Appraisal makes no sense

[Corey M.]

I did a cash out refi on my primary residence about 7 months ago.  My townhouse was appraised at $462/sq ft for 1406 sq ft. At the time, there was a recent sale in the building for a 1,539 sq/ft townhouse at $383/sq ft. Because of the quality of my place vs my neighbor, I received $79 sq/ft more.

I am trying to cash out refi again. To do so, I had to get a new appraisal.  There was a more recent sale in the building for an 1174 sq/ft townhouse, which provided a new comp. That place sold for $438 sq/ft ($55 more p/sq ft than the last comp in the bldg). But my appraisal came back at $409 sq/ft - a $53/sq ft drop from just 7 months ago.

When I asked the underwriter, I was told that the new sale (1174 sq ft place) killed the value of my townhouse. I told him this didn't make sense - the new sale went for $438 vs vs $383 p/sq ft comp available at the time of my last refi. If anything, my appraisal should've gone up. I asked how the latest sale could go for $55 more p/sq ft, but somehow my place is now worth $53 less p/sq ft.

The answer given was that my house had finishings on par with latest comp sale, and that an 1174 sq ft place will automatically have a higher p/sq ft since it's smaller. Thus, the latest sale considerably reduced the value of my house, to the tune of $75k. Does this ring true? That my place could really be worth almost $30 sq ft less than the most recent sale in the building just because it's bigger? And that the value of my appraisal should've dropped $53 from one made 7 months ago because of the most recent sale?

I tried calling the appraiser, but he completely blew me off and refused to discuss how he came to his results. He didn't even let me get two sentences out. All he said was "there is no way to justify your original appraisal of $462/sq ft with the most recent sale in the building. And this isn't the appropriate way of discussing this matter." I told him the underwriter and my loan officer said to call him, but he seemed baffled by that. It's frustrating when a professional does a job that I paid for but then refuses to discuss the results.

Any advice here?