Since we are taxed at a rate of up to 1.25% on the total assessed value of our properties, this basically means that for every $10,000 of assessed value you are paying roughly $100. Thus if you purchase a house for $300,000 and the value is $300,000, you will pay roughly $3,000 in property tax per year.

Imagine the following:

Assessed Value $25,000 too high = you overpay by $250 per year
Assessed Value $50,000 too high = you overpay by $500 per year 
Assessed Value $100,000 too high = you overpay by $1,000 per year
Assessed Value $150,000 too high = you overpay by $1,500 per year
Assessed Value $200,000 too high = you overpay by $2,000 per year

As I stated in a previous post, my primary residence is currently assesed $35,000 too high and so I am scheduled to pay an additional $350 per year beyond what I should rightfully pay the Assessor. That doesn’t sit well with me. But there are home owners facing much more drastic situations where if they appeal their property taxes, they have a potential to save as much as $500-$1,000+.

Many times local home owners opt out of doing anything to contest their property taxes because they just don’t know what to do. That’s where we come in. We are glad to walk Greater Sacramento home owners through the process of appealing property taxes. We can help you understand what you can do and also what we can do for you. Whether you live in one of the following counties or own property in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Yuba, Sutter, Solano, or Merced County, give us a call today at 916-595-3735 or email us at LundquistCompany@gmail.com We invite you also to take a look at our property tax appeal website at www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com

The Sacramento County Assessor’s Office has their 2009-10 assessed values up on their website as of today. You can go HERE and search for your house based upon the beginning letter of your street name. If you get stuck in the process, go ahead and give me a call at 916-595-3735.

This is a very important figure by the Assessor’s Office. This can very well determine whether you will be comfortable with their level of assessment or move forward with a property tax appeal. My property, for instance, is still assessed $35,000 too high and that basically works out to me paying $350 too much in property taxes this year. Some residents may be much worse off though unfortunately.

Please see our property tax appeal website at www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com or you are welcome to call 916-595-3735 or send us an email too at LundquistCompany@gmail.com

We have put together a property tax appeal FAQ for local home owners within the Sacramento Region. We hope to answer some of your questions and that you will walk away from this document with a better understanding of the tax appeal process and what you need to know as a home owner. If you would like a copy of “Tax Appeal FAQ for  Home Owners” , give us a call at 916-595-3735 or send us an email at the email address below. If you email us, try to remember to type “Sacramento Property Tax Appeal” in the subject line of your email since we don’t want to delete you as SPAM. We can also fax this document to you.  

PH: 916-595-3735  EMAIL: info@SacramentoTaxAppeals.com

At some point around June 2009 the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office should be mailing a letter to certain households stating that the Assessor has lowered the assessed value on particular homes (if they determined that value declined). Don’t worry, if you are located in Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, San Joaquin, Solano or any other local county, you may also be getting a letter.

Here is the scenario: You purchased your home in the Sacramento Region for $550,000 in 2005 and so you were paying about $6,000 in property tax based upon 1.25% (the maximum percentage in CA). The assessed value of your home was based upon the purchase price which was assumed to be fair market value at the time of sale. Your home has since declined in value over time and the Assessor says your home is now worth $450,000. Thankfully your current taxes get bumped down then to around $5,500 based on the adjusted assessment at $450,000.

This is wonderful news, right? You are happy to save five hundred dollars and the Assessor looks really good too in light of gaining a ton of positive publicity in the media because he has “lowered property taxes”. This should be great cause for celebration, but the only problem is that your home is actually worth somewhere between $375,000 and $400,000 rather than $450,000. In effect, this means that you are paying for $50,000-$75,000 of value that you don’t actually have. In essence, this comes out to paying $500 to $750 out of your pocket each year that you should not have to pay.

This is only a mild scenario. There are home owners in niches of surrounding counties that are paying way more than $500 too much each year because the assessment is off by $100,000-$400,000.

Think about your property tax assessment this way:

• Assessed Value $25,000 too high = you overpay by $250 per year
• Assessed Value $50,000 too high = you overpay by $500 per year 
• Assessed Value $100,000 too high = you overpay by $1,000 per year
• Assessed Value $150,000 too high = you overpay by $1,500 per year
• Assessed Value $200,000 too high = you overpay by $2,000 per year

What are your options?

1) Do nothing. Surprisingly, this is often an option that many people choose because appealing property taxes is unfamiliar turf that people sometimes just don’t know how to handle. Or life is busy and this whole process seems like a pain to deal with. But are you comfortable paying even $50 extra per month to the County? What else could you be doing with that extra $500 each year?

2) Pay a minimal fee to me to handle the entire situation for you. I can do all the research, stand before the appeals board on your behalf, make charts and graphs, assess neighborhood trends, and put together convincing evidence for a lowered opinion of value – a true reflection of the real estate market. You have a potential to save a great deal of money each year.

Taxes are a part of life and there is no escaping them, but we don’t want to pay a penny more than we have to. Make sure that you are keeping your hard-earned money in your pockets by paying your fair share of property tax and no more. Please contact me at 916-595-3735 for any details.

What’s been going on in the “Meadowview” real estate market in Sacramento? Meadowview is an area located in South Sacramento which is bordered by Florin Road to the North, Open Land to the South, Freeport Blvd. to the West, and the Light Rail line to the East. The data and trends below take into consideration the Southwestern portion of the Meadowview area as pictured in the map.

The above area is comprised of mostly single-family detached residences (some duplexes) buit between the late 1950s through the 1970s. There are a handful of properties built in the early 1980s too as well as a newer development within the Southwestern portion of this territory (houses built between 2001-2005).

Let’s take a look at the newer portion of Southern Meadowview:

Meadowview Houses Built after 2000 – Real Estate Market Trends:

• These houses were built between 2001-2005
• 168 sales in past 12 months
• 45 sales in past 90 days
• Median Price in past 90 days: $160,000
• Low Price in past 90 days: $111,000
• High Price in past 90 days: $260,000
• Average of 75 days on market for sales in past 90 days
• 1948 average square feet of living area
• 6 Active listings
• 21 Active Short Sale listings
• 39 Pending listings (median price of $174,900)

Let’s take a look at the older portion of Southern Meadowview:

Meadowview Houses Built before 1999 – Real Estate Market Trends:

• These houses were built mostly between the late 50s to late 70s
• 151 sales in past 12 months
• 54 sales in past 90 days
• Median Price over past 90 days: $62,000
• Low Price in past 90 days: $28,000
• High Price in past 90 days: $130,000
• Average of 105 days on market for sales in past 90 days
• 1192 average square feet of living area
• 9 Active listings
• 15 Active Short Sale listings
• 23 Pending listings (median price of $69,950)

It’s interesting to take a look at the data above and to see such a difference between two portions of the Southern Meadowview market even though they are located within the same general area. But this is true in so many settings and we regularly see a dynamic in real estate where buyers are willing to pay more or less for certain areas depending on location, quality of construction, condition of homes, year built, pride of ownership, the public perception of the area, etc… When comparing the older and newer portions of the Southern Meadowview area in Sacramento, there is a clear difference in median price level, size, and maybe even overall appeal. What else do you notice about the data or graphs presented above?

If you have any questions regarding the Meadowview area of Sacramento or any potential appraisal needs, feel free to see my company website at www.lundquistcompany.com, call me at 916-595-3735 or email at ryan [at] lundquistcompany.com  I am available to assist local home owners, attorneys, buyers, banks, mortgage professionals and more.

The “Arden Manor” neighborhood is located off of Watt Avenue just South of Arden Way and West of the “Arden Park” area. The map below depicts the boundaries of what is referred to as ”Arden Manor”. The subdivisions due West, East & South tend to have larger houses and lot sizes and are deemed less comparable to Arden Manor.

The Arden Manor subdivision consists of single-story houses for the most part which range from 2-3 bedrooms typically. Houses usually have a 1-car garage and tend to be between 930-1200 square feet in size (930 and 1081 are two of the most common sizes). There are a number of households with either converted garages or additions. I have appraised quite a few houses in this neighborhood over the years.

Below are two trend graphs to depict sales over the past 36 months as well as current listings in Arden Manor as of today. 

If you have any questions regarding “Arden Manor” real estate market trends or have any appraisal-related needs in the Sacramento Region, please give me a call at 916-595-3735 or shoot me an email at ryan [at] lundquistcompany [dot] com. Our company website is located at www.lundquistcompany.com.

What’s been happening in the real estate market in the city of Rancho Cordova in 2009 so far? Below is a graph and some stats for you: 

Rancho Cordova Real Estate Market Trends in 2009:

• 179 total sales in MLS in 2009
• 77 current Active listings
• 129 current Short Sale listings
• 104 current Pending listings
• 99 of 179 sales were in the 95670 zip code
• 80 of 179 sales were in the 95742 zip code (Anatolia)
• Overall 2009 Median Sales Price for 95670:  $165,000
• Overall 2009 Median Sales Price for 95742:  $290,000
• Low Sales Price in 95670 in 2009:  $75,000
• High Sales Price in 95670 in 2009:  $420,000
• Low Sales Price in 95742 in 2009:  $220,000
• High Sales Price in 95742 in 2009:  $510,000

Property Taxes in Rancho Cordova (and Surrounding Counties):

While on the subject of Rancho Cordova, I wanted to say a few words on property taxes. When looking at my blog stats and what keywords people are typing in to get here, it is clear that property taxes are on the minds of fellow Cordovans as well as many locals in surrounding counties. There are quite a few people finding this blog by searching for things like “How to Lower Property Taxes in Rancho Cordova”, “City Taxes in Rancho Cordova”, “Stockton Property Taxes”, or “Placer County Property Taxes” (etc…) 

I hope the following information proves to be helpful:

1.Our local cities (including Rancho Cordova) do not collect property taxes. Property taxes are handled through the local Assessor’s Office (for Rancho Cordova, that would be the Sacramento County Assessor’s Office).

2. The Sacramento County Assessor’s Office has not yet released their assessed values for 2009. Their assessed values will be based upon January 1, 2009. You should receive a letter in the mail if they determined that your property taxes have decreased based upon a decline in value last year.

3. When the Assessor’s Office releases their assessment of your property in hopefully May 2009, you can follow a specific set of steps to contest the level of your property taxes if you disagree with their opinion (this process is the same for anyone in Sacramento County or for that matter, anyone in surrounding counties. The exact dates for appealing taxes may differ, so you can check with your local Assessor with specific dates).

4. Read an article I wrote called “The Skinny on Lowering Property Taxes” that gives you the gist of what you need to do to contest your property taxes. I would be glad to help you with this process also. Please see www.SacramentoTaxAppeals.com for further information.

Local Assessor’s Offices in Surrounding Counties:

Let me know if you have any questions. I am glad to talk you through the process of appealing your property taxes in Rancho Cordova (or elsewhere) and help you understand what you need to do. Even if you are in a surrounding county that I also serve (Placer, Yolo, El Dorado, San Joaquin….), feel free to give me a call at 916-595-3735. Just last week I spoke with two property owners who found me through this blog and I was able to shed light on what they need to do for 2009 property taxes and also what they could have done in 2008.

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

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

Rancho Cordova and Gold River may share a zip code, but they are definitely distinct. The truth is that any city or area has certain neighborhoods or places where properties tend to sell for more for certain reasons – even if they do share a common zip code. This is true in portions of the 95670 zip code, which contains Gold River and portions of the city of Rancho Cordova. 

The graph below analyzes the entire 95670 zip code and contains Gold River area sales in blue and Rancho Cordova sales in red (not 95742 zip code – “Anatolia” neighborhood of Rancho Cordova).  

“Gold River HOA” excluding “Gold River Station” – 95670:
- 74 sales in past 12 months
- 12% of sales were bank owned
- 2.5% were short sales
- Low Sale: $235,000
- High Sale: $650,000
- Overall Median Price for Past 12 Months: $414,000

Rancho Cordova – 95670:
- 458 sales in past 12 months
- 64% of sales were bank-owned
- 12% of sales were short sales
- Low Sale: $71,150
- High Sale: $580,000
- Overall Median Price for Past 12 Months: $190,000

“Gold River Station” in Gold River – 95670:
- 17 sales in past 12 months
- 41% of sales were bank owned
- 1 short sale
- Low Sale: $263,000
- High Sale: $340,000
- Overall Median Price for Past 12 Months: $315,000

The data above is from mid-February 2009 and is based upon Sacramento Area MLS through a search of SFR properties. It is interesting to see a much higher foreclosure rate in the city of Rancho Cordova in the 95670 zip code in comparison to the Gold River community.

Lundquist Appraisal Company is based out of Rancho Cordova and knows the local area very well. We do also appraise properties within ten counties surrounding the Sacramento area. See www.lundquistcompany.com or www.ranchocordovaappraiser.com for more information.

NOTE: The lower Western portion of the Gold River area is comprised of an area called “Gold River Station”. Since Gold River Station is not a part of the Gold River HOA, it was prudent to look at data separately from Gold River.

What is going on in the Folsom, CA real estate market within the Sacramento region? Below is a trend graph as well as data. NOTE: looking at data from an entire city at once may not be indicative of every niche within a city because certain neighborhoods or areas within a city do better or worse than others, don’t they? Still, city-wide data is important and indicative of what is happening in the big picture. 

When looking at the trend graph above, there sure are quite a bit of red dots(current listings) as of late, huh? Moreover, it appears there are listings which came on the market many months ago, yet they are still on the market. It is evident that there is a much greater percentage of properties listed or sold under $400,000 now in comparison to one year ago. The trend line and data indicate a decline in value. What else do you see?

Real Estate Data for the City of Folsom:

• 708 sales over past 12 months
• 177 current Active listings
• 85 current Short Sale listings
• 82 current Pending listings
• 125 sales over past 90 days
• Median Price over past 90 days: $380,000
• Average Price per square foot over past 90 days: $190.19
• Median Price over past 12 months: $420,000

The data above is based upon an MLS search through Sacramento Metrolist of all single family detached properties within the City of Folsom.

What’s been happening in the Rosemont area of Sacramento in terms of real estate activity? The trend graph below is based upon the past 90 days of sales and listings from information provided in Sacramento MLS (the only listings included in the graph are those which were actually listed in the past 90 days – some listings have been on the market for well over 90 days and were not used in the graph).

From the trend graph it appears that there are many recent sales and current listings being priced between $175-200K. It appears too that there are a good amount of listings priced below the level of the most recent sales, which is a classic feature of a declining market.

Data for Rosemont Area of Sacramento as of 02/27/09:

• 7 current Actives
• 20 current Short Sale Actives
• 20 current Pendings
• 27 sales over the past 90 days
• Median Price of $190,000 over past 90 days
• Average price per square foot over past 90 days: $126.33

The graph and data is based upon the following boundaries:

Please contact Lundquist Appraisal Company if you have further questions about the Rosemont area of Sacramento or other areas we cover within the Greater Sacramento Region. Thank you.