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.

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An overview of the condo market in Sacramento

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Welcome to Day 2 of “Condo Week” on the Sacramento Appraisal Blog. Let’s take a look at a panoramic view of the condominium market in the City of Sacramento. Here is a graph of all sales over the past 36 months.

Two things stand out from the graph to me. 1) The condo market is segmented into different markets. There is a very clear upper end of the market and an obvious lower end; 2) Property values have decreased over the past several years. 

Here is a graph of all current condo listings in the City of Sacramento. It’s amazing to see so many condos priced well under $100,000. The lowest sale last year was $13,000 and 32% of all condo sales were under $50K and 34% of all sales were between $50-100K. This means 2/3 of all condo sales in Sacramento sold under $100,000 over the past year. 

With such low prices there are big opportunities for buyers these days. But not everything is as smooth as possible when purchasing a condo, as shown below by Sacramento real estate broker Gena Riede of Sacramento Real Estate Voice:

I have long worked with parents who purchase condos for their Sac State students, and lately I too have found prices at an all time low with condos. But, the biggest issue lies in getting loans for these condos. Many of them have more than allowable amount of owner–occupied vs  investment as well as not being on the approved lender list. More importantly, due to the amazingly low cost to purchase a condo, few if any lenders or credit unions will even loan money on such low amounts.  This leads to more investors buying unless the buyer can pay cash. In my travels showing these Sacramento condos I have found many in disrepair and yet the HOA dues are in the $200/mo.  With so many condo owners not paying their payments and losing their condos to the bank, many of the HOA’s are suffering with lack of funds for maintenance as well as their reserve accounts.  This is where being cognizant of the maintenance or lack thereof of the  complex is critical in making an informed decision as to purchasing or moving on to find a better maintained complex being key to your decision making. Certainly, parents of future Sac State students will find buying a condo is a much better financial decision than paying dorm fees, especially with these current real estate condo prices! On a good note, if a condo home buyer has cash there are some heck-a-deals out there to be had.

What are you favorite condominium complexes in the Sacramento area? If you had to purchase a unit today, where would you buy?

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. 

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. 

What is the difference between “assessed” value and “appraised” value?

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Maybe you’ve wondered before if there is a difference between “assessed” value and “appraised” value? Here are five key distinctions.

1)  Assessed value is a dollar amount assigned to a property by the Assessor’s Office typically for the purpose of assessing taxes. Appraised value is an evaluation of a property’s value for any point in time by a professional appraiser.

2)  Assessed value is rendered by the Assessor’s office or county, while appraised value is rendered by a professional appraiser.

3)  Assessed value is deciphered through using a mass-appraisal process without inspecting each property, while appraised value most often includes actually inspecting the property to determine the value (not always though as there is such a thing as a desktop appraisal where the appraiser values a property without leaving the desk).

4)  Assessed value in California is based on the date a property was purchased, while appraised value can be based on any date – whether today, yesterday or years ago. As an FYI, assessed value in California is governed by Proposition 13, which basically means that a property will be assessed based on its purchase price from 1975 onward and will have annual increases limited to the inflation rate or 2%, whichever is less (read more here). The Proposition 13 value is commonly referred to as the “base year value” because subsequent years of taxation are based on that value.

5)  Assessed value segments land and improvements in the valuation, whereas appraised value may or may not do this depending on the needs of the client and scope of work. For example, the Assessor might state a property is worth $250,000 and the land in this circumstance is worth $100,000 while the improvements are worth $150,000 (house and anything on the site). 

Do you have any questions? Can you think of any other differences? Comment below. 

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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