“A bill to provide for accurate energy appraisals in connection with residential mortgage loans, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section requires the heads of covered agencies—Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) for the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), Rural Housing Service (RHS), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)—to direct creditors originating covered loans (i.e., residential mortgages) to provide borrowers with specified disclosures about energy reports on the property's energy efficiency and renewable features. Specifically, the section does the following: (1) mandates disclosures informing borrowers of their right to provide or request an energy report for appraisal consideration, that appraisers must review it, and that it may affect loan approval; (2) requires underwriting to use the appraiser's valuation and prohibits rejecting an appraisal or loan application based solely on the energy report; (3) requires, on and after March 1, 2026, provision of available energy reports to appraisers upon borrower consent and accommodation by underwriting systems; (4) directs appraisers to consider relevant energy efficiency, renewable energy features, energy savings, and consumption data relative to comparable properties; and (5) requires creditors to provide borrowers a free copy of the energy report upon request. Additionally, this section directs the covered agencies, after consulting an advisory committee of stakeholders (e.g., appraisers, home builders, energy organizations), to jointly issue guidance on disclosures, report sharing, and appraisal approaches that reflect market reactions to energy features; the guidance must not dictate appraisers' consideration methods. The agencies must also require, within two years of enactment, origination and underwriting systems to handle such appraisals.