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Kooky
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About Kooky and Shaka →The Federal Housing Administration has started accepting home appraisals in the redesigned national report format, known as UAD 3.6, without making it compulsory. HousingWire reported on 2 October 2026 that the agency announced the change on Thursday 1 October, effective immediately, and that the older UAD 2.6 files are still accepted.
The move came one day after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises, told lenders that their own deadline of 2 November 2026 stands but that a lender unable to meet it may ask for more time. Fannie Mae set out the terms in Lender Letter LL-2026-08, dated 30 September 2026, and the two companies published a joint announcement the same day.
Taken together, the two decisions mean the country's mortgage lenders head into November with one appraisal format required on paper, a second still in circulation, and a calendar that runs to the end of June 2027 before the old one disappears.
What the FHA decided
According to HousingWire, the FHA has opened what it calls an optional, broad production period in its Electronic Appraisal Delivery portal, the system through which lenders send it appraisals. The step followed the end of beta testing of the new format in that portal.
The option covers all Title II forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, the agency's reverse mortgage programme. FHA-approved lenders taking part in those programmes may begin submitting UAD 3.6 appraisals, and during the optional phase they may still deliver some or all of their appraisals in UAD 2.6.
One condition applies to every file. HousingWire reported that the format of the first appraisal submitted for an FHA case number must be used for every later submission on that case, and that two formats may not be mixed within one case.
Related readUS: TransUnion and Equifax let mortgage lenders buy scores laterThe FHA has not set a date on which UAD 3.6 becomes mandatory for its loans. HousingWire reported that the agency says it will keep assessing lender readiness before it decides. The article cites no document number for the announcement.
What Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac changed
The two enterprises took a different route: the deadline stays, and an exception sits beside it. Their joint announcement of 30 September 2026, issued under the Uniform Mortgage Data Program at the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, states that the UAD 3.6 and Forms Redesign mandate takes effect on 2 November 2026 and that the date is not changing. It adds that many lenders already submit UAD 3.6 reports, and that some need more time.
For those lenders, the announcement offers what it describes as a one-time policy exception that will not be extended. Fannie Mae's letter is addressed to all of its single-family sellers and says that a lender which implements UAD 3.6 by 2 November needs to take no action. A lender that cannot must request the exception in order to keep sending UAD 2.6 reports.
HousingWire, reporting the announcement on 30 September, set out the consequence for the lenders in between. A seller that fully implements the new format by the deadline complies with Fannie Mae's Selling Guide. A seller that neither makes the transition nor obtains an exception falls out of compliance.
| Question | Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac | FHA |
|---|---|---|
| Is UAD 3.6 accepted? | Yes | Yes, since 1 October 2026 |
| Is it mandatory? | From 2 November 2026, unless an exception is granted | No date set |
| Is UAD 2.6 still accepted? | Under the exception, new reports until 19 May 2027 | Yes, during the optional period |
| Condition to note | A separate request to each company | One format per case number |
Sources: Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-08 and the joint announcement of 30 September 2026; HousingWire, 2 October 2026.
The exception calendar, period by period
The exception is not a single extension. Fannie Mae's letter divides the months after the deadline into periods, and what a lender may do with an old-format report narrows in each one. The letter takes effect immediately and expires on 19 May 2027.
Related readAustralia: how APRA's debt-to-income limit and buffer cap home loans- 30 September 2026Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announce the exception. The mandate date does not move.
- 2 November 2026 to 28 February 2027Lenders holding an exception may submit both UAD 2.6 and UAD 3.6 reports, with the usual risk scoring.
- 1 March to 19 May 2027Reduced functionality period. Old-format reports are still taken, without a standard risk score or value relief.
- 20 May to 27 June 2027New reports must use UAD 3.6. UAD 2.6 is accepted only to resubmit a report already submitted.
- 28 June 2027UAD 2.6 is retired. No report in the old format is processed.
Two things change on 1 March 2027. First, the automated risk tools stop scoring old-format reports in the normal way: the joint announcement says Collateral Underwriter will return a collateral risk score of 999 for a UAD 2.6 report, and Loan Collateral Advisor will return 99. Second, a loan delivered with a UAD 2.6 report in that period is not eligible for representation and warranty relief on value. Fannie Mae's letter describes this as enforcement relief for certain representations and warranties on the appraisal and the property value under section A2-2-06 of its Selling Guide.
The ABA Banking Journal, the publication of the American Bankers Association, summarised the effect on 30 September: losing that relief increases the risk carried by a lender that uses the exception. Both the letter and the joint announcement encourage lenders to complete the switch before 1 March 2027 for that reason.
After 19 May 2027, the system itself enforces the rule. According to the joint announcement, a new UAD 2.6 submission made between 20 May and 27 June 2027 receives an unsuccessful status in the Uniform Collateral Data Portal, the shared system through which appraisals reach the two companies, together with a fatal feedback message in the submission report.
Who has to ask, and what they sign
The exception is requested, not granted automatically. The joint announcement says an authorised representative of the seller, someone able to enter into a binding contract, must complete an online request, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac each have their own form. A lender that sells loans to both companies files two requests. The Fannie Mae letter, as read for this article, states no closing date for filing one.
Related readAustralia's big four banks pass on the cash rate rise from 9 OctoberBy submitting the form, the seller does three things, the announcement says. It acknowledges that it cannot meet the mandate and agrees to revised contract terms during the exception period. It commits to a final implementation plan, including coordination with its vendors and appraisers, to move fully to UAD 3.6 by the end of the exception. And it gives the timing of its transition, the main obstacles it faces, and the ways each company could help.
Not every lender is concerned. HousingWire reported that only sellers approved by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac need to make a request. A lender that does not sell directly to either company needs no exception, but has to align its plans with the investors or aggregators that buy its loans. An aggregator that buys from third-party originators and sells on to the two companies has a choice: make sure every originator submits UAD 3.6 appraisals, or request the exception and manage compliance down the chain itself.
That last point reaches mortgage brokers. National Mortgage Professional, a mortgage trade publication, reported on 8 October that the exception could leave brokers handling different appraisal requirements from one wholesale lender to the next.
The exception is offered once and will not be extended
The joint announcement of 30 September 2026 calls it a one-time policy exception. New old-format reports stop on 19 May 2027, resubmissions on 27 June 2027, and the format is retired on 28 June 2027.
Why the two companies added a safety valve
The industry had asked for room. The ABA Banking Journal reported that the exception is in line with the American Bankers Association's own advocacy for a later mandatory date. The association had warned the two companies that the timeline would create operational, market and consumer risks, because many lender and appraiser systems could not yet produce, transmit or receive UAD 3.6 data.
Related readAustralia: RBA finds under 1% of mortgage borrowers in negative equityThe Mortgage Bankers Association also welcomed the decision. HousingWire reported that its president and chief executive, Bob Broeksmit, supports the exception as a way to smooth the transition, and that the association will keep working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the two companies and its members towards full adoption. He also said, according to HousingWire, that the new format improves the appraisal through greater consistency and better readability.
Fannie Mae has since given its own account of the timing. National Mortgage Professional reported that Lyle Radke, the company's principal of collateral policy, spoke at a webinar hosted by the valuation firm Clear Capital on 7 October. He said the decision reflected uncertainty about how quickly lenders would switch, not a finding that the industry would miss the deadline.
The reason, as the publication relays it, lies in how appraisals travel. The two companies usually receive a report weeks after it is ordered, so readiness is hard to measure until the deadline is close. Announcing a change in the last days of October would have left lenders too little time to act on it, so the companies set a decision point in late September and chose flexibility. Mr Radke added that most lenders he has spoken with plan to keep their existing schedules.
What early reports say about fees and speed
UAD stands for Uniform Appraisal Dataset. National Mortgage Professional describes version 3.6 as a redesigned report format and one of the largest changes to residential appraisal reporting in years. Among the additions it lists are a place to document comparable sales that the appraiser considered but did not use, and a version history that helps a lender see what was revised.
Related readWhy Australia fixes so few home loans, and how the US and Korea differThe first cost and speed figures come from one company and should be read that way. At the same webinar, Clear Capital's director of valuation risk and architecture, Heather Khan, said the firm had completed more than 2,100 reports in the new format, National Mortgage Professional reported. In markets with enough volume to compare, fees had risen by about US$65 a report, with the increase varying from market to market. Turn times had lengthened somewhat, which she attributed to the learning curve.
"But the encouraging news is that appraisers get faster with experience," Ms Khan said, as quoted by National Mortgage Professional.
The firm's figures put that at an average of 28 per cent faster as appraisers gained familiarity with UAD 3.6. The publication notes that this measures productivity inside the new format; it is not a comparison with UAD 2.6. Clear Capital also said that 99 per cent of its active appraiser panel is eligible for UAD 3.6 assignments, and that 3 per cent of orders first placed in the new format had to be converted back to the old one.
Revisions matter in this trade whatever the format. Mr Radke told the webinar that about one-third of the appraisals submitted to the Uniform Collateral Data Portal are resubmitted at least once.
What a transaction may notice next
A conventional loan headed for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac after 2 November 2026 will carry a UAD 3.6 appraisal unless its lender holds an exception. An FHA loan may carry either format for now, provided the same one is used throughout the case. National Mortgage Professional's report points to the practical consequence for brokers: the appraisal requirement is worth confirming with the lender before the order is placed, particularly for a loan that may move from one investor to another.
On cost, the only figure published so far is Clear Capital's. Mr Broeksmit, in the statement reported by HousingWire, named longer waits and higher costs for borrowers among the disruptions the exception is meant to help avoid.
The next fixed date is 2 November 2026, when the mandate takes effect for every Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seller without an exception. The FHA's own date is the open question: HousingWire reported that the agency will decide after further assessing how ready its lenders are.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
