Low home appraisals could be scuppering US housing recovery.

Flawed appraisals are derailing real estate sales and depressing values across the US, the National Association of Realtors said yesterday as it reported that existing home prices declined 17% in May from a year earlier.

'It’s pointing to thousands of delayed or canceled transactions,' Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the Chicago- based Realtors group, said in an interview. 'We’ve had a massive inundation from members saying this is a big problem.'

bloomberg.com