House appraisals are not public record. An appraisal ordered during a mortgage, refinance, or private sale is a confidential document that belongs to the client who paid for it, and no public database exists where anyone can look one up. The appraiser is professionally barred from sharing the results with outsiders. There are a few narrow situations where a report loses that privacy, mostly when it gets filed with a court or commissioned by a government agency, and federal law separately guarantees you a free copy of any appraisal done for your own loan.
Why Appraisal Reports Are Confidential
The appraisal profession is governed by the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, known as USPAP. Its Confidentiality Rule prohibits an appraiser from disclosing assignment results or confidential information to anyone other than the client, parties the client specifically authorizes, state regulatory agencies, professional peer review committees, or third parties authorized through a legal process such as a court order. The appraiser also has to take reasonable steps to keep the report secure, on paper and digitally.
The rule makes sense once you know what an appraisal actually contains. Beyond the final dollar figure, the report includes interior photographs, a detailed write-up of the property’s condition, notes on repairs the home needs, and a side-by-side analysis of recent comparable sales. That is not information the profession treats casually, and the confidentiality obligation continues after the transaction closes unless the client agrees to release it.
Getting a Copy of Your Own Appraisal
If a lender ordered an appraisal on a home you were buying or refinancing, you have a legal right to see it. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act requires every lender to give the borrower a free copy of all appraisals and written valuations developed in connection with a first-lien mortgage application. That right applies whether the lender approves the loan, denies it, or you withdraw the application yourself.
The lender has to deliver the copy promptly after the appraisal is finished, and no later than three business days before closing. You can waive the three-day window if you need to close faster, but the report is still owed to you. At application, the lender must also give you written notice that this right exists.
“Valuation” here is defined broadly. It covers traditional appraisals along with automated valuation models, broker price opinions, and any other estimate the lender relied on in deciding whether to lend. You are not charged separately for the copy, though the cost of the appraisal itself can be rolled into your loan fees.
What you do not have is a right to see anyone else’s appraisal. If a neighbor refinanced last year, that report belongs to their lender and to them. It is not something you can request.
When an Appraisal Becomes Public
A confidential appraisal can lose its private status when it is filed with a court. Once submitted as evidence, the report becomes part of the court file and is generally viewable by anyone who pulls the case. Three situations account for most of these filings:
- Divorce, where one or both spouses hire an appraiser to establish what the marital home is worth so the court can divide assets.
- Probate, where real property owned by someone who has died is appraised so the court can value the estate and distribute it among heirs.
- Bankruptcy, where a debtor’s real estate is valued so the court can assess available assets, and the valuations get filed with the case.
Once an appraisal is in a court file, it stays there unless a judge orders the record sealed. Sealing is uncommon in routine property matters, so assume any appraisal submitted as evidence is available to the public.
Eminent Domain Cases
Appraisals also become public when a government agency takes private property for public use. The government is constitutionally required to pay “just compensation,” and an appraisal is the foundation of that number. Because these proceedings are structured to protect the property owner’s rights, the valuation documents typically enter the public record. The owner can commission their own appraisal to challenge the government’s figure, and if the dispute reaches trial, both reports can end up in the court file.
Appraisals a Government Agency Ordered
When a federal, state, or local agency commissions an appraisal for its own purposes, the report may be obtainable through a public records request. Federal agencies are subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and most states have equivalent open-records laws. Certain exemptions can apply, but appraisals commissioned by government are not automatically shielded the way privately ordered ones are.
Appraisal Versus Tax Assessment
People asking whether appraisals are public record often have tax assessments in mind. The two are different, and the difference matters for what you can actually look up.
A private appraisal is done by a licensed appraiser hired for a specific transaction. The appraiser inspects the interior and exterior of the home, researches recent comparable sales, and produces a detailed report estimating what the property would sell for at that moment. The report is confidential.
A tax assessment is performed by a government assessor’s office to calculate property taxes. Assessors use computerized mass-appraisal systems to value every property in their jurisdiction on a set cycle, without individually walking through each home. The assessed value is public because it determines how much tax an owner pays, and taxpayers need to be able to review and challenge it.
Assessed values often diverge from real market values. Some jurisdictions apply an assessment ratio and assess at a fraction of market value. A home worth $500,000 on the open market might carry an assessed value of $300,000 where the local ratio is 60 percent. Other jurisdictions aim for full market value but only reassess every four to six years, so figures lag in a fast-moving market. A tax assessment tells you something about a property’s value. It is not a stand-in for an appraisal.
What Property Information Is Public
You cannot pull a neighbor’s appraisal, but a substantial amount of property data is available through local government records. County assessor and recorder of deeds offices maintain files on every parcel, and most now run searchable online portals.
A typical county property records search will show:
- The assessed value used for tax purposes, updated on the jurisdiction’s reassessment schedule.
- Tax history, showing what the owner has paid each year.
- Physical characteristics of the home, including square footage, lot size, bedroom and bathroom counts, year built, and sometimes construction type.
- The recorded sale price from the most recent transfer, pulled from the deed. Roughly a dozen states do not require sale prices to appear on public documents, so this data is missing in some parts of the country.
- Ownership history, including current and previous owners with transfer dates.
To find your county’s records, search online for the county name along with “property appraiser,” “tax assessor,” or “recorder of deeds.” Most results lead to a free public search portal. Between the assessed value, tax history, recorded sale price, and physical details, you can build a reasonable picture of what a property is worth without ever seeing a private appraisal.