Sacramento Appraisal Blog

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The smell of new construction in Sacramento & Placer County

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It’s too early in 2011 to see what this year will hold for new construction, but I’ll admit I feel cautiously optimistic to at least begin to witness some sparks of home building in the Sacramento area. Whether a few new houses in Anatolia, Empire Ranch, Ironworks, The Islands at Riverlake (Pocket Area) or Serenity Cove in West Sacramento, it’s been nice to personally spot new houses being built or planned. After construction nearly dropped off the face of the earth in the Sacramento area over the past few years, it would be warmly welcome to see that trend turn around. 

The graph is based on data from the United States Census Bureau for the number of permits pulled for new construction of single family residential properties.

Unpacking the Comparison of Building Permits:

  • It’s easy to see the very significant decline in building permits for both Sacramento County and Placer County over the past several years.
  • The history of permits in both counties seems to follow the same pattern in terms of an increase from 2000-2005 and then a major decrease from 2005 onward.
  • Sacramento County did have a much larger spike in production during the peak years. This makes sense when considering how many new subdivisions were built in Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova and pockets throughout the county.
  • While Sacramento County had more building permits pulled than Placer County from 1994-2008, Placer County narrowly surpassed Sacramento County in both 2009 and 2010 in total number of permits. 

Where have you seen new construction lately in the Sacramento area? Where would you like to see it? What stands out to you about the graph? Will we see more permits pulled in 2011 than 2010?

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.

Huge decline in 1-bedroom condo sales in Vallejo

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Last week was “Condo Week” on the Sacramento Appraisal Blog. I really enjoyed writing about condos every day and talking through the content with so many people here and on Twitter & Facebook. Though I’ll not be doing a second week of condo posts, here is a glimpse of all one-bedroom condo sales in the City of Vallejo. A graph like this really helps to show just how much the condo market has been impacted in recent years. What do you think?

I know how painful it is to see graphs like these since I purchased my current home in 2004. Apart from the loss of value, there is at least one redemptive take-away for us to consider when looking at graphs as such. If you bought your home in recent years you should be paying far less in property taxes these days in comparison to what you were paying five years ago. My advice for home owners is to pay close attention to your property taxes to ensure the Assessor’s Office has taken into account the drastic decline in property value. Keep in mind that every $10,000 of overassessment equals about $100-125 in property taxes out of your pocket.

I have helped many home owners appeal their property taxes over the past several years and I actually personally disputed my own property taxes three years in a row too. If you have any questions, let me know or visit my property tax appeal website.  

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. 

The L Street Lofts, Kevin Martin & Condo Sales

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It’s Day 3 of “Condo Week” on the Sacramento Appraisal Blog, so let’s take a look at all condominium sales in the City of Sacramento in Downtown and Midtown over the past three years. You can see all condo sales in a previous post if you wish to see the overall context of the condo market. What do you see in the graph below?

Most of the higher condominium sales over the past three years are from the L Street Lofts in Midtown Sacramento. These lofts have quite a selling range depending on floor location, view and size of course. Between the lofts not being listed on the market between June 2008 to the end of 2009, a challenging real estate market in general, and difficulties for buyers to obtain financing in this development, there have been few loft sales as shown above. Per conversation this week with Michael Onstead of Coldwell Banker, there were many buyers lined up to purchase lofts, but financing stood in the way. With that being said, imagine the graph above with more sales at higher levels. That could change the overall look of the trend line, couldn’t it?

Right now the lofts on L Street are typically listed between $300,000 to $600,000 for the most part (that doesn’t include penthouse lofts though). If you’re local, you’ve probably seen or read stories about the L Street Lofts having gone into foreclosure. Hopefully this unique project will be able to resume their sales program soon. 

As an FYI, former Sacramento Kings basketball player Kevin Martin is currently selling his penthouse loft on L Street. He paid $1,340,000 in September 2008 and it is currently listed as pending in MLS at $899,000. This is one beautiful property!!

What is your favorite condominium development in Sacramento? Why?

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. 

10 highlights of the NorCal Real Estate Expo

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I went to the NorCal Real Estate Expo yesterday. It was a fantastic event attended by well over 700 local real estate professionals (mostly Realtors). Here are ten highlights from my day at the Expo: 

1.  The best part of the NorCal Expo was running into so many familiar faces. It was great to mingle with Realtors, loan officers and title reps I know. I probably had 100 little conversations and 20 or more in-depth connections.

2.  It was so nice to meet others in person like Meghan Wood & Jennifer Klein, who I had only previously connected with on both Facebook and Twitter.

3.  Jim Pelley gave an outstanding talk. He really connected well with the audience and catered his stories to the real estate world. I wish he would have spoken twice actually.  

4.  I met Frank & Brian from Think Big Work Small and sat in on their talk. I honestly thought they would discuss video marketing, which I was excited about, but their presentation was still very good as they shared about B2B marketing. I also met Mike Mueller who taught a great class on advanced blogging (though 45 minutes is really short to cover a good amount of material).

5.  I received two appraisal orders during the day.

6.  I had an investor in the Bay Area give me a call while at the Expo after he found me online. He wanted to discuss duplexes in the local market, zip codes to avoid, rent, etc… After talking for 10 minutes or so, I was able to refer him to a trustworthy broker to help him find the right property. Hopefully this will turn into business for both parties.

7.  Alyssa Lozano did a wonderful job with the fashion show. I am by no means an authority on fashion by any mild stretch of the imagination, but it was so fun to see Realtors Heather Pearce and Chris Little among others strut their stuff on the runway. Rob McQuade did a fantastic job as the emcee too. Alyssa and her real estate models worked very hard on this production.

8.  The Twitter hashtag for the conference was #norcalexpo. Following conversations on Twitter during a convention is a really great techie way to connect with others. I found some new people to follow, gained new followers and had fun and helpful interactions too. If you go to a conference, find out what the hashtag is so you can be a part of the conversation. Have you done this before?

9.  I saw two other appraisers at the Expo, which was really great. It’s surprising though to not see many appraisers take advantage of networking with hundreds upon hundreds of local real estate agents.

10.  On a superficial note, I brought home some girly pens from vendor booths for my wife (an author). She always likes when I do things like that when I go to conferences. It’s the small things, right?

If you were at the Expo, I’d love to hear about what you thought of the day.

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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