Great article/opinion.  The only concern I have is that an "assessor" is quite different from an "appraiser".  The appraiser works for the bank; the assessor works for the local body of government that determines the value for taxation purposes.

Maxine S. Saunders

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Peter responds:

Thanks for the note. What I meant was the quality control people assessing loans within the banks -- not the loan officers themselves and not the outside appraisers who value the houses. Someone in banking told me they were called assessors, but I guess not.