BusinessWeek - January 18, 2009 - "The appraisal industry has justifiably come under fire for its role in the great housing bust. Property appraisals, required by lenders before a loan is made, are supposed to provide an independent assessment of the home's value. But during the boom, appraisers routinely signed off on a doubling or tripling of home values, sometimes racked up in just a matter of months. Investment properties were appraised at prices that made no investment sense. And homeowners were charged a pretty penny for what often amounted to rubber-stamp service."

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