There are two evaluations the city one and the one the bank gets when purchasing a home, right now the city evaluations are lagging behind real property values and playing catch up. The city decided with the new valuations to move them up slowly so as to not shock the owners with huge tax increases...so right now city property evaluations are not in line with true property values. Now the bank evaluation is more accurate, I mean it looks at the city property evaluation as well as comparables in the neighborhood as well as the condition of the property being sold. As for the bank they will look at this evaluation and if it doesn't add up to the amount being requested to finance then they will not lend out the funds. In Canada we are more conservative, we always have been (maybe the states are now overly conservative), so the evaluator will always low ball the property value just to make sure the bank is covered.