One of the intriguing parts of appraising is visualizing data through making graphs. I know that might sound really dull to some, but I actually get a kick out of it. Here are some recent graphs I’ve made during the appraisal process. I hope they help give a window into a few neighborhoods in the Sacramento area.
This is the Del Paso Heights area of Sacramento for all properties with two houses on one lot. A quick rise, very sharp decline and current lower prices around $100,000 all stand out to me.
It’s astounding to think 67% of all sales in the 95824 zip code have been cash sales over the past two years. What will be the impact to rents in the area over time with so many new rentals? Do you think they’ll increase or decrease?
It’s easy to see many sales in “The Ranch” in Wilton have hovered around $500,000. Some of these are distressed, so they sold lower than they could have, but minus one sale at $700,000, there has been very little activity above $600,000. Property values have obviously seen a huge decline since this JTS neighborhood was built, but that’s how most of Sacramento looks. Current values are easily about 50% of what they were during the peak in most neighborhoods.
Last but not least, here are sales in the Madrone condominium complex in the Empire Ranch area of Folsom.
I hope this was helpful to maybe give you some context into a few different areas of the Sacramento market. Do you have any questions or further insight about these neighborhoods? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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Here’s my two cents. After inspecting thousands of homes, it does become quite easy to quickly assess the amenities in a home – particularly if the appraiser is familiar with the neighborhood or even the particular house model. Some houses can be very quick to measure in light of their rectangular shape, while other homes are very complex and the appraiser might be there for a number of hours measuring the house and collecting details. I’m not sure if this appraiser was thorough or not, but it is bad form to not measure one side of the house when it was completely accessible to the appraiser. Additionally, it’s a bit skimpy to not open the shower door to at least see what is there. After all, it’s telling what you can find sometimes when looking in a shower (or under the kitchen or bathroom sinks). Ultimately, it’s still possible the appraiser caught mostly everything, so there may be nothing to worry about, though it sounds like the appraiser went a bit too fast and missed some things. Hopefully that won’t have a negative impact on the value. Even if the value is accurate though, it’s too bad my non-neurotic friend questioned the appraiser’s end-product because of how fast the appraisal inspection was. There just might be a business lesson here for those who enter homes for a living.
Advice to home owners: Had my friend called me before the inspection I would have given him the following advice. Make a written list of all upgrades you have done since you purchased your home several years ago. Give this list to the appraiser and make yourself available for any questions. Expect that the appraiser may be very quick and may even be less personable than you’d like too. Focus on what you can control, which is welcoming the appraiser into your home, providing written details about your house and giving the appraiser space to do his job. For more advice, read 
