Find a Record of the Last Appraised Value

The appraisal of the property that was done (ostensibly) for the purchase would be the property of the lender that ordered it. It is not public information and is not recorded anywhere. The lender hired a third-party, licensed appraiser to complete a report for the loan file, and the report will state that the intended client is the lender. It is possible that the sellers have a copy of that report, but it would be up to them to share it voluntarily. Since appraisals in real estate are only valid for about 4-6 months, it has long since expired, anyway – not sure what good it would do?. Lenders are now required to provide the homeowner or buyer with a copy of the appraisal report, but in 2006 they may or may not have done so – so if the seller says that he or she does not have it, he or she may be telling you the truth.

Are you looking to see what the value was at that time, or are you looking for specific information about the house? The sellers should be able to provide information about systems, square footage, room count, type of heating, cooling, etc. The real estate agent should be able to give you a market analysis that compares the home to other recent sales in the area to ballpark its value… . and may be able to do a historic lookback and do that same analysis for the time period that interests you.

If you would like to see a history of what the city or town tax authority thought it was worth each year, that information is generally available (though this is an assessment, NOT an appraisal, and is more accurate in some areas than others, depending upon how often it is updated). Search online for the tax authority (for example, BLANK city assessor’s office), and contact them for historic assessment values. They will also be able to give you the last sale price … which, upon freemarket transfer, set the bar for the property’s “market” value, anyway, and probably trumped the appraisal.