WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FED, & Office of the Comptroller of the Currency today announced that the threshold for exempting loans from special appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans during 2021 will remain at $27,200, as it was in 2020.

The threshold amount will be effective January 1, 2021, & is based on the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners & Clerical Workers (CPI-W) as of June 1, 2020.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act of 2010 amended the Truth in Lending Act to add special appraisal requirements for higher-priced mortgage loans, including a requirement that creditors obtain a written appraisal based on a physical visit to the home’s interior before making a higher-priced mortgage loan. The rules implementing these requirements contain an exemption for loans of $25,000 or less & also provide that the exemption threshold will be adjusted annually to reflect increases in the CPI-W. If there is no annual percentage increase in the CPI-W, the agencies will not adjust this exemption threshold from the prior year. However, in years following a year in which the exemption threshold was not adjusted, the threshold is calculated by applying the annual percentage change in CPI-W to the dollar amount that would have resulted, after rounding, if the decreases & any subsequent increases in the CPI-W had been taken into account.

The attached notice will be published shortly in the Federal Register.