New unemployment stats are out for Sacramento County. The unemployment rate dropped from 11.4% to 10.5% from March to April 2012. This is a big drop for one month, so we’ll have to see what coming months yield to see if this is just a blip or not. Whatever the case, it’s nice to see the overall downward trend in unemployment over the past year. It’ll only mean good news for the housing market to keep seeing this number decline. Source: EDD.

Here is a graph of unemployment in Sacramento County since 1990 to give a panoramic view of the job market. It’s amazing to consider the history of where we’ve been (and maybe a bit depressing too).

Do you want to share these graphs? If you’d like to use these graphs on your blog or website to be a resource to your readers and clients, please do so. If you need a larger size for a presentation or newsletter (or your blog), let me know. Please see my sharing policy for details. As always, thank you for linking back to me and keeping my images intact. It’s a huge honor when others share my content.

What do you see above? Anything stand out to you?

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email or “like” my page on Facebook

I don’t read calculus books for kicks, but I do like numbers. It’s really interesting to watch the trends in our real estate market in Sacramento to consider where we’ve been, what is happening now and where we might go. Take a minute to check out these graphs below and let me know what you think. What do you see?

Not many houses for sale: We’ve seen a huge drop in housing supply in the Sacramento area. Check out the graph above of Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and El Dorado Counties. Source: Trendgraphix, Inc.

Sacramento vs. Placer County: It’s interesting to see Placer County and Sacramento County median sales prices juxtaposed. I’m particularly interested to see how the trend evolves in the next six months. There is a slight uptick evidenced as of late and the Sacramento Association of Realtors blog reported an increase in median sales price level in April also. Only time will tell to see how that further unfolds. This graph comes from Joel Wright of Wright Real Estate (used with permission).

The Unemployment Saga: How is unemployment doing in the Sacramento area? Here is a historical glimpse of unemployment in Sacramento County from January 1990 through March 2012. I keep a running graph each month like this. If you need a larger size for a presentation or your blog, let me know (just keep my blog URL in the graph and see my sharing policy). Data source: EDD.

Current Unemployment Trends: As of March 2012 the unemployment rate per EDD in Sacramento County is 11.4%, which is similar to the rate during June 2009. It’s been so nice to see a decline from the high of 13.2% in July 2010, but there has been a slight uptick lately as you can see above. Unemployment rates tend to fluctuate, so it’s understandable to see the rate experience a little increase during recent months, but we just need it to decline to see housing improve. Bottom line.

California vs. Sacramento: How does the Sacramento area stack up against price trends in the rest of California? This graph shows the median price in California compared to the Sacramento area. The graph comes from Joel Wright of Wright Real Estate (used with permission).

Distressed vs. Traditional Sales: The Calculated Risk blog has some pretty amazing content. Be careful when you visit though because you might get stuck there for a while. The graph above is used with permission and is taken from a post that deals with distressed vs. traditional sales in Sacramento. The blog post states, “In April 2012, 60.7% of all resales (single family homes and condos) were distressed sales. This was up from 59.6% last month, and down from 66.8% in April 2011. This is lower than the last few years, but 60% distressed is still extremely high!” This is right in line with what I’ve been saying all along too as I’m cautious about focusing on smaller bits of good news in light of the overall context of the local economy and housing market. Granted, there are some positive signs with low inventory, small price increases and distressed sales going down, but we have a long way to go. Read more with two recent posts ”Juggling short sales and foreclosures in Sacramento” and “Weighing the distressed market in Sacramento.” Click HERE for a larger image of graph above.

What stands out to you? I’d love to hear your comments below.

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email or “like” my page on Facebook

Anytime I hear hyper-positive news about the national housing market, I wonder if it’s spin I always sift the details through the local economy in Sacramento and the need to see the unemployment rate continue to drop to see improvement in our market. It’s been somewhat encouraging to see the unemployment rate decline from the high of 13.2% in July 2010 to 11.2% in February 2012, but I’ll feel even better once we see unemployment down a few more percentage points. I’ve been posting unemployment trends and graphs for quite some time, but the graph below stands out in my mind since I added an additional eight years (1990-1998) from my previous graphs. It’s amazing to consider what a wild ride it’s been over the course of two decades. The economy and unemployment have been up and down to say the least (sort of like a roller coaster), and hopefully we’ll have a downhill ride in coming years to get that rate down a bit.

Feel free to use this image on your blog, website or in a presentation. I do have a larger size available too, so email me if that’s relevant for you. Please just keep the image intact and feel free to link back.

What stands out to you about the graph? What time period do you remember most?

Property Tax Class This Week: By the way, on an unrelated note, on Thursday I am teaching a class at the Sacramento Association of Realtors YPC forum called “How to Appeal Your Property Taxes.” The class is open to SAR members and affiliates, but even if you are not a part of the association, you can come as my guest. Just let me know beforehand if you’re interested (send me an email, call or comment below). I’ll be talking about the nuts and bolts of property tax appeals, FAQs and advice for consumers from my experience consulting with home owners.

YPC Forum: “How to Appeal Your Property Taxes” – April 19, 2012 9am Sacramento Association of Realtors 2003 Howe Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95825

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Here’s an updated graph of the unemployment rate in Sacramento County through February 2012. The current unemployment rate released from EDD is 11.2%. This is definitely high, but thankfully lower than the peak of 13.2% in July 2010. The past few months have been flirting with 11.0%, so let’s hope we break into 10.0% at some point this year (that would be nice). By the way, feel free to use this image on your blog or website. Please just keep the image intact and feel free to link back.

It’s amazing to see a history of unemployment over the past decade, isn’t it?

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Here is a glimpse of the unemployment rate in Sacramento County over the past 10+ years from 1999-2012. We’ve seen the rate drop from the peak of 13.2% in July 2010, and lately the county is flirting with unemployment around 11.0%. The most recent rate statistics for January 2012 from EDD shows an unemployment rate at 11.1% in Sacramento County.

What stands out to you about the graph?

If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Do you know someone looking for a job or maybe a person who has had a huge change in income over the past few years? Chances are you do, especially if you live in the Sacramento Region. The economy has been limping along in Sacramento and this graph (resembling a wave) gives some insight into part of the struggle – unemployment. It’s incredible to see the exponential increase in unemployment rates over the past five years.

How does the graph below strike you?

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Imagine you were hired to investigate a community and report on what the community is like based on information you can find online. Put your Magnum P.I. thinking cap on. What websites would you bookmark for research? What resources are available to give insight into the DNA of a neighborhood?

Maybe you’d interrogate the usual suspects like Megan’s Law, City-Data, Great Schools or Zillow among others I mentioned in a previous post. But what about the following ones? Would these be helpful to understand a community?

1) Unemployment Rates: EDD posts current and historical unemployment rates for cities and census designated places in California.

2) FBI Uniform Crime Report: This website lists all offenses reported to law enforcement (categorized by state and cities with 100,000 or more in population).

3) Nuclear Power Plants in United States: In case you wondered if there was a nuclear power plant near your house, check out the “Nukes Near Me” website.

4) Superfund Directory: Find out which sites near you are categorized as “Superfund” sites by the EPA. Search by state, congressional district or site name.

5) DEA National ”Drug Lab” Register: This website by the U.S. Department of Justice contains addresses of some locations where law enforcement agencies reported they found chemicals or other items that indicated the presence of either clandestine drug laboratories or dumpsites (verbatim from website).

I definitely don’t have a P.I. designation, thick 80s mustache or red Ferrari, but my job as a real estate appraiser in Sacramento does have striking similarity with Tom Selleck. Okay, maybe that’s wishful thinking. I suppose it’s hardly similar, but the nature of real estate research does involve investigation and require information from some of the sources above, interviews with local agents and expertise to sift through and interpret often conflicting market data. There is so much that goes into really knowing the local real estate market.

What websites would you add to the list?

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook or subscribe to posts by email.

How is unemployment doing in the Greater Sacramento Region? Have a look below at Sacramento County and ten surrounding counties. Data from EDD - December 2010.

What stands out to you about these rates? 

12.7%    El Dorado County
20.1%    Merced County
11.2%    Nevada County
11.2%    Placer County
12.6%    Sacramento County
18.0%    San Joaquin County
12.1%    Solano County
17.6%    Stanislaus County
21.5%    Sutter County
14.3%    Yolo County
19.4%    Yuba County

If you have any real estate appraisal, valuation consulting, or property tax appeal needs, contact me at 916.595.3735, www.LundquistCompany.com or via Facebook.

My Realtor friend Jenifer Miller invited me yesterday to give a 90-minute talk to a group of new real estate agents at Lyon Real Estate in Elk Grove. It was fun and I hope overall helpful too as we discussed how to more effectively communicate with appraisers in an HVCC world as well as a few tidbits on FHA minimum requirements.

Anyway, one of the members of the class brought up a great question. He asked how properties could not be worth at least their replacement cost. The truth is that we see so many properties in the Sacramento area selling far below what they would actually cost to build from scratch (cost of land + all improvements). 

That’s the nature of the market these days. But why is that? There are many factors to consider. Do you remember the real estate bubble? It couldn’t have lasted forever. Property values really climbed too quickly to enormously high levels, didn’t they? When the bubble burst, it changed the real estate market. There ended up being a huge oversupply of distressed properties listed on the open market, and these REOs set the pace for the rest of the market. Keep in mind too everything that was going on in Wall Street, the bailouts, and the economy beginning to sincerely struggle. All of these factors (and more) influenced property values.

Moreover, check out unemployment figures to the right for both Sacramento County & Placer County. These April 2010 stats from the Employment Development Department show an unemployment rate of 12.5% in Sacramento County and 11.5% in Placer County. Let’s contrast this with data from April 2006 that shows the unemployment rate was 4.8% in Sacramento County and 4.3% in Placer County. Things changed, didn’t they? In light of unemployment rates being significantly higher nowadays, do you think buyers could really afford to purchase houses right now at 2006 levels?  

What do you think? I’d love to hear your insight.

EDD finally posted January 2010 unemployment rates. They typically get new data on their website about 20 days into the next month (for the previous month), but this time around they took quite a bit longer. Maybe they didn’t want to release discouraging numbers (just kidding). Actually, they have a new schedule posted HERE in case you’re interested.

The graph to the right was taken from the EDD website. It looks like California is not doing too well compared with the rest of the United States. When looking at the graph or the data below, what stands out to you? Does anything surprise you? In Sacramento County, Gold River has the lowest unemployment rate at 2.6% and Walnut Grove takes home the top rate at 30.5%. These two have actually been bookends on the unemployment rate spectrum for quite some time. Overall Sacramento County has an unemployment rate of 13.10% as of January 2010.

What strikes you about the information above? How do you think unemployment influences the real estate market?

What are the latest unemployment figures for San Joaquin County and El Dorado County? Below you will find the latest rates for all cities and CDPs from October 2009 based on information provided by EDD. Unemployment rates for Sacramento County & Placer County, and Yolo County, Solano County & Merced County are also available. These are all areas I appraise in, so I keep a close eye on unemployment each month.

It’s interesting to hear so much on the news about how the economy is improving, yet one glance at unemployment seems to indicate that things are not so hot. Or is that just me?

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Unemployment Rates in El Dorado County & San Joaquin County

What are the latest unemployment figures for Yolo County, Solano County and Merced County? Below you will find the latest rates for all cities and CDPs from October 2009 based on information provided by EDD. Unemployment rates for Sacramento County & Placer County, and San Joaquin & El Dorado County are also available. These are all areas I appraise in, so I keep a close eye on unemployment each month.

What do you see? Does anything stand out to you or surprise you? There are some fairly high levels of unemployment in each county, aren’t there, particularly Merced County?

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com Unemployment Rates in Yolo County, Solano County & Merced County: October 2009