I met up with Realtor Steve Ostrom today to talk about what’s been happening in the Sacramento real estate market. Steve focuses on Roseville and Rocklin, but he also lists properties all over Sacramento. He sits on the Board of Directors at the California Association of Realtors and he really knows his stuff. Steve and I talked about inventory levels, multiple offers, distressed sales, flippers and more. The main question was, “What’s happening in the real estate market?” Watch or listen to our conversation below (or here) to get a glimpse of how the market has felt lately in the Sacramento area.
What do you think? Have you seen something similar? Why do you think inventory has been down?
By the way, this video marks the debut of my beardless look for 2012. I suppose it’s a resolution of sorts, but I decided it was time for my “distinguished” beard color to go away – at least for this year. Since shaving the gray, not one person has said, “Ryan, you really shouldn’t have done that,” so I know it was the right season to let the razor win. I know you don’t come here to hear about my face, but I just wanted to put this out there publicly so there is some internet accountability in case you see a beard creep back into my life this year. 🙂 Anyone make a similar resolution?
If you have any questions or Sacramento area real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs, contact me by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.
1) Timeline: If your loved one passed away recently and you need to file your taxes very soon, it makes good sense to obtain an appraisal in a timely manner so you can communicate well with the IRS. In other words, if your loved one passed away within six months before you file your taxes, it would likely be prudent to order the “Date of Death” (DOD) appraisal within that timeframe. This is the most common scenario I encounter for the bulk of my estate appraisal workload.
1) Assessments are Published in June or July: The Assessor historically doesn’t publish their assessed values until the second quarter of 2012. Every year tax companies send mailers in the early part of the year promising to reduce property taxes, but how can they offer to reduce your property taxes in February or March if they don’t even know your assessed value? Moreover, the Assessor does actually review property taxes and they might catch your overassessed value and correct that before their assessments are posted. Again, why pay someone if the Assessor could potentially get it right anyway? Ultimately a company can easily claim they “helped” you when in fact the Assessor simply got your value right and would have adjusted it regardless of the “help” you received.
