Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Market trends and real estate appraisals for divorce, estate settlement, loans, property tax appeal, pre-listing and more. We cover Sacramento, Placer and Yolo County. We're professional, courteous and timely.

Where is Blackstone buying in the Sacramento market?

By 22 Comments

I mentioned last week how hedge funds have been a dominant force in the Sacramento market. THR California LLC (Blackstone) in particular bought nearly 3% of Sacramento County sales on MLS since August 2012. They are buying on MLS and on the court steps, and they’ve purchased 198 properties so far over these past few months.

Where is Blackstone buying? This is good to keep in mind if you or your clients are also competing for properties in these neighborhoods. Also, there will be more rentals in these areas in coming time, which will be an important trend to watch.

Blackstone Purchases in Sacramento County - by Sacramento Appraisal Blog

The map above shows all sales purchased by Blackstone in Sacramento County since August 2012.

The map above shows all sales in the Rosemont area as well as Rancho Cordova (there was only one sale in Anatolia). There is very little activity in the Arden-Arcade area and only three sales in Carmichael and one in Fair Oaks.

Elk Grove - Blackstone - by Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Mostly all purchases in Elk Grove were under $200,000, though some were closer to $250,000 and one slightly over $300,000.

Del Paso Heights - Blackstone - by Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Blackstone appears to be avoiding Del Paso Heights entirely, but they are definitely buying in older Natomas (there are very few sales in newer Natomas).

Oak Park and Tahoe Park - Blackstone Activity - Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Oak Park has also apparently not been a target for Blackstone so far. They are buying in Tahoe Park and throughout South Sacramento and Meadowview though.

Summary of Buying Philosophy (my opinion): Ultimately it seems the target property for Blackstone has been under $200,000 for the most part and in neighborhoods that generally have more stability. Many of the areas they are targeting are places very ripe for first-time buyers. The “move-up” more established areas like East Sacramento, Curtis Park and Land Park are being avoided completely. For further reference, THR California LLC (Blackstone) has 5 purchases in Yolo County, 7 in Placer County, 8 in San Joaquin County and 26 in Solano County (zero in El Dorado County).

UPDATE on 11/20/2012: Here is a Blackstone video shared on YouTube over the past week.

What else do you see? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

If you have any questions or Sacramento home appraisal or property tax appeal needs, let’s connect by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email (or RSS) or “like” my page on Facebook

Why do pools sometimes have no value?

By Leave a Comment

One of the things I love about working in real estate is finding such interesting properties and situations. Take this wildlife habitat pool for example. While it may have initially cost multiple tens of thousands of dollars to install, it was really worth nothing to an investor who recently purchased the property to flip. Actually, let me clarify. Since the pool was a liability due to lower property values and a high cost for repairs, it was far more cost-effective to simply fill it in. This means more than anything the pool was viewed as a negative for value because of the cost to cure the problem. In short, while it may be normative to see appraisers recognize somewhere around $10K of value for a standard pool, there was no such boost in this case (Please note this figure can vary tremendously based on the market and the pool).

Questions: What would you have done with this pool? What other challenges might come up when purchasing a house like this? I’d be curious to hear from anyone in the comments below.

Pool fill-in project - Sacramento Appraisal Blog

If you have any questions or Sacramento home appraisal or property tax appeal needs, let’s connect by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email (or RSS) or “like” my page on Facebook

Why was this bathroom tub cut down?

By 23 Comments

One of the things I love about real estate is how there is always something new to see, and usually a story behind what is seen. Pictures like this make me smile for two reasons: 1) The owner found a cost-effective way to help older knees take a shower; and 2) Points for creativity. Of course when it comes to resale value, I’m not sure buyers would prefer tubs like this throughout a home, so I’d suggest maybe only doing it to one bathroom.

Win a $5 Starbucks Card: Come up with a clever alternate reason why this tub was cut down, and I’ll email a $5 Starbucks card to my favorite comment below.

"custom" tub photo - Sacramento Appraisal Blog - photo by Anne Graviet

Photo credit: Realtor Anne Graviet (thanks Anne for letting me use this image)

If you have any questions or Sacramento home appraisal or property tax appeal needs, let’s connect by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email (or RSS) or “like” my page on Facebook

Hedge funds dominating the market in Sacramento

By 3 Comments

Hedge funds have become a noticeably dominant player in the real estate market lately. While investor funds have always been a factor, it’s been easier to spot in recent months since inventory is so tight. As an example, consider Blackstone, a hedge fund that began aggressively buying properties in the Sacramento market over the past few months. Since August 2012 they’ve purchased 158 sales on MLS as THR California LLC. They may have other DBAs, but I’m only aware of this one. Investors friends tell me their plan is to rent out their portfolio, which makes sense since a great number of their purchases were bought at the top of the market and have already been remodeled.

As you can see below, Blackstone has purchased nearly 3% of all sales recently.

Hedge Fund Cash Blackstone in Sacramento Real Estate Market 2012 - by Sacramento Appraisal Blog

When looking at the entire market in Sacramento County under $200,000, it’s astounding to see how much cash is the market, isn’t it? I shared some cash stats from one week ago, yet cash sales increased by 3% from that time until now.

Cash Sales in Sacramento County Chart by Sacramento Appraisal Blog - 2012

By the way, the Sacramento Business Journal came out with an article today entitled “Some worry that investment funds are distorting housing market“. I have a quote in the article. Unfortunately the article is for their print edition, so only part of it shows up online.

Questions: What are you seeing out there in the market? How do you think so much cash is going to affect the market long-term? I’d love to hear from real estate professionals, investors and prospective home owners.

If you have any questions or Sacramento home appraisal or property tax appeal needs, let’s connect by phone 916-595-3735, email, Twitter, subscribe to posts by email (or RSS) or “like” my page on Facebook

Skip to content