PHOENIX -- New rules meant to protect consumers from inflated home values may be helping banks pad their own pockets at homeowners' expense.

Under the new rules, any loan taken out through Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac banks needs to use a new system for appraisals -- one that favors large, corporate-owned appraisal houses instead of individual appraisers.

"From the bank's point of view, they think they're protecting the consumer," said mortgage broker Eric Bowlby. "From the consumer's point of view, their fees just went up -- the cost of getting a house just went up."

Homeowner Joan Hoyt saw the cost of her appraisal jump 64 percent from last year -- from $350 to $575.

"$575. That's astronomical," she said. "I think that's so out of line -- so out of line."

Nevertheless, 5 Investigates discovered most of the money from the appraisals is not going to the individual appraiser; it's going to the big businesses that now own the appraisal companies.

In many cases, these businesses are the banks that are issuing the loans.

"The heavy hand of government came in and squashed the independent fee appraiser," said John Bellerose, a longtime Valley home appraiser.

At one point, Bellerose employed 18 people and conducted thousands of appraisals, but since the new rules were put into place, his phone has gone silent.

"From one day to the next, you go from having a business and a clientele base to just having it totally, utterly taken away from you," he said. "It's totally sickening."

Additionally, if a homeowner decided he or she wanted to use a different bank to refinance, he or she would have to pay for another appraisal.

Mortgage brokers, consumers and independent appraisers are beginning to complain, and they hope to get the new rules re-written soon.