Tempe retrospective appraisal work becomes more reliable when the historical competitive set is defined before the search radius expands. Housing near ASU may attract owner-occupants, investors, parents of students, or redevelopment interest. Retrospective work is driven by the effective date, not by the date the appraiser happens to inspect the property.
A retrospective appraisal should identify what the neighborhood, competing inventory, access, and development pattern looked like on the effective date. Later growth can explain how the area changed, but it should not be used as if historical buyers already had those choices. For Tempe, the appraisal should consider postwar neighborhoods only when it changes the subject's competitive position.
In reconstructing the prior market, housing near ASU may attract owner-occupants, investors, parents of students, or redevelopment interest. That demand should be demonstrated from the relevant period rather than assumed from today's market. In retrospective work, the issue has to be viewed from the earlier market rather than from today's completed setting.
Looking back to the earlier market, architecture, lot pattern, additions, effective age, and neighborhood character can outweigh simple distance. Tempe contains historic resources and culturally significant postwar subdivisions. That can justify moving beyond the closest sale when a more distant transaction better matches the historical buyer decision.
Market movement can help explain the period, but a retrospective value should not be produced by mechanically applying a citywide appreciation rate to today's value. The subject still needs historical comparable evidence from its actual segment.
Historical market data is strongest when paired with records that show what the property and neighborhood actually looked like on the effective date. Later information can be considered as context, but it should not replace evidence from the prior market.
The final value should reflect the market participants actually faced on the earlier date. A clear reconciliation explains both the evidence that was used and the later information that was intentionally kept out.
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