Historical Appraisal or Retrospective Appraisal

Historical appraisals (retrospective appraisals) are performed when a situation requires an appraisal of property to determine Market Value where the effective date of the appraisal is a date in the past. The typical need for a retrospective appraisal arises when someone dies and a date of death valuation is required, or when someone receives a gift of property.

Historical appraisals can also be useful for estate planning.

Other situations may require historical appraisal

• To determine a decline in value of a property that you sold at a loss (like an investment property) in order to claim a loss for tax purposes.
• To determine the market value of property as of the date that a taxing district assessed the value for Property Taxation.
• As part of the property valuation for a divorce (aka, a Divorce Appraisal.
• Total loss property claims for or with the insurance company. to determine an accurate reimbursement for total Property loss Insurance Claims

In order to facilitate the appraisal of property as of a date in the past, you may need to provide records such as deeds, inspection records or photographs that can substantiate the condition of the property at the time the records were created. The appraiser will use this information as well as historical market data (such as sales in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS)) and construction data (cost to build) to determine the market value of the real estate as of the date required.

Retrospective appraisals can be particularly challenging the further back the date is because the appraiser needs to try to ascertain the market conditions and trends where there may be less available or reliable data.