refi/appraisal question

[bagged123]

What is the name of your state? CT

Let me start by I know the market is bad and house in some areas are losing value.
So, I'm in the process of doing a refi on my house from the bank that currently has my current mortgage. My house is 7 months old (we closed back in November).
My house is 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom, 1/4 acre lot, 2 car garage, etc. There are only 3 (including mine) 4 bedroom houses in the new developement. The only other 4 bedroom houses are in a developement 15 miles away from my house.
So my question is.

When we got the appraisal report we noticed that the appraiser compared ours against
3 houses that are 3 bedrooms, 2 are in my developement and that 1 is a 3 bedroom in the development that is 15 miles from my house. He has the wrong square footage down for our house, even though its recorded as 2407 with the town and he has 2300 listed on the report, he also has the house listed at 1 year old even though it was completed in October of 07, he also compare our house to a 3 bedroom that has a built in salurom and he has it listed as a enclosed porch, and there's a list of other issues.

To the question, when a house is appraised, shouldn't it be appraised against house that are close to your house such as square footage, age, etc or no?

The reason I'm asking is because the appraisal came back low (extremely low) and if we do a refi, the bank wants (the holds the current mortgage) up to 5000 at closing to make up the difference. difference in what, I'm not sure we're trying to figure that part out.

[HUD-1]

A comparable property must have sold in the last 6 months (or 12 months if little activity) So there may be similar properties nearby, but if they have not sold, then they cannot be used. The appraiser's recourse is to find properties as similar to the subject as possible and make dollar adjustments for the differences. He/she could come up with a dollar estimate for adjusting square footage and/or # bedrooms. The appraiser should be made aware of factual discrepancies (like your total square footage) so that a correction can be made. Of course many adjustments like neighborhood and condition are somewhat subjective...

[bagged123]

2 of the 3 house are brand new as well and were "closed" on within the pass 7 months.
So since they're new does that count as sold activity and the other house being used was sold a year ago.

[HUD-1]

Yes, an appraiser can use any closed sale. If it is a listing or under contract, they can merely introduce it, in addition to three closed sales, for information purposes. If there are age differences between the comps, and appriaser can make an adjustment.