study compares self‐assessed home values to arm's length contemporaneous appraisals. In
a sample of seniors who received counseling for a reverse mortgage, the absolute value of
the assessment error averages 18.9% of appraised value and it is biased upwards by
13.4%. When adjusted to reflect the general population of seniors, the size and bias of the
average error fall to 16.1% and 4.2%. Both the bias and the size of the error tend to be lower …