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.

No longer half-built in the Oak Park Neighborhood

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It’s nice to take pause and see good things happening in the Sacramento real estate market. It’s not all bad news thankfully. Below are three houses on 37th Street in the Oak Park area that began construction several years back, but ended up going into foreclosure during the building process. These houses sat vacant for quite a while until they were purchased in January 2010 by an investor. All units have since been rehabbed throughout and are currently listed for sale. I snapped the half-built photo in October 2009 and the remodeled photo last week. 

This is a win for the neighborhood, don’t you think?  

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. 

Inteview: Mistakes Investors Make in Real Estate

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Part 3 of 3: I sat down recently with Sacramento real estate broker Joel Wright to discuss real estate investment and some of the common mistakes investors make. Joel specializes in working with investors and he knows his stuff. In this video we hit on topics such as lending, paying all cash, buying the wrong property and other topics. Let me know if you have any questions and check out The Wright Report also for a very detailed analysis of the local market. View Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 below.

What other investor mistakes would you add to the list?

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. 

Thou shall know thy neighorhood boundaries

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It’s so important to know exactly where one neighborhood ends and another begins. Misunderstanding neighborhood boundaries can have a dramatic impact on perceived property value. When dealing with a short sale situation, loan modification, property tax reduction, bankruptcy, or really any transaction, it could really backfire if the decision makers for your loan or legal documents do not take into account important market boundaries.

Let’s look at the map below as an example. The area traced in red is a portion of the Central Oak Park neighborhood in Sacramento, while the area traced in blue is known as Tahoe Park West.

Both of these areas are really separate neighborhoods despite being right next to each other (divided by Stockton Blvd). There is actually a huge difference in property value between these two areas as indicated on the trend graph below. The median price level throughout most of the past year in Tahoe Park West hovered around $150,000, while the median price level for Central Oak Park was closer to $60,000.

It’s easy to imagine how online valuation websites (like Zillow or Cyberhomes) or even inexperienced real estate professionals might make sincerely wrong value judgments by looking at all sales within a 1/4 mile radius or some other parameter that does not encapsulate the true neighborhood. That’s why it’s so important to work with professionals who really understand the local market.

How might misunderstanding neighborhood boundaries really do some damage?

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.

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