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UAD 3.6 and the redesigned appraisal report

On 2 November 2026 the appraisal report that has underpinned residential lending for decades is replaced. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac retire the legacy form set — twelve forms, including the 1004 for single-family, the 1073 for condominiums and the 1004C for manufactured homes — and replace all of them with one dynamic Uniform Residential Appraisal Report built on the UAD 3.6 data standard.

Open production began 14 May 2026. After the November date, reports delivered to the GSEs must be on the new format.

This page explains what actually changes, for the three groups who read our reports: homeowners, lenders and appraisal management companies, and attorneys.

What is different about the new report?

There is no form number any more. The old system asked the appraiser to pick a template — 1004, 1073, 1004C — and then fit the property into it. The new report has one structure that expands and contracts according to what the property actually is and what the assignment actually requires. A two-unit property with an accessory dwelling no longer has to be forced into a form designed for something else.

The report is data first, narrative second. Where the old forms pushed detail into free-text addenda, UAD 3.6 captures it as discrete fields — checkboxes, dropdowns and structured entries. That means a machine can read a great deal of what previously only a human could.

Condition and quality are recorded room by room. The legacy forms rated the property as a whole. The redesigned report records condition and quality at room level, which is a considerably finer-grained picture of a house.

Delivery changes shape. Instead of a single PDF with photographs embedded, the report arrives as a package: the XML data file, a PDF rendering, and a separate folder of property images.

Why this matters more in South Florida than most places

Two of the new structured field groups land squarely on how houses are built here.

Disaster mitigation now has its own fields. Impact-resistant glazing, fortified roofing and similar hardening are captured as data rather than mentioned in a comment box, if at all. In Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Broward counties that is not a marginal detail — it is a large share of what separates two otherwise similar houses, and it has been chronically under-recorded.

Energy features are captured too — solar, efficient HVAC and the rest. Again: previously narrative, now data.

The practical consequence is that features South Florida owners have spent real money on become legible to the lender, to the automated checks the lender runs, and to anyone reading the file later. That is a change in the right direction, and it is one homeowners should know to raise at inspection.

What should a homeowner do differently?

Very little, and nothing urgent. You do not order the form; your lender does, and the appraiser works to whatever standard applies on the date of the assignment.

One thing is worth doing. Because hardening and energy features now have dedicated fields, have the documentation ready when the appraiser arrives: permits, wind mitigation reports, roof invoices, impact window and door documentation, solar paperwork. Under the old forms that material often went unrecorded. Under the new one there is somewhere for it to go.

What changes for lenders and AMCs?

The review workload moves. Underwriters who are used to reading long narrative addenda will be reading a structured layout and room-level detail instead, and the structured data supports automated checks that were not practical against free text.

Two dates matter for planning: open production since 14 May 2026, mandate on 2 November 2026. Orders placed close to the deadline need care about which standard the delivered report will be on. If you order from us and want the new format before the mandate, say so on the engagement and we will confirm what we can deliver.

What changes for attorneys?

If you use appraisal reports as evidence — family law, probate, litigation — the document you are handed after November will not look like the ones in your files.

Three practical points. The exhibit is longer and differently organised, so page references in older templates and motions will not carry over. Room-level condition and quality ratings are new material, which cuts both ways: more to examine in an opposing appraiser's report, and more to support your own. And the underlying record is now structured data, so what was once a narrative judgement buried in an addendum is a discrete field that can be pointed to directly.

Note that reports prepared for divorce, estate and date-of-death and litigation purposes are not GSE deliveries and are not governed by the mandate. They will continue to be written to the assignment and the intended user. Confirm with your attorney what form of report your matter requires.

When is UAD 3.6 required?

2 November 2026 for reports delivered to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Before that date the new format is available but optional, which is what open production means. Assignments outside GSE lending — private appraisals, estate work, litigation, tax appeals — are not subject to the mandate at all.

Where we stand on it

We have been appraising South Florida since 1992, and our file runs to 34,510 appraisals across Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Broward counties. We have worked through several format changes in that time. This one is larger than most, and the parts of it that record hardening and energy features are, for this market, an improvement worth having.

If you are a lender, an AMC or an attorney with a question about how a report will be delivered after November, call and ask. We would rather answer it before the assignment than after.

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Matt Thoren, State-Certified Residential Appraiser. 561-853-2129 · Residential only.