How long is a home appraisal good for?

The clock starts on the effective date, not the day you got the report

Every appraisal has an effective date. That is the date the value applies to, usually the day of the inspection. The date the report was signed or emailed to the lender is a different date, and it is not the one the rules care about.

That difference trips up a lot of files. A report that showed up in your inbox in March might have an effective date in late February. Count from the effective date and you will never be surprised.

Think of an appraisal like a carton of milk. It does not go bad the minute you open the fridge, but at some point everyone agrees it needs a sniff test, and eventually it gets poured out. Each loan program writes its own date on the carton. Here is how the big ones read.

Fannie Mae conventional loans: 4 months easy, 12 months with an update

Fannie Mae's Selling Guide (B4-1.2-04, dated 06/04/2025) says the property must be appraised within the 12 months before the date of the note and mortgage.

Inside that 12 months, there is a second line at four months:

• Four months or less: use the appraisal as is.
• More than four months, up to 12: the appraiser must do an update that includes an exterior inspection of the property. The update itself has to happen within the four months before the note date.
• The update says the value declined: the lender needs a new appraisal.
• The update says the value did not decline: the loan can proceed without more fieldwork.
• More than 12 months: a new appraisal is required.

Desktop appraisals get a shorter carton. If the effective date of a desktop appraisal is more than four months before the note date, Fannie Mae requires a new appraisal, not an update.

One thing I would flag for any loan officer: an update is a fresh look at the market, not a rubber stamp. If prices dipped in that neighborhood, the update is where it shows up.

FHA loans: 180 days, or one year with an update

FHA changed its rules with Mortgagee Letter 2022-11. The initial appraisal is valid for 180 days from its effective date.

If the appraisal will be more than 180 days old when the loan disburses, the lender can order an update. HUD's rules for that update:

• It must be done by an FHA Roster Appraiser.
• It must be done within one year of the original effective date and before disbursement.
• The updated appraisal is then valid for one year after the effective date of the original report.

The same letter removed the old optional 30-day extension. It also says a lender must order a new appraisal for each FHA case number and cannot reuse one from a different case, even if it is less than 180 days old.

The letter applied to case numbers assigned on or after June 1, 2022. If you have a file from before that, you have bigger problems than appraisal age, and possibly a time machine.

Waivers and the new report forms

Not every loan gets an appraisal. Freddie Mac's Automated Collateral Evaluation (ACE) can waive it on eligible loans. Freddie Mac's ACE fact sheet says the offer is valid for 120 days. If the offer is more than 120 days old on the note date, the loan has to be resubmitted to Loan Product Advisor to confirm it is still eligible.

The paperwork has its own calendar too. Under the UAD 3.6 format, Freddie Mac says the old combined Appraisal Update and/or Completion Report (Form 1004D) is retired. The Restricted Appraisal Update Report and the Completion Report become two separate reports, each linked to the original UAD 3.6 appraisal.

Freddie Mac says UAD 3.6 is mandatory for new appraisal reports submitted to the UCDP portal on or after November 2, 2026, based on each report's first submission date. Freddie Mac also says an update or completion report has to match the format of the original appraisal file. That means a file that straddles the switch needs some care, so check with your investor or AMC on which form they expect.

What a loan officer should do when a file is aging

1. Write down the effective date the day the appraisal arrives, next to the projected note date.
2. Know your program's line. Four months for Fannie Mae conventional and desktop, 180 days for FHA, 120 days for a Freddie Mac ACE offer.
3. Order the update early. If closing might slip past the line, get the update scheduled before it does. Rushed updates are how files miss rate locks.
4. Plan for a lower number. If the market has softened, the update can come in as a decline, and on a Fannie Mae loan that means a new appraisal.
5. Do not shop the update. Usually the original appraiser does it, because they already know the property. The update looks at the same house in the current market. It is not a second opinion.
6. Check the format. Around the UAD 3.6 mandate of November 2, 2026, confirm the update or completion report matches the original report format.

Why I care about the date on the carton

I read the market in real time. When I look at value, I test the most recent window of sales the data supports, because a 12-month average can hide a turn that happened three months ago.

That is why the age rules exist. A value is an opinion as of one specific day. Markets keep moving after the inspection, and an appraisal from March may not describe the market in October.

To be clear about what an update is: a value as of a later date is a different question. The update answers whether the value has declined since the original effective date. It does not raise the original value because the neighborhood got hot. If the borrower wants a higher number for a new loan, that is usually a new appraisal.