Putting Fannie Mae’s $3 Billion Appraisal Savings Estimate in Context
Fannie Mae’s second-quarter 2026 earnings report highlights what it describes as $3 billion in estimated borrower closing-cost savings from appraisal alternatives since 2018. The figure sounds substantial, but the limited methodology disclosed by Fannie Mae raises important questions about what the estimate represents and what conclusions policymakers should draw from it.
According to Fannie Mae, the estimate covers 5.34 million loans delivered between January 2018 and June 2026 and uses approximately $550 as the weighted-average appraisal cost savings per loan. The $3 billion figure therefore appears to be an estimate of appraisal fees borrowers did not pay, rather than a study of actual borrower charges, net savings or broader housing affordability outcomes.
The transaction mix is particularly important. Historically, appraisal waivers have been concentrated in refinances, especially rate-and-term transactions involving lower loan-to-value ratios, established payment histories and properties already represented in government-sponsored enterprise databases. During the 2020 refinancing surge, an Urban Institute analysis found that 63% of rate-and-term refinances received waivers, compared with 10% of purchase transactions.
More recent data from the AEI Housing Center show that this distinction continues. The combined GSE waiver share reached 28% in March 2026, up from 26% in February but still well below the nearly 50% peak recorded during the 2021 refinance boom. Freddie Mac’s overall waiver share increased to 32%, while Fannie Mae’s rose to 25%.
No-cash-out refinances remained the most waiver-intensive transactions. In March 2026, approximately 52% of Freddie Mac no-cash-out refinances and 48% of comparable Fannie Mae transactions used waivers. AEI attributed the overall increase both to higher waiver usage within loan categories and a modest shift toward refinances, where waivers are traditionally more common.
For these borrowers, the primary financial benefit generally comes from obtaining a lower interest rate or changing the loan term. The waiver removes one relatively small closing cost. The favorable collateral characteristics that make these transactions lower risk also help make a waiver possible. These circumstances do not necessarily support the same conclusions for purchase transactions, properties with limited market data or complex collateral.
Purchase waiver usage nevertheless warrants attention. In early 2025, Fannie Mae expanded eligibility to certain purchase loans with combined loan-to-value ratios between 80% and 90%. By March 2026, approximately 9% of those higher-leverage loans received waivers, compared with about 2% one year earlier. That increase represents a meaningful expansion beyond the lower-risk refinance transactions that likely produced much of Fannie Mae’s historical savings estimate.
The calculation also combines value acceptance with value acceptance plus property data. These programs are not costless. Property data collection carries a separate charge, yet Fannie Mae does not disclose how many of the 5.34 million transactions required that service or whether those costs were deducted. AEI reported that property-data alternatives remained a relatively small share of March 2026 originations, ranging from approximately 2% to 2.4% for Freddie Mac and 2.7% to 6.3% for Fannie Mae, depending on loan purpose.
Finally, the $3 billion accumulated over eight and a half years. That equates to approximately $353 million annually and about $550 per participating borrower. The savings can matter to an individual consumer, but the aggregate total does not demonstrate a transformational reduction in national housing costs.
Appraisal alternatives can serve an appropriate role when carefully matched to collateral and transaction risk. A meaningful evaluation, however, requires Fannie Mae to disclose the savings by year, loan purpose, loan-to-value ratio, valuation option and actual borrower charge.
Without that information, the $3 billion headline is better understood as a broad estimate of avoided fees than as evidence that appraisal alternatives have materially improved housing affordability.