An adjustment in a Claremont home appraisal is a change the appraiser makes to a comparable sale's price to account for one difference between that sale and the house being appraised. When a comparable has something the subject house lacks, such as a larger lot or a remodeled kitchen, its price is adjusted down; when it lacks something the subject has, its price is adjusted up. Each adjustment has to reflect how buyers in that part of Claremont actually reacted to the difference, and the report has to say what supports it.
Where adjustments sit in the report
Adjustments belong to the sales comparison approach, the method that estimates value from closed sales of similar homes nearby. A comparable sale, a recent closed sale chosen because buyers of the subject house would have weighed it too, almost never matches the subject exactly. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says comparables should have similar physical and legal characteristics and should "be competitive and appeal to the same market participants that would also consider purchasing the subject property." They do not have to be identical. The adjustments are how the remaining differences are reconciled.
On loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, the redesigned Uniform Residential Appraisal Report under UAD 3.6 is mandatory for new reports submitted on or after November 2, 2026, according to Freddie Mac's UAD 3.6 FAQ. The adjustment grid still sits in its Sales Comparison Approach section.
The full method and a blank grid are in the sales comparison approach on a Claremont house; this article covers the adjustment column.
Why the comparable moves, never the subject
The subject house stays fixed. Each comparable's price is moved toward what it would likely have sold for had it matched the subject on that line, which is why the direction can feel backwards:
- The comparable is better on a feature: its price is adjusted downward, because the subject would not have earned that extra.
- The comparable is weaker on a feature: its price is adjusted upward, because the subject would have earned what the comparable lacked.
- The buyers in this pocket did not react to the difference: no adjustment, and the report says so.
Each comparable ends with an adjusted sale price, and Fannie Mae's guide requires the indicated value from the sales comparison approach to fall "within the range of the adjusted sales price" of the comparables the report uses.
The differences that usually get adjusted
The lines below are the ones most often worked on a Claremont house. The table shows only the direction logic; amounts are left as dashes, because an adjustment is derived from the market evidence for one assignment and has no standard size.
DifferenceIf the comparable is betterIf the comparable is weakerAmount
Sale or financing concessions
Down, when concessions pushed the price up
No upward adjustment
-
Market conditions (time)
Depends on how prices moved between the sale and the effective date
Same
-
Location within the pocket
Down
Up
-
Site size, slope and view
Down
Up
-
Gross living area
Down
Up
-
Condition
Down
Up
-
Quality of construction
Down
Up
-
Bathrooms, garage, pool
Down
Up
-
Permitted ADU or guest unit
Down
Up
-
Two lines differ. On concessions, Fannie Mae's guide requires an adjustment for their effect and says "positive adjustments for sales or financing concessions are not acceptable." On time, the effective date, the date the opinion of value applies to, is the reference point: the guide requires comparables to be analyzed for changes in market conditions from their contract dates to that date, and says "time adjustments, or the lack thereof, must be supported by evidence."
What has to support an adjustment
An adjustment is not a rule of thumb. Fannie Mae's guide says "the appraiser's adjustments must reflect the market's reaction" to the difference, and it gives an example of an unacceptable rule-of-thumb adjustment that ignores what the market analysis showed. The guide lists the accepted ways of measuring market reaction for time adjustments as statistical analysis, modeling, paired sales or other commonly accepted methods; a paired sale is two closed sales alike in nearly every way except one feature, so the price gap points to what buyers paid for that feature.
The explanation matters as much as the number. The guide says the report must summarize the supporting evidence, and that "a statement only recognizing that an adjustment has been made is not acceptable." It also says Fannie Mae "does not have specific limitations or guidelines associated with net or gross adjustments," so a large adjustment is not wrong on its face; an unexplained one is.
Behind most lines sits contributory value, what an improvement adds to the whole property in the market. A pool can add less than it cost to build, and the adjustment follows the market, not the receipt.
How Claremont's pockets change the adjustments
Claremont's ZIP code, 91711, holds several markets, so one difference can weigh differently by pocket. These are the kinds of assignments that come in:
- A pre-1940 Craftsman near the Village and the Colleges. Comparables are chosen for era and style. The working adjustments are usually condition and gross living area, the finished, heated space above grade, measured on site, where permit history on an enclosed porch or rear addition decides how the space counts. See measuring a Village bungalow with later additions.
- A postwar ranch. Tract layouts repeat, so comparables are often found model to model and the adjustments are few: an added bath, a garage conversion, lot size.
- A hillside home in Claraboya or Padua Hills. Few sales match, so the search widens and view, grade and access become adjustment lines. A view home compared with flat lots below, with no view or grade adjustment, is what a reviewer throws out.
- A house near the Mills Avenue county line. A Claremont house is appraised from Claremont sales first. When a Montclair or Upland sale is genuinely the better evidence, the guide allows location adjustments if warranted and requires commentary explaining why a sale from outside the subject's market area was used.
What does not get adjusted
Furniture, staging and clutter are not features of the real estate, and the loan amount or anyone's hoped-for value is not an adjustment. An automated estimate, not an appraisal, is a statistical figure from records, and an agent's CMA, not an appraisal, is an opinion of likely list price; neither is a comparable sale. Only closed sales enter the grid.
Condition and quality lines can look subjective, but on a lender report each property is first rated on a defined scale, and the adjustment then follows what buyers paid for the difference in rating. How those ratings are assigned is covered in how a Claremont appraisal reports condition and quality ratings.
Reading the adjustments in your own report
Check that each adjusted line has a written reason, that the direction matches which property is better, and that differences you know about (an unpermitted room, a view, a busy street) are adjusted or explained. On a loan, a factual error is raised through the lender. The pillar on what a Claremont home appraisal measures shows where the grid sits in the whole report, and the Home Appraisal in Claremont hub collects the series.
The fee is set by the scope of the assignment and quoted before work begins, and it does not depend on the value. The appraisal services page lists the assignment types and the Claremont area page describes the pockets. To have a Claremont house appraised, request an appraisal or call (909) 324-6122.
Sources
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide, B4-1.3-09, Adjustments to Comparable Sales, accessed November 6, 2026
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide, B4-1.3-08, Comparable Sales, accessed November 6, 2026
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide, B4-1.3-06, Property Condition and Quality of Construction of the Improvements, accessed November 6, 2026
- Freddie Mac, Uniform Appraisal Dataset (UAD) 3.6 FAQ, accessed November 6, 2026
- California Bureau of Real Estate Appraisers, license lookup for Gordon Hall, accessed November 6, 2026
Gordon Hall, California Certified Residential Real Estate Appraiser, BREA No. AR003877 (lookup: https://www2.brea.ca.gov/breasearch/faces/party/view.xhtml?id=23601). Reports are prepared in conformity with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Nothing here is legal or tax advice; admissibility is always the court's decision.
Frequently asked questions
Does an appraiser adjust my house or the comparable sales?
The comparable sales. The house being appraised stays fixed, and each comparable's sale price is adjusted toward what it would likely have sold for had it matched the subject on that feature. A comparable that is better on a feature is adjusted down; one that is weaker is adjusted up.
Is there a standard amount for a bathroom or a pool adjustment?
No. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says an appraiser's adjustments must reflect the market's reaction to the difference, and it treats a rule-of-thumb adjustment that ignores the market analysis as unacceptable. The amount comes from the sales evidence for that assignment, and the report has to summarize that evidence.
Are large adjustments a sign the appraisal is wrong?
Not by themselves. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says it does not have specific limitations or guidelines on net or gross adjustments. What a reader should look for is the explanation: the guide says a statement that only recognizes an adjustment was made is not acceptable.
Can a Claremont appraisal adjust a sale from Montclair or Upland?
Yes, when that sale is genuinely the better evidence. A Claremont house is appraised from Claremont sales first. When a sale from across the Mills Avenue county line is used, the report should explain why and make a location adjustment if the market warrants one.
