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.

Dear Doctor, how healthy is the real estate market in Sacramento?

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Where would you say the real estate market is “doing pretty good” in the Sacramento area? What does that even mean in a post-bubble-bursting context? Take a look at the image below to get a hint of what the real estate market has been like in places like Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Davis, Fair Oaks, Carmichael, Citrus Heights, Folsom and El Dorado Hills among others.

Citywide stats are only so useful because sub-markets within a particular city might have drastically different figures. For example, Land Park and Pocket / Greenhaven will not show the same trends as the entire City of Sacramento mentioned above. Without making this post exhaustive though, let’s take this one indicator for what it’s worth. Overall any neighborhood under 30% in REOs and Short Sales would really be classified as “doing pretty good” for the current market. Despite 30% still representing 1 in 3 sales being distressed, it’s a fairly low percentage for a city or neighborhood. Even 50% seems to be a fairly common stat for areas that locals often think of as more “move up” kind of places. Many cities and neighborhoods have a foreclosure/short sale rate between 60-70%. It’s amazing to think that is normative, but it is definitely the case – particularly in cities where there was ample new construction during the boom years.

What do you think the information says about the health of the market? How does it impact real estate to have such a high percentage of distressed sales? What opportunities and threats exist in the current real estate market?

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Inspecting spooky houses

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It’s Halloween next week, so let me give you a tour of a spooky house. There are no goblins or spirits or werewolves here, but be assured it definitely ranks on the creepy scale to inspect boarded-up dark houses in certain neighborhoods in Sacramento (alone). Enjoy a brief video tour below (or here) of a pitch-black bank-owned fixer. What do you think?

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

How does Zillow stack up with actual appraisals?

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We can find almost anything online, right? But what about property value? How do Zillow values compare with actual appraised values? Let’s compare some recent appraisals with values from Zillow (“zEstimates”).

  1. North Sacramento home: Appraisal: $60,000;  Zillow: $87,000 (+45.0%)
  2. Del Paso Area home: Appraisal: $110,000;  Zillow: $70,000 (-36.0%)
  3. College Greens home: Appraisal: $270,000;  Zillow: $290,000 (+7.5%)
  4. Serrano home: Appraisal: $550,000;  Zillow $466,000 (-15.0%)
  5. Rancho Cordova home: Appraisal: $125,000; Zillow: $128,000 (+2.4%)
  6. Elk Grove home: Appraisal: $185,000; Zillow: $185,100 (0%)
  7. Elk Grove home: Appraisal: $280,000; Zillow: $255,000 (-8.9%)
  8. Sun City Lincoln Hills: Appraisal: $415,000; Zillow: $403,000 (-3.0%)
  9. Orangevale home: Appraisal: $145,000; Zillow: $165,000 (+14.0%)
  10. Land Park area home: Appraisal: $305,000; Zillow: $270,000 (-11.0%)

In my experience Zillow is very much hit and miss. It can seem more accurate in newer cookie-cutter neighborhoods, but wildly off in other cases when neighborhood boundaries are very tight, data is scarce or condition varies greatly in the local market. Additionally, it seems to me that the listing price in MLS is given strong weight because Zillow can pull that data over to use in its algorithm.

I know you’re expecting me to say all this, but it’s true. Online valuation sites can be a nice tool to tinker around with for real estate and rental values, but nothing replaces the human element. This is really a classic “Terminator principle” example where “humans vs machines” go to battle and humans win (sorry to give away the end of the movie). While algorithms can be very powerful, they cannot see important neighborhood boundaries, quality of construction, high-level craftsmanship, the motivation of buyers and sellers, condition, positive or negative location factors, any sense of charm or appeal, and so many other elements. On top of all of this, the real estate market in the Sacramento area has been a wild ride and it’s not easy to interpret. So many neighborhoods in Sacramento have close to 70% of all sales being either foreclosures or short sales, which complicates sifting through data to establish true market value. Distressed sales tend to sell for less, but not always, so it makes for a very interesting process to properly value a house.

My advice? Enjoy Zillow for what it is and take it with a grain of salt, but trust an experienced and local human appraiser for the final say.

Go check your Zillow value. Does it seem realistic to you? I’m curious.

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

Is that a telephone pole in your driveway?

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What’s wrong with this picture? Yes, that’s a telephone pole blocking access to a driveway. I did not take this photo at a funky angle or play around in photoshop. I’m not sure which came first, the house or the pole, but I have seen more efficient neighborhood planning. I snapped this photo in the Strawberry Manor neighborhood in North Sacramento. What do you think?

NOTE: In my excitement to get this post up, I mislabeled the pole as a “telephone” pole. It’s actually a street light with a sign attached to the light. I don’t want to change the title though because it’s already out there on Facebook and Twitter. That’s how it goes. No big deal. My bad.

If you have any questions, or real estate appraisal or property tax appeal needs in the Greater Sacramento Region, contact Lundquist Appraisal by phone 916-595-3735, email, Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to posts by email.

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