Posts from — March 2009

How are unemployment levels doing in Sacramento County right now? How is your city or area doing? Have a look at the data below to check out your area or places nearby to where you live. Do you think there is any impact on property values when unemployment rises? Might this lead to more foreclosures? Do you think the large decline in price levels over the past year in many areas below might be related in part to the large percentages of unemployment which have increased sharply? Does it seem like some of the hardest hit areas are also struggling with higher unemployment rates?

Unemployment Rates are based upon information provided from the Employment Development Department from February 2009.

State of California      10.1%     

State of California One Year Ago   6.2%

Sacramento County    10.7%

Arden Arcade CDP      10.4%

Carmichael CDP          7.9%

Citrus Heights city      7.5%

Elk Grove CDP            8.7%

Fair Oaks CDP            5.9%

Florin CDP                 16.0%

Folsom city               4.8%

Foothill Farms CDP      13.7%

Galt city                   16.2%

Gold River CDP           1.8%

Isleton city               11.5%

La Riviera CDP            5.8%

Laguna CDP               5.5%

Laguna West Lakeside CDP   7.2%

North Highlands CDP    15.8%

Orangevale CDP          7.6%

Parkway South Sacramento CDP   18.0%

Rancho Cordova City   12.3%

Rancho Murieta CDP    3.3%

Rio Linda CDP             15.7%

Rosemont CDP            8.4%

Sacramento city         12.5%

Vineyard CDP             4.9%

Walnut Grove CDP       23.6%

Wilton CDP                 6.5%

For further reference and to look up unemployment information and rates on any county or city in California, see the following links:

• EDD State of California Stats
• EDD California County Stats
• EDD California City & CDP Stats

If you have any questions about the data above or any other appraisal-related issues or thoughts, contact me at 916-595-3735 or www.lundquistcompany.com

Does a gate around a community add value? Can you sell a property for more if it is located inside a gated-community as opposed to outside of the community? Do you think that buyers consider a gate as a feature worth paying a monthly HOA fee for? Does an enclosed community attract some people while turning others off? And a sociological question to ponder just for fun, why is there a gate? 

The best way to determine if there is a premium for the gate is to analyze recent and past sales, run data, talk with Realtors, investigate properties within and outside the community and interview home owners among other things. This is part of the normative appraisal process. It would be nice if there was a simple formula to apply to determine the value or lack thereof for a gate, but that just isn’t the case.

No Recent Sales in a Gated Community?  Sometimes recent sales within the gated community are not available – maybe because of the small size of the community or other factors which may also be important. One must always ask why there are no new sales. Is there litigation preventing new sales? Is there a reason why buyers in the market are turned off by the community? Is there some sort of environmental concern? 

In today’s market, some HOAs are actually suffering because of the vacant houses due to foreclosure and/or residents not having the extra cash to pay their monthly HOA fees. There are even some reports of HOAs going bankrupt. Could this impact value or be the reason why there are no recent sales within a planned HOA community? Could it be worth investigating how the HOA is doing if you are a buyer?  

This is a photo of the gated ”Whitney Oaks” neighborhood in Rocklin, CA. There are a series of gated communities throughout this area.

There are many questions to ask when it comes to something simple like a gate. This is part of the job of an appraiser – to ask questions throughout the appraisal process and get answers. So with all this being said, do gates really matter in terms of value? Sometimes. Sometimes not. It’s really not a black and white issue. 

If you have any questions or potential appraisal needs in the Sacramento area (or Whitney Oaks in Rocklin), feel free to contact me at 916-595-3735 or www.lundquistcompany.com

I snapped the following photos in Los Banos, CA last week while on an inspection. Vacant construction sites are quite common in today’s market throughout the Sacramento Region. The view is fairly typical - a paved street, curbs and driveway entrances prepped, wiring ready…. but no houses being built. It’s like a ghost town in a sense. I see this situation everywhere from Rancho Cordova to West Sacramento to Atwater to Yuba City. 

There are many streets throughout counties surrounding the Sacramento Region which face a similar phenomenon. This is a sign of the times and a lesson in supply and demand too.

What’s happening in the Carmichael real estate market lately? The graph below displays the past 36 months of sales. What do you see?

For starters, the overall trend appears to be declining over the past 36 months. No surprise there, huh? We are seeing this phenomenon in most niches in the Sacramento area. It looks like the bulk of sales over the past 90 days have sold between 200-300K, though there are certainly sales well beyond that range. It is also evident that there have been fewer sales above $1,000,000 in the past year.

Carmichael Real Estate Market Data:

• 85 sales over past 90 days
• Median Price of $219,000 over past 90 days
• Low Price of $72,000 over past 90 days
• High Price of $2,200,000 over past 90 days
• Average Days on Market over past 90 days: 84
• 125 current Active listings
• 76 current Short Sale Active listings
• 60 current Pending listings
• 21 properties have sold above $1,000,000 over the past 36 months
• 4 properties have sold above $1,000,000 over past 12 months

Carmichael Links:

• Carmichael Wikipedia Page
• Jesuit High School
• Carmichael Chamber of Commerce
• Carmichael Park & Recreation District
• Carmichael Times Newspaper
• Carmichael Library

NOTE: Carmichael is technically not a city, but a Census-Designated Place (CDP) in Sacramento County.

If you have any questions about the data above or any potential real estate appraisal needs within Carmichael or surrounding areas, feel free to contact me at 916-595-3735 or www.lundquistcompany.com

What’s going on in the real estate market in El Dorado Hills? Here is a trend graph displaying 36 months of sales based upon Sacramento Metrolist. The data was limited to sales under $2,000,000 since there were only 11 sales at $2,000,000 or above over the past 3 years (listed on MLS).

What do you see? For starters, El Dorado Hills has houses selling at higher levels than many surrounding areas, doesn’t it? It does look like there is a trend downward over the past 36 months with homes selling at overall lower levels as well as less houses which have sold above 1.5 million lately.

El Dorado Hills Real Estate Market Data:

• Past 90 days:  96 sales
• Median Price over past 90 days: $442,470
• Low Sale over past 90 days:  $230,000
• High Sale over past 90 days:  $1,798,000
• Past 12 Months:  580 sales
• Current Active Listings:  255
• Current Short Sale Active Listings:  91
• Current Pending Listings:  63

El Dorado Hills Links:

• El Dorado Hills Citizen’s Alliance
• El Dorado Hills Forum
• El Dorado Hills Chamber of Commerce
• El Dorado Hills Community Services District
• El Dorado Hills Library
• El Dorado County
• Serrano
• Wikipedia Page for El Dorado Hills
• El Dorado Hills Historical Society
• El Dorado Town Center

If you have questions about the data above or any potential appraisal needs for tax appeal, estate settlement, purchase, refinance, etc… feel free to contact me at 916-595-3735 or www.lundquistcompany.com

I spend quite a bit of time each week thinking about houses and neighborhoods because of my chosen career as a real estate appraiser. But more than my job, I find myself often imagining how neighborhoods can improve and become more connected like they used to be. 

Below is an article I wrote in a series entitled “Community Building 101” (pdf file). “The Art of Hospitality” is the last article in this mini-essay series and I wanted to share it here on my real estate appraisal blog because life is not just about the value of our houses, but the quality and value of the relationships we have, even in our neighborhoods. Eating with neighbors is one of the the most profound but simple ways we can build a better community.

The Art of Hospitality by Ryan Lundquist

What is the best dining experience you’ve ever had? A few years ago I ate at a joint in San Francisco called Asia De Cuba. This fusion restaurant had spectacular ambiance and the feel of a hip club with its dim lights, pulsating beats, trendy décor, and exotic menu. Our group enjoyed four hours of eating and sitting together and we were never rushed to leave. The bill was substantial, but the unique experience was worth the high cost.

When guests leave my house after dinner, I want them to feel something similar. It would be great if they complimented the lavish food, stylish decorating, and festive atmosphere. That would be nice. I have a feeling though they’d more realistically say they’d eaten good non-gourmet food and felt mostly comfortable even though there were energized toddlers running around. Dining at the Lundquist home is not anything like an upscale restaurant, but that’s a good thing because practicing hospitality does not necessitate a gourmet experience.

There is something significant about welcoming others into our homes. When we ask people over we are giving them much more than a meal – we are inviting them into our lives. In an age of birthday card emails, drive-thru dinners, and brief cell phone interactions, it’s refreshing to sit down together for an unrushed hour or two and really get to know others. Sometimes though we think that being hospitable means we have to prepare the most scintillating dishes and spend all day cleaning the house. But it’s okay if the walls are not acid-washed, if toys are visible, and if there’s a stack of bills on the countertop. True hospitality is not about offering our guests perfection, but relationship. Sure, it’s nice to clean the house and spice up dinner a bit, but let’s remember that our guests are not customers to please but rather participants in a family meal. One of the most respectful things we can do is invite people into the life we really live. Besides, if we put so much effort into a meal we might exhaust ourselves and also cause our guests to feel intimidated about inviting us to their house.

Life is busy, so where do you find the time to eat a meal with others? Thankfully dinner is something that most of us do every night, so it’s just a matter of coordinating our schedules. If my household is eating dinner anyway and yours is too, it doesn’t seem all that overwhelming to combine efforts to dine together – especially on a weekend night. It always helps too to ask guests to bring a side dish or assist with preparation somehow.

The practice of hospitality is about sharing meals, but is more broadly about sharing our lives with people. This might seem like an odd topic to end a community building series, but by taking the initiative to invite other residents into our daily routines we can profoundly impact our neighborhoods. When we get intentional about helping our tracts become more connected like they used to be, we will begin to taste something wonderful – a sense of community.

One of the key factors for our market to improve and get back to “normal” is for the oversupply of foreclosure properties to be absorbed. Basically, it’s a messy real estate market out there in the Sacramento Region, and the mess has to be dealt with to move on.

Sacramento MLS allows us to analyze past sales as well as current listings to see how many properties sold as bank-owned or short sales and so on. What about future listings though? How many foreclosures will be coming to the market? Two interesting data sources for this type of information are Realquest and Realist.

RealQuest provides a free service online for anyone to view properties which are in “Pre-foreclosure” (coming soon to the market unless something happens to stop them – loan modification, catch up on payments, legislation, act of God, etc…), “Auction” (you’ve seen the commercials for the auction properties where “there are 2000 properties to sell off and they MUST sell this weekend”), and “Bank-Owned” (yes, the bank has title already).

This is what RealQuest looks like when doing a property search:

Realist is also a service of First American Core Logic and is commonly known as “Tax Records” for Sacramento Metrolist Subscribers (a paid service). Realist has a new “foreclosure activity” search feature that covers the same categories that RealQuest does. But when looking up data in both RealQuest and Realist, there is definitely a difference. Sometimes the data is very similar, but other times the figures are way off. This may be due to the way RealQuest and Realist categorize their information as well as the difference between a free service (RealQuest) and a paid service (Realist). Ultimately there could be a number of factors why the data is so different, but it’s not the purpose of this post to go into depth about that. The real thrust here is to show that there is a new wave of foreclosure properties coming and we ought to be prepared for that. Let’s continue to be full of hope as well as avoid a lifestyle of worrying, but let’s keep an eye on what is going on.

Market Data from RealQuest & Realist:

City of Folsom in Sacramento County

• Preforeclosure Properties: 296 (RealQuest) 186 (Realist)
• Auction Properties: 46 (RealQuest) 79 (Realist)
• Bank-Owned Properties: 158 (RealQuest) 262 (Realist)

City of Citrus Heights in Sacramento County

• Preforeclosure Properties: 309 (RealQuest) 435 (Realist)
• Auction Properties: 57 (RealQuest) 161 (Realist)
• Bank-Owned Properties: 134 (RealQuest) 330 (Realist)

City of Orangevale in Sacramento County

• Preforeclosure Properties: 136 (RealQuest) 145 (Realist)
• Auction Properties: 26 (RealQuest) 45 (Realist)
• Bank-Owned Properties: 126 (RealQuest) 128 (Realist)

City of Rancho Cordova in Sacramento County

• Preforeclosure Properties: 245 (RealQuest) 256 (Realist)
• Auction Properties: 32 (RealQuest) 107 (Realist)
• Bank-Owned Properties: 223 (RealQuest) 298 (Realist)

City of Fairfield in Solano County

• Preforeclosure Properties: 309 (RealQuest) 710 (Realist)
• Auction Properties: 51 (RealQuest) 283 (Realist)
• Bank-Owned Properties: 140 (RealQuest) 745 (Realist)

City of West Sacramento in Yolo County

• Preforeclosure Properties: 232 (RealQuest) 225 (Realist)
• Auction Properties: 109 (RealQuest) 114 (Realist)
• Bank-Owned Properties: 159 (RealQuest) 207 (Realist)

NOTE: The discrepancy in the data above would be very important to research and explain if the data was actually used in an appraisal report or to support value conclusions in any way. It is very important to use the best available data in an appraisal report because solid value must be based upon reliable information.

The data above was really provided as an FYI for those who may be interested. Since RealQuest provides a free service too, go spend a few minutes on their website, see what you can find, and draw your own conclusions about reliability.

If you have any questions or potential appraisal needs, please contact me at 916-595-3735 and www.lundquistcompany.com

This is a commercial building off of J & 20th in Sacramento. I am always intrigued by design, architecture and especially odd and seemingly non-conforming features. As I recall, this particular building was rehabbed over the past five or so years.

Do you notice anything interesting about the green-ish building?

You got it. There is a door on the second story of the building with a decent drop to the parking lot below. Maybe the interior is sheetrocked and so the door truly cannot be opened, but generally speaking it’s an okay idea to not have doors open to nowhere.  

If you have any insight on this building, let me know. I am always curious to learn more when I see interesting things. This property is located across the street from Original Pete’s on J & 20th.

Here are some images from the field today in the “Capital Village” neighborhood within the City of Rancho Cordova. Capital Village is a new and ongoing project by Beazer Homes. It is distinct locally because of its mixed-use concept and unique design (small lots, 1 to 3 stories, units attached or detached, flat or pitched roofing, vibrant or earth-tone colors, close proximity to commercial retail, two parks…).

Vibrant Colors & Unique Design: 

View of one of the local parks and detached units in background:

Construction is currently ongoing within Capital Village.

In the words of Beazer Homes:

Located in Rancho Cordova, off Zinfandel Drive just south of Highway 50, Capital Village is a progressive new home community featuring a combination of various architectural designs, several popular retail stores and restaurants, a mixed-use town center, numerous parks, a water feature and more! Urban living meets true suburban comfort at the new Capital Village community by Beazer Homes.

Capital Village Links:

• Capital Village Blog
• Beazer Homes Website
• Capital Village Video Tour by Lundquist Appraisal

If you are a Capital Village home owner, what is it that drew you to this community? And what do you think now that you are there? What commercial retail shops do you want to see come into your neighborhood?

If anyone has appraisal-related questions pertaining to Capital Village, let me know. I am experienced with appraising properties in the Capital Village market as well as the nearby “Stone Creek” area of Rancho Cordova. I can be reached at 916-595-3735 or www.ranchocordovaappraiser.com  And no, I am not paid to advertise Capital Village. I simply mention things I think I worthy of mentioning.

What’s happening in the Elk Grove market lately? Specifically, what is going on in the following parameters: Elk Grove Blvd. to the North, Franklin Blvd. to the West, Bruceville Rd to the East, & Bilby Road to the South. There are many pockets within these boundaires (Machado Dairy, Backer Ranch, Franklin Meadows, Bilby Meadows…).

In this neighborhood there were a plethora of builders who built out the neighborhood over the past five or so years and so the quality of construction varies from pocket to pocket throughout the local market depending on who the builder was (JTS, Beazer, KB…). The style is generally the same throughout with contemporary detached dwellings with stucco exterior and tile roofing. There are local commercial retail properties on the Northwestern end of the neighborhood as well as one other portion as well as a local church.

Elk Grove Real Estate Data:

• 60 current Active listings
• 187 current Short Sale Active listings
• 141 current Pending listings
• 205 sales over the past 90 days
• 66 sales under $250,000
• Median Price over past 90 days: $275,000

If you have any questions about the data, the market, or have any potential appraisal needs in this neighborhood or others, please contact me at 916-595-3735 or www.lundquistcompany.com

What’s going on in the real estate market for the City of Roseville these days? Check out the graph and data below:

Based upon a search over the past 90 days of single family residential detached units, it looks like Roseville has had about one hundred sales per month in the midst of an oversupply of inventory. At the lower end of the market there were 46 sales in the past 90 days that sold under $200,000. Currently there are 101 listings priced under $200,000. At the higher end of the market there is not much having sold above $800,000 and only 20 houses having sold above $500,000.

City of Roseville Real Estate Data:

• 302 sales over past 90 days
• Median price of $305,000 over past 90 days
• 270 current Active listings
• 282 current Short Sale listings
• 215 current Pending listings
• Data Quick reports a 16.05% difference in price level when comparing January 2008 and January 2009 sales.

Links:

• City of Roseville
• Roseville Stage 2 Water Conservation Level
• City of Roseville Wikipedia Page
• Roseville Guitar Works (okay, not related to valuation, but I know the person who owns this business and he’s one of the good guys).
• Roseville Historical Society
• Roseville Galleria Mall
• Placer County

If you have any questions or appraisal needs in the Roseville area, Placer County, or surrounding areas in Sacramento, please call 916-595-3735 or see www.lundquistcompany.com Thank you.

What is the lowest-priced single family residential property on Sacramento’s MLS right now? 

And the winner is…. $15,500

41 La Fresa Ct # 3 has been listed on the market for seven days at $15,500 and is a McKeon-style condominium in South Sacramento off of Shining Star Blvd (formerly G-Parkway). This 2 bedroom / 1 bathroom unit is 2-stories and has a tandem garage. McKeon-style properties have four attached units. The number 1 unit is located in the front, numbers 2 & 3 are located on the sides (the subject is a # 3), and the number 4 unit is located in the rear above the garage. MLS states that the monthly HOA fee is $180.00

Former “Lowest Price on MLS” winners: $12,500 (1 unit), $35,900 (4 units)

No, I am not affiliated within this property in any way, nor do I know the Agent. If you happen to be interested in the property, I can always connect you to the Agent.