If appraisals are based on comps, how do prices rise over time?

[Kay March]

This is a technical question that arises from the painful experience of having an appraisal come in low. It happened two years ago when a VA appraiser, citing comps, said that the price my buyer had agreed to pay for my single family house was too high by $10,000. Today, two years later, that house is worth about $40,000 more than the price my buyer was allowed to pay. So can someone please explain how prices in general can rise over time if appraisals are based upon comps?

[Jim K.]

It's all a scam. There has never been, nor will there ever be, a fair appraisal. There are only lucky and unlucky ones for the people who order them and/or are forced to endure them. The industry is poorly regulated, the appraisers are susceptible to various pressures, and the job is to put a concrete number on an abstract notion. It's a scam. I've never met a single one of these cats I respected -- my opinion is not about to change now.