Historical appraisals (retrospective appraisals) are performed when a situation requires an appraisal of property to determine Market Value where the effective date of the appraisal is a date in the past. The typical need for a retrospective appraisal arises when someone dies and a date of death valuation is required, or when someone receives a gift of property.
Historical appraisals can also be useful for estate planning.
To determine a decline in value of a property that you sold at a loss (like an investment property) in order to claim a loss for tax purposes.
To determine the market value of property as of the date that a taxing district assessed the value for Property Taxation.
As part of the property valuation for a divorce (aka, a Divorce Appraisal.
Retrospective appraisals can be particularly challenging the further back the date is because the appraiser needs to try to ascertain the market conditions and trends where there may be less available or reliable data.