Glossary

Bracketing

Also known as: Bracketing Technique

A qualitative sales comparison technique in which the appraiser selects comparables that fall both above and below the subject property on a given characteristic or on overall desirability, using the resulting range to bracket, rather than precisely calculate, a supportable value conclusion for the subject.

Bracketing is most useful whenever the available market data does not support statistically reliable, quantitatively derived dollar adjustments — a frequent condition in thin or heterogeneous commercial markets — allowing the appraiser to reach a defensible range without overstating the precision of adjustments the data cannot actually support. In practice bracketing operates at two levels: physical/locational bracketing, where comparables superior and inferior to the subject on a specific element, such as building age or proximity to transit, bracket the subject's likely adjustment on that element, and overall value bracketing, where the final adjusted value indications from a set of comparables straddle above and below the appraiser's concluded value, lending credibility that the conclusion falls within a range the market data actually supports rather than outside it. A grid whose comparables all point in the same direction relative to the subject, requiring adjustments of a single sign, lacks a bracket and is a common review flag, since it offers no market evidence that the concluded value sits within, rather than outside, the range the comparable data can actually support.