Last week was “Condo Week” on the Sacramento Appraisal Blog. I really enjoyed writing about condos every day and talking through the content with so many people here and on Twitter & Facebook. Though I’ll not be doing a second week of condo posts, here is a glimpse of all one-bedroom condo sales in the City of Vallejo. A graph like this really helps to show just how much the condo market has been impacted in recent years. What do you think?

I know how painful it is to see graphs like these since I purchased my current home in 2004. Apart from the loss of value, there is at least one redemptive take-away for us to consider when looking at graphs as such. If you bought your home in recent years you should be paying far less in property taxes these days in comparison to what you were paying five years ago. My advice for home owners is to pay close attention to your property taxes to ensure the Assessor’s Office has taken into account the drastic decline in property value. Keep in mind that every $10,000 of overassessment equals about $100-125 in property taxes out of your pocket.

I have helped many home owners appeal their property taxes over the past several years and I actually personally disputed my own property taxes three years in a row too. If you have any questions, let me know or visit my property tax appeal website.  

If you have any real estate appraisal, consulting, or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact me at 916.595.3735, by email, on our appraiser website or via Facebook. 

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.

I’m wrapping up an appraisal in the city of Vacaville in Solano County. I wanted to share some trend graphs with you as well as give a little insight into what I do as a real estate appraiser to hone in on a final value opinion.

One of the first things I do to dissect market conditions is run a general search of all sales in the entire city or area where the subject property is located. In this case, I plotted sales in the city of Vacaville under $1,000,000. There were definitely sales above this level, but I took them out since the graph makes better sense without the upper-end of the market. Can you see a period of increase and then big decline? Do you notice too what’s happened to the upper level of the market? 

The next thing I do in the appraisal process is take a look at a more narrow geographic search. This ends up being whatever boundaries I determine for the subject neighborhood. In this case, the parameters were less than one square mile and consisted of homes of similar age and overall quality. Does this neighborhood graph seem to follow the trend pattern above from the city of Vacaville?

Thirdly, I look at all listings, contingents and pendings within the immediate neighborhood. Though these are not sales, they can be strong indicators of what is happening in the market or where it is heading. For example, it says something about the market if all listings and pendings are higher, the same or lower than the most recent sales in the neighborhood. Lately, the supply of listings has been lower, so many properties are moving quickly and its common to see multiple offers and contract prices higher than asking price due to increased competition.

Next I put a square footage parameter on sales in the defined neighborhood to see what similar-sized properties are doing (as opposed to looking at all sales in the neighborhood, which definitely includes non-similar properties). Granted, the spectrum for GLA below is quite wide, but in this case there were few sales within the neighborhood even in this parameter, so it was important to widen the bracket a bit to get a better glimpse of the market. As you can see from this graph when compared to the one directly above, houses with a larger size tend to sell toward the middle to upper end of the neighborhood market. After doing these initial steps, it starts to become a bit clearer what sort of value range the subject might fit in.

The steps above are only a few initial steps in the appraisal process to help build a general framework for viewing the local market. I could honestly go on and on because there are so many factors to consider when appraising a house, and many conversations to have with local agents also.

Let me know if you have any questions about the valuation process or a need for any specific research or appraisal services. I serve multiple counties in the Greater Sacramento Region and I can be reached at  ryan@LundquistCompany.com or 916-595-3735.

I thought it would be interesting to plot sales in the city of Benicia over the past five years to get a panoramic view of the ups and downs of the market. What do you see? I think the trend somewhat follows the pattern of a rainbow.  

The graph is based on single family detached sales recorded in BAREIS (under 1.6 million dollars). There was only one sale above this level around 2.5 million, so it was most relevant to push that lone ranger to the side.

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