I think you need to check your history. Interest rates brought down the S&Ls, but that's old news. Sometime shortly after 2007 2008 one of my bank clients who happens to be a Fannie Mae direct seller wanted me to go to lunch with the head of the mortgage department & their Fannie Mae rep to discuss their appraisal policies and ensure they aligned with GSE expectations. The conversation eventually got to "risk exposure" and I asked them how they evaluated everyone's diligence who sent them originations in small towns which all of a sudden experienced a major economic disruption. She told me, "you just described the entire state of California". There were many causes of that crisis, but chief amongst them were lax underwriting and appraisal policies with Wild West DPA programs, doc shops, liar loans, and egregiously poor appraisals. We almost tanked the entire world economy with our "financial engineering projects" and new ideas regarding credit focused instead of collateral focused underwriting. Given the chance, almost everyone wants to use the power of leverage to borrow the maximum amount at 5% and reinvest the proceeds into something that will return 15%, and there will always be plenty of commissioned based lending professionals eager to help. 95% of Americans will not walk into a convenience store and shoplift but the same 95% have no problem committing mortgage fraud because after all, "they're going to pay it back". Independent appraisals are an essential part of keeping everyone in the mortgage business honest.