Appraisal Expiration Date Calculator
An appraisal does not expire when the report lands in your inbox. It expires a fixed number of calendar days after the effective date, the day the appraiser inspected the property, and the number depends on the loan program. Get it wrong and a closing can stall days before funding while everyone waits for an update or a brand new appraisal.
One wrong number dominates the search results for this topic, so let us correct it first: an FHA appraisal is not good for 120 days anymore. HUD raised the initial validity to 180 days in Mortgagee Letter 2022-11, for case numbers assigned on or after June 1, 2022. The Appraisal Expiration Date Calculator below has the current periods built in as presets (FHA 180 days, VA 180 days, the conventional 4-month update checkpoint, the conventional 12-month outer limit, USDA 120 days) and still accepts any custom day count your lender gives you.
Program rules change and lenders add their own overlays, which can be shorter than the agency periods here. Treat the result as the agency deadline and confirm the date your lender is working to, especially within two weeks of expiry.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- The clock starts on the effective date (the inspection), not the report delivery date, and it runs in calendar days.
- Current headline periods: FHA 180 days, VA 6 months (12 for proposed construction), conventional 12 months with an update required past 4 months, USDA 120 days plus a short grace.
- An appraisal update (Form 1004D on conventional loans) can rescue a stale report inside its outer limit if value has not declined. Past the outer limit, only a new appraisal works.
- Your lender’s overlay can be shorter than the agency period. The lender’s date is the one your closing actually has to beat.
- Quick Answer
- Current validity periods by loan program
- How the expiration date is counted
- Worked example: an FHA appraisal from 15 January 2026
- Expired or expiring: update, recertification, or a new appraisal?
- What this calculator covers, and why each part matters
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
Current validity periods by loan program
Every period below is measured from the appraisal’s effective date, and the expiration examples all start from the same effective date, 15 Jan 2026, so the programs can be compared directly. HUD set the FHA numbers in Mortgagee Letter 2022-11, announced in HUD’s FHA INFO message of July 12, 2022: initial validity up from 120 to 180 days, update validity up from 240 days to one year, 30-day extension removed.
| Program | Validity period | Expires (from 15 Jan 2026) | What happens at the deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| FHA | 180 days | 14 Jul 2026 | An appraisal update can extend validity to one year from the effective date; past that, new appraisal under the same case number rules |
| VA (existing home) | 6 months (180 days) | 14 Jul 2026 | Notice of Value lapses; a new appraisal and NOV are required. Extensions are case-by-case |
| VA (proposed / under construction) | 12 months (365 days) | 15 Jan 2027 | New appraisal and NOV after expiry |
| Conventional (Fannie Mae) | Update required past 4 months | 15 May 2026 (checkpoint) | Form 1004D appraisal update: exterior inspection plus market review; if value declined, new appraisal |
| Conventional (Fannie Mae) | 12 months outer limit | 15 Jan 2027 | No update can save the report; new appraisal required |
| USDA | 120 days (+30-day grace) | 15 May 2026 (grace to 14 Jun 2026) | Update or new appraisal if the report will be over 150 days old at closing |
Two details in that table trip people up. First, Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide (section B4-1.2-04) phrases the conventional checkpoint as “four months”, not 120 days; the calendar version can land a day or two either side of 120 depending on the months involved, and lenders track it conservatively. Second, the FHA appraisal stays tied to its case number and the property, so it normally follows the home if you change lenders mid-transaction, while a fresh case number restarts the appraisal requirement entirely.
How the expiration date is counted
The arithmetic is simple and the definition is where mistakes happen. Expiration = effective date + validity days, counted in calendar days, with the appraisal needing to be valid on the day the loan is disbursed, not just the day you sign.
Day 0: effective date. The appraiser inspects the property. Every clock in this article starts here, even if the written report arrives a week later.
Day 120 (four months): conventional checkpoint. A conventional appraisal older than this at the note date needs a Form 1004D update before closing. USDA’s initial 120 days also run out here.
Day 180: FHA and VA expiry. The FHA initial period and the VA Notice of Value for an existing home both end. An FHA update can still extend toward the one-year mark; a VA value generally needs a new NOV.
Day 365: every standard path closes. Conventional outer limit and the FHA with-update limit arrive together. From here the only fix is a new appraisal with a new effective date.
The same date-plus-days arithmetic sits under most deadline math in a transaction, from rate locks to contract contingencies, which is why a general agreement date calculator is worth having open alongside this one when a purchase contract has its own deadlines running.
Worked example: an FHA appraisal from 15 January 2026
The calculator is pre-filled with this case, and the result it returns is 14 Jul 2026. Here is the count, month by month, so you can check it against any calendar:
| Month | Days counted | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| January (from the 15th to the 31st) | 16 | 16 |
| February 2026 | 28 | 44 |
| March | 31 | 75 |
| April | 30 | 105 |
| May | 31 | 136 |
| June | 30 | 166 |
| July (14 more days) | 14 | 180 |
Day 180 lands on 14 Jul 2026, and the loan must fund by then or use the update path. While that clock runs, the borrower’s side of the file has its own timeline: income, debts, and program ratios decide the amount, which is the side the approval for a home loan check covers. An approval letter is of little use if the appraisal underneath it lapses a week before closing.
Expired or expiring: update, recertification, or a new appraisal?
Inside the outer limit, the standard rescue is an appraisal update, called a recertification of value on the conventional side. On a Form 1004D, the original appraiser revisits the property from the exterior, reviews current market data, and certifies whether the value has declined. No decline: the original report lives on. Decline: the lender must order a new appraisal, and the deal is re-priced at the new value. FHA’s version of the update stretches validity to one year from the original effective date, which is the change that replaced the old 30-day extension in 2022.
Money is the smaller problem here. An update costs less than a full new appraisal, and even a new appraisal is only a few hundred dollars in most markets; the appraisal cost calculator breaks down what that fee typically covers. The real cost of an expired appraisal is time: rescheduling an inspection and a fresh review can push a closing by one to three weeks, which can put a rate lock or a contract deadline at risk. Checking the date a month ahead, which takes ten seconds in the calculator above, is the cheapest insurance in the whole transaction.
A naming note, because searchers land here from both worlds: this page is about property appraisals for loans. If your “appraisal” is a salary review at work, the date math is the same but the percentages are the interesting part, and an appraisal hike percentage calculator is the right tool for that number.
What this calculator covers, and why each part matters
This calculator turns a loan program and an effective date into an expiration date and a plain status, using the current validity rules for each program.
Current rules, built in as presets. FHA 180, VA 180, the conventional 4-month checkpoint and 12-month limit, USDA 120: one click each, plus any custom period a lender imposes.
A status, not just a date. The result counts the days remaining from today and says plainly whether the appraisal is still valid, expires today, or already lapsed, because “July 14” means nothing until you know where today sits against it.
The current FHA rule, stated and sourced. FHA validity is 180 days from the effective date for case numbers assigned on or after June 1, 2022, under HUD Mortgagee Letter 2022-11, which retired the old 120-day figure in 2022. A reader who arrived believing the old number leaves knowing which rule applies to a post-June-2022 case number and why.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the loan program. FHA appraisals are valid 180 days from the effective date. A VA Notice of Value lasts 6 months for an existing home and 12 months for proposed construction. Conventional appraisals under Fannie Mae rules can be up to 12 months old at the note date, but once they pass 4 months an appraisal update is required. USDA appraisals run 120 days with a short grace period. Your lender’s own overlay can be shorter than any of these.
No. That was the rule before HUD Mortgagee Letter 2022-11, which raised the initial FHA validity period from 120 days to 180 days for case numbers assigned on or after June 1, 2022. The same letter removed the old optional 30-day extension and let an appraisal update extend validity to one year from the effective date. Any guide still quoting 120 days for FHA is working from pre-2022 rules.
The effective date of the appraisal: the day the appraiser inspected the property. It is not the day the report was typed, delivered, or uploaded, and for FHA it is not the case number date. If the inspection was January 15 and the report arrived February 1, the clock started January 15, which is the date this calculator asks for.
The loan cannot fund on a dead appraisal. Inside the outer limits, the usual fix is an appraisal update (Form 1004D for conventional loans): the original appraiser inspects the exterior, reviews current market data, and confirms the value has not declined. If value has declined, or the report is past its program’s outer limit (12 months conventional, one year with an FHA update), a new appraisal is required. For VA, a new Notice of Value is needed once the old one lapses.
Often, yes, through an appraisal update or recertification of value, as long as the original report is inside its outer limit. Fannie Mae allows the update path between 4 and 12 months; FHA allows an update to stretch validity to one year from the effective date. The update is not a rubber stamp: if the appraiser finds the value has declined, the lender must order a new appraisal.
For FHA, generally yes: the appraisal is tied to the FHA case number and the property, so it follows the home if you switch lenders during the transaction, and a new case number means a new appraisal even if the old one is recent. VA values are tied to the property and the veteran’s case. Conventional transfers follow investor rules, and a lender may still decline another lender’s report under its own policy.
Yes. Every period in this article is calendar days. A 180-day FHA window opened on January 15 closes on July 14 whether or not that is a business day, which is why counting from the effective date, not in business days, matters near a closing deadline.
An update is normally cheaper than starting over, because it is a shorter form with an exterior inspection. A completely new appraisal costs what an appraisal costs in your market, commonly a few hundred dollars, and it restarts the clock from a new effective date. The expensive part is usually not the fee; it is the closing delay while the new report is scheduled and reviewed.
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References
- US Department of Housing and Urban Development, “FHA INFO 2022-71: Revised Appraisal Validity Periods (ML 2022-11)” – extends the FHA initial appraisal validity period from 120 days to 180 days and the update period to one year, for case numbers assigned on or after June 1, 2022. HUD: FHA INFO Messages 2022-2023, ML 2022-11. Accessed October 2026.
- HUD FHA Connection, “Single Family Origination Help: Effective Date of Appraisal” – states the appraisal is valid for up to 180 days from the effective date and may be extended to one year with a restricted appraisal update report. HUD FHA Connection: Appraisal Field Help. Accessed October 2026.
- Fannie Mae, Selling Guide Chapter B4 (including B4-1.2-04, Age of Appraisal and Appraisal Update Requirements) – the appraisal must be within 12 months of the note date, with an update required when the report is more than four months old. Fannie Mae Selling Guide: Chapter B4 (PDF). Accessed October 2026.
- LegalClarity, “How Long Does an FHA Appraisal Stay With a Property?” – the 180-day period from the inspection (effective) date, the one-year update ceiling, and the case number tie, citing HUD Handbook 4000.1 and ML 2022-11. LegalClarity: FHA Appraisal Validity and Case Numbers. Accessed October 2026.
- LegalClarity, “How Long Does a House Appraisal Last? By Loan Type” – per-program validity for FHA, VA (six months existing, 12 months proposed construction), and conventional loans. LegalClarity: Appraisal Validity by Loan Type. Accessed October 2026.
- LegalClarity, “How Long Are Fannie Mae Appraisals Good For?” – the 12-month outer limit and the four-month update trigger under Selling Guide B4-1.2-04, including the Form 1004D update contents. LegalClarity: Fannie Mae Appraisal Age Rules. Accessed October 2026.
- iBuyer, “How Long Is a Home Appraisal Good For?” – the conventional 120-day update checkpoint and 12-month structure, and the Form 1004D process when an appraisal ages. iBuyer: How Long Is a Home Appraisal Good For?. Accessed October 2026.
- VALoans.com, “Notice of Value (NOV) and VA Loans” – a NOV is valid for six months after issue, with VA extensions possible on a case-by-case basis. VALoans.com: Notice of Value and VA Loans. Accessed October 2026.
- American Hero Home Loans, “How Long Is a VA Appraisal Good For?” – the six-month NOV window, validity while under contract, and transfer to a new lender for the same veteran. American Hero Home Loans: VA Appraisal FAQ. Accessed October 2026.
- MacLagan Home Loans, “FHA Appraisal Requirements in 2026” – current FHA practice: 180-day validity with a further 180-day update, and typical FHA appraisal costs of $400 to $700. MacLagan Home Loans: FHA Appraisal Guidelines. Accessed October 2026.