortages. The objective is, in part, to 
collect new data about real estate appraisers of single-family 
residential properties. This data collection will improve the ASC's 
understanding of the current demographics of the appraisal profession, 
barriers to entry for aspiring appraisers, especially women and persons 
from underserved communities historically denied equitable treatment 
due to their race or ethnicity, or both, current trends and patterns of 
the appraisal practice, including the use of new valuation technologies 
and appraisal engagement practices, geographic differences in the 
number of appraisers in urban and rural areas; and potential market 
imbalances between appraiser supply and demand. These data are not 
available elsewhere and are essential to ASC policy development. Data 
collection will focus on characteristics of appraisers that are not 
available in other data sources, such as the ASC's National Registry of 
certified and licensed appraisers. Furthermore, under federal law, 
certain minimum appraisal standards and appraiser qualifications are 
set by the Appraisal Foundation's (TAF) Appraisal Standards Board and 
Appraiser Qualifications Board, respectively.\6\ Accordingly, of 
interest to the ASC are the real world experiences of active appraisers 
and the potential impacts of TAF's policies and to what extent 
appraiser training requirements are relevant to the necessary 
experience needed to enter the profession. Of particular interest to 
the ASC is how TAF policies may disproportionately affect aspiring 
appraisers who historically have been denied equitable treatment 
because of their race or ethnicity, or both. The survey will use online 
data collection and solicit responses by email and U.S. postal mail. 
The ASC will use appropriate statistical sampling techniques and 
existing datasets to draw the sample. The ASC may work with private 
sector providers and membership associations to identify prospective 
respondents to the survey. The ASC will draw a representative sample of 
the appraisers in the ASC Appraiser Registry and oversample appraisers 
that historically have been denied equitable treatment because of their 
race or ethnicity, or both. Based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor 
Statistics (BLS) reports from 2022, there are an estimated 100,000 
property appraisers and assessors (appraisers cannot be separated from 
assessors). Of this group of 100,000 persons, approximately 7,600 are 
persons of color (non-white) and approximately 7,800 are persons who 
identify as Hispanic or Latino.\7\ Because persons who historically 
have been denied equitable treatment because of their race or 
ethnicity, or both, is a

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significant concern, ASC wants to include the experiences of these 
appraisers in the survey.
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    \1\ 12 U.S.C. 3332.
    \2\ 12 U.S.C. 3335.
    \3\ https://pave.hud.gov/sites/pave.hud.gov/files/documents/PAVEActionPlan.pdf.
    \4\ See, e.g., National Fair Housing Alliance Report ``Appraisal 
Standards and Appraiser Criteria Report'' at https://nationalfairhousing.org/issue/issue-appraisal-bias/.
    \5\ See Executive Order No. 14091 (``Further Advancing Racial 
Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal 
Government''); and Executive Order No. 13985 (``Advancing Racial 
Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal 
Government''); see also 62 FR 58782 (Revisions to the Standards for 
the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity).
    \6\ 12 U.S.C. 3331, 3339 and 3345.
    \7\ See https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm.
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    This Federal Register Notice provides an opportunity for the public 
to comment on the information collection for the Appraiser Profession 
Survey. The purpose of the survey is to learn about the experiences of 
appraisers, including women appraisers and appraisers from underserved 
communities (as defined by Executive Order 14091), and to better 
understand training practices and appraisal industry practices. In 
addition to the survey, the ASC plans to conduct in-depth interviews 
with several types of groups: appraisers who historically have been 
denied equitable treatment because of their race or ethnicity or both, 
women appraisers, rural appraisers, and urban appraisers living or 
working, or both, in historically underserved communities. The ASC 
wants to better understand the different experiences of urban and rural 
appraisers, and appraisers who historically have been denied equitable 
treatment because of their race, or ethnicity, or both.
    Respondents: Residential real estate appraisers, both active and 
inactive.
    Estimated Number of Respondents: This information collection will 
affect approximately 1,500 respondents.
    Estimated Time per Response: The survey is expected to take up to 
30 minutes.
    Qualitative interviews with up to 75 respondents will take 
approximately 60 minutes to complete.
    Frequency of Response: One time for all surveys and qualitative 
interviews. Up to 75 appraisers may also be selected for both the 
survey and interviews.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 825 hours for all surveys and 
qualitative interviews.
    Estimated Total Annual Cost: $27,786.00 for all surveys and 
qualitative interviews.
    Respondent's Obligation: Participation is voluntary.
    Legal Authority: The collection of information is conducted under 
sections 3506(c)(2)(a) and 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 
(44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(a) and 3507); 12 U.S.C. 3332 and 12 U.S.C. 3335.

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                                             Number of     Frequency of    Responses per    Burden hour    Annual burden    Hourly cost
         Information collection             respondents      response          annum       per response        hours       per response        Cost
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Appraiser survey........................           1,500               1               1             0.5             750          $33.68      $25,260.00
Qualitative interviews..................              75               1               1               1              75           33.68        2,526.00
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    Total...............................           1,575  ..............  ..............  ..............             825  ..............       27,786.00
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Source: National estimates for Property Appraisers and Assessors, Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2021. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes132020.htm).

    To arrive at the dollar cost of the estimated response burden, we 
have used estimates from the BLS on average hourly earnings in May 2021 
for Property Appraisers and Assessors.

B. Solicitation of Public Comment

    This notice is soliciting comments from members of the public and 
affected parties concerning the collection of information described in 
Section A on the following:
    (1) Whether the proposed collection of information would achieve 
the ASC's stated goals as discussed above or is there is another method 
that the ASC should consider;
    (2) The accuracy of the ASC's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information;
    (3) Ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
    (4) Ways to minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including with appropriate automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology (e.g., 
permitting electronic submission of responses).
    ASC encourages interested parties to submit comments in response to 
these questions.

C. Authority

    Sections 3506(c)(2)(a) and 3507 of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(a) and 3507); 12 U.S.C. 3332 and 12 U.S.C. 
3335.

    By the Appraisal Subcommittee.
James R. Park,
Executive Director.
[FR Doc. 2023-05838 Filed 3-21-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6700-01-P