That place where serial killers and real estate meet

What do serial killers and Sacramento real estate have in common? A new series is being developed by HBO about a serial killer in Sacramento who was responsible for seven bodies discovered in a backyard of a duplex on F Street in the 1980s. This has been the talk of town since news broke last week, so I wanted to mention the story and talk about the real estate involved. 

UPCOMING SPEAKING GIGS:

8/6/26 PCAR Auburn
8/25/26 Elk Grove MLS Meeting 8:30am
9/1/26 ROG Talks
10/2/26 PCAR Rocklin
10/21/26 Coldwell Banker Sierra Oaks / EDH

HBO SERIES ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK

A GRISLY STORY WITH ’80s NOSTALGIA

True crime and the ’80s are both really popular, so I think the Dorothea Puente story can be compelling to tell. The short version is this woman ran a boarding house, and then killed the tenants so she could cash their social security checks. Oh, and the tenants were buried in the backyard of a duplex on F Street. She doesn’t look like a serial killer, does she? I guess it’s a reminder evil can come in all sorts of packages. The striking part to me is she had a very colorful history of crime long before the bodies were discovered, so I hope the series digs into her personal life and upbringing to help us understand how she became who she did. 

FRONT PAGE NEWS PROGRESSION

Check out a sampling of the front page of The Sacramento Bee. I spent hours reading through old articles, and it was sobering to see the development where a leg bone was found on November 12th, four bodies two days later, and then seven bodies by November 15th. The Bee did an incredible job covering everything, and it’s a good reminder about the importance of newspapers. I scoured library archives to find these, and thanks to the SacBee for giving permission to post the images. 

November 13, 1988

November 15, 1988

November 18, 1988

December 11, 1993

CROWDS GATHERED & SOCIAL MEDIA

When reading The Sac Bee archives, a piece on November 16, 1988 by Bill Lindelof talks about crowds gathering, a person dubbing the situation as “Nightmare on F Street,” and there was even a man who wanted to fill plastic cups with dirt from Puente’s backyard and sell them for $4.99 each. Yikes, did this happen? Now, imagine what it would be like today with social media if seven bodies were found. 

WOULD THIS PROPERTY SELL FOR LESS?

Shifting gears, let’s talk about real estate and murder. This infamous duplex has actually sold four times over the past few decades. The first time it sold was 2002, and it closed at basically the bottom of the price market at the time. On one hand, it’s easy to conclude it was lower due to the stigma of murder, but it was also a fixer. 

WAS IT STIGMA OR A FIXER? OR BOTH?

The Sacramento Bee noted on November 16, 2001 that the Puente property “is still stuck as a fixer-upper at best. It is scorched from a fire that all but destroyed the house next door, and the furniture has been removed, but otherwise it is unchanged from the days when Puente [lived there].” The piece went on to mention dry rot, holes in plaster, shoddy workmanship, and funky gold carpet from yesteryear. The listing agent was even quoted as saying, “Bring your contractor when you look at this place.” (11/16/2001 Section B1).

IT ALSO SOLD TOWARD THE TOP OF THE MARKET

In contrast, the Puente duplex sold toward the top of the price market twice in 2005 after it was updated, so it’s pretty clear the murders didn’t matter so much to those two buyers at least. Otherwise, it sold again in 2010 as a bank foreclosure, and it was a littler lower at the time, but not at the very bottom of the market either. 

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I’m not saying the gruesome history at this property doesn’t matter to the market. I think we need more research than one graph and brief blog post to make that determination. All I’m saying is there’s a reason to explain why it sold at the bottom in 2002, and we shouldn’t hastily say it was due only to stigma when the condition was rough. In the past, my assumption was it was exclusively stigma, but more investigation through newspaper archives this past week really showed condition was a blatant factor (not saying stigma didn’t matter too). If anyone has connections to that real estate transaction, let’s talk. The listing from back then is not available on MLS, so I can’t check the details. I’d love to hear your perspective and how people at the time responded to the listing. Lastly, we need to concede that stigma can fade. In other words, a negative price reaction to heinous happenings can fade over time in the mind of the public. It’s true that some people would never buy a house like this, but do those people represent the market? That’s the valuation question.   

—————- Stats for those interested —————-

SOME “KILLER” STATS FOR 12 COUNTIES

And now, I have some killer stats to share (sorry). I cover twelve counties of data, and here are the latest numbers. Check my socials daily for more. 

RECAPPING THE MARKET

Prices are hit and miss as some areas are up slightly from last year and others are down. I would take price stats with a grain of salt in smaller counties as they can jump around all over the place from month to month. Supply is still subdued as new listings have been a little slower to come on the market lately while buyer demand has increased a bit. June was a strong month of closed sales volume in mostly all local counties, but some of the strength has to do with how weak last year was, so don’t flex too hard over a bigger June this year. In short, the market right now is a little more competitive than one year ago. Overall, closed sales volume for the year is up 5% in the region, and the largest growth is between $400K to $500K (a piece I did with ABC 10). 

EXPECT PRICES TO BOUNCE AROUND

I expect price metrics will bounce around a bit more ahead, so don’t be too rigid from one month to the next (“We’re so back,” “Just kidding, we’re down,” “We’re up again”). Here’s median sales price change. We also want to look at other metrics such as Zillow’s index for Sacramento and the Freddie Mac price index for Sacramento. They’ve all been showing negative price change to be contracting over the past few quarters. What I mean is we’re no longer down 4%, but it’s been closer to 0% to 1%. 

12 COUNTIES OF DATA (AND THE REGION)

Check out twelve counties. Please note I’m testing some smaller counties with 90 days of data instead of just 30 days since one month hasn’t been enough data to show a credible trend (90 days might not be enough either in some areas depending on what has sold).

I highlighted the size for El Dorado since smaller homes selling this year can affect the stats. Almost nobody shares stats like this, but it matters. We have to understand what we are comparing, right? 

Larger homes sold in Nevada County lately, and that’s pushing some of the stats up. I used 90 days of data for Nevada County this time instead of 30 days, but stats are still all over the place. Smaller county vibes. I’m going nto continue testing this. Let me know what you think of 30 days or 90 days. 

Anyway, I hope that was interesting. Thanks for being here. 

Question: Will you watch the HBO documentary? Do you think there would be any effect on value for a duplex like this in today’s market? What did I miss? Anything else you would add?

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