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. 

I had an appraisal inspection this week in the Glen Clove area of Vallejo, and I snapped the following photos with my mobile phone. These shots overlook the Carquinez Straight and Carquinez Bridge. The first picture was taken at a higher elevation, the second was at water level, and the third was at the end of the Vista Del Mar gated community overlooking the Glen Cove Marina.

If you live in the Glen Cove area, what is it you enjoy about your community? What drew you to purchase a home in the neighborhood?

I inspected a property in the city of Vallejo today and I’m crunching some numbers right now (as I always do) to get a better look at the overall real estate market. During the course of my neighborhood research, for kicks I thought I would plot all sales in the entire city over the past two years to see if there might be any discernable trend or pattern due to the City of Vallejo filing for bankruptcy on May 23, 2008. The blue dots represent sales and the vertical red line represents the date when bankruptcy was filed.

Let’s be honest, this one scatter graph is not meant to display anything revolutionary about the impact of Vallejo’s bankruptcy. Let’s save that for someone hired to delve into intense research to uncover that kind of information. This is purely recreational graphing out of curiosity. But isn’t it still interesting to take a glimpse at sales?

There is certainly a downward trend in the graph above, but that’s not an uncommon phenomenon for Solano County over the past couple of years, is it? The question becomes though, did the City of Vallejo’s bankruptcy impact the market at all, or is the declining trend simply a byproduct of the real estate market bubble burst and economy? 

Have you seen any tangible evidence that the city’s bankruptcy has negatively impacted home values or perception of Vallejo among buyers? If you are considering purchasing a home, is it a turn-off to you that the City of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy? Or is it no big deal for you? Feel free to comment below.

NOTE: All sales above are based upon information found in BAREIS for single family residential properties under $800,000. There were very few sales above $800,000, so it seemed most relevant to disregard a few higher sales because they were outliers.

www.SacramentoAppraisalBlog.com A Trend Graph of Vallejo Since City Bankruptcy