Sacramento Area Property Tax Appeals: Reduce Property Taxes, Lower Property Taxes, Appeal Property Taxes » Resources

Two reasons to be careful of those “lower your property taxes” mailers

Sac Tax — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 06:11:35 +0000

Have you received one of those mailers from a company promising to reduce your property taxes? I’m not saying at all there is some sort of ethical problem with these companies, but home owners in the Sacramento Region would be very wise to not hire companies like this to dispute their property taxes in the early part of the year. I made a brief video PSA to explain why (or watch HERE).

I know a video like this sounds really self-serving at face value, but it’s not, and here is my logic why. In the first quarter of the year when these mailers typically get sent out, the Assessor’s Office has not yet published their yearly assessed values. In my mind, why pay someone to reduce your property taxes before you know if the Assessor is going to automatically reduce them? The Assessor is supposed to adjust assessed values up or down depending on what the real estate market has done in the previous year. Secondly, the formal time period to disupte taxes in most counties surrounding Sacramento is July through November (or September for Placer County) – not the first quarter of the year.

What do you think?

Keep us posted if you have any questions or if you think you might have a need for property tax assistance. We are here to help you. Call 916.595.3735, email us, or fill out the contact form and we’ll look up your property for free.

Declining property value, but increasing land value?

Sac Tax — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:43:29 +0000

This is a graph we put together that places all sales in a particular community in California against the Assessor’s land value for a specific property. This was part of a consulting assignement we completed for a home owner to help him in his appeals hearing with the Assessor to contest the base-year value of his property. The goal of this research was to display the overall trend for property value in a particular neighborhood through the Fall of 2008 (red line), while simultaneously viewing the Assessor’s land value (black squares). This one graph is not the end-all solution to convince the Assessor to lower assessed value for this property, but coupled with some other data and comparable properties, the graph serves its purpose well.

Do property value trends and land trends seem out of sync? Why did the Assessor persist to increase land value over time through 2008 despite an obvious turn downward in property value?

This is an example of some of the consulting work we do. At times we are hired by property owners or other parties to assist them in research that might include graphs or data, but not a value opinion. Honestly, we really like this type of work because it is interesting and very intricate.

Call me at 916.595.3735 if you have any questions or need research or consulting.

Taking a swim in Plumas Lake real estate

Sac Tax — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:05:48 +0000

I’m wrapping up a short sale appraisal in Plumas Lake (for a Realtor) and wanted to share a graph of all sales over the past three years (2008-2011). What do you see?

Plumas Lake Real Estate Stats:

29 sales over the past 90 days
Median sales price over the past 90 days: $187,500
Median list price over the past 90 days: $165,000
Average price per sq ft over the past 90 days: $81.83
16 current active listings
41 current active short sale listings
19 current active short sale contingents (in contract)
14 pendings

For reference, here is a graph I posted in December 2009. I thought it might be helpful to share again to give a greater perspective of the market now that over a year has passed.

I know it’s really discouraging to see such a heavy decline through the years (trust me, I’m a home owner who bought in 2004 - I know), but Plumas Lake is not alone in experiencing a decline in property value. It looks like overall the market saw a dip of $50,000 over the past 36 months, but at the same time, the edge of both graphs above look very similar (despite having a difference in age) - which shows the market has been showing stronger signs toward stability. Lastly, if anything, numbers like this ought to encourage the home owner to make sure the Assessor has rightly adjusted property taxes downward. Keep me posted if you have questions on that.

What do building permits tell us about the economy in Sacramento?

Sac Tax — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:12:35 +0000

We hear so often about how new construction has basically stopped in the Sacramento area. Instead of just listening to a blanket statement though, let’s take a look at the actual trend of building permits in Sacramento County from 1994 through 2010. The information below is based on data from the United States Census Bureau for the number of permits pulled for new construction of single family residential properties in Sacramento County.

What do you see? Does anything surprise you? What happened between 2004 and 2005 to chop the level of permits in half? Do you think more or less permits will be issued in 2011? Do you pay attention to the number of permits pulled as an economic indicator?

Comparing real estate in the 95670 and 95742 zip codes in Rancho Cordova

Sac Tax — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:14:49 +0000

It’s easy to view all sales in a given city on one graph, but what happens when we begin to unpack data a bit and look at specific areas or zip codes? We just might notice differences because there are often a number of real estate segments or sub-markets within a given city. As we all know, not all neighborhoods are competitive to each other, so it’s important to try to look at neighborhood-specific data to really understand the real estate market. Below is a trend graph of all sales in the City of Rancho Cordova over roughly the past five years.

There are actually three zip codes in Rancho Cordova (only two with houses really though). Let’s put the 95670 and 95742 zip codes in Rancho Cordova next to each other below and do a little comparison to see if we might get better data this way as opposed to just looking at the graph above. What do you see when viewing data in the 95670 zip code (not Gold River – only Rancho Cordova) in comparison to the 95742 zip code (Anatolia, Kavala Ranch, Sunridge)?

Rancho Cordova Real Estate Data (95670 Zip Code)
* 107 sales over the past 90 days
* 5.4 months of current housing supply listed on the market
* $146,000 median sales price over the past 90 days
* Average days on market: 64 days
* Number of active listings: 92
* Number of active short sale listings: 59
* Number of active short sale contingent listings: 43
* Number of pendings: 56
* 42% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
* 26% of all sales over the past year were Short Sales
* Roughly 68% of all sales were distressed in some regard (REO or SS)
* Unemployment in Rancho Cordova is 14.4% per EDD (as of 12/2010)
* Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.6% per EDD (as of 12/2010)

Rancho Cordova Real Estate Data (95742 Zip Code)
* 61 sales over the past 90 days
* 7.1 months of current housing supply listed on the market
* $231,000 median sales price over the past 90 days
* Average days on market: 86 days
* Number of active listings: 44
* Number of active short sale listings: 60
* Number of active short sale contingent listings: 41
* Number of pendings: 54
* 32% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
* 29% of all sales over the past year were Short Sales
* Roughly 61% of all sales were distressed in some regard (REO or SS)
* Unemployment in Rancho Cordova is 14.4% per EDD (as of 12/2010)
* Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.6% per EDD (as of 12/2010)

What stands out to you about the differences between 95670 and 95742? When we combine 95742 data into 95670 data to show all of Rancho Cordova, the entire median sales price level for Rancho Cordova increases, doesn’t it? Can you see why I think it’s important to look at these zip codes separately? Ah, we can make data say so many things if we’re not careful to really dissect it.

What’s going on in the Rancho Cordova real estate market?

Sac Tax — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:55:35 +0000

What’s been happening in the Rancho Cordova real estate market? I’d like to give you a glance below at the overall tend over the past few years as well as some current data tidbits too. Keep in mind that a specific property in Rancho Cordova may or may not fit in with the general trend shown below.

As you can see, when looking at all sales from 2006, property values have clearly declined over time. There is a very obvious downtrend, wouldn’t you say? Additionally, there is a wide value spectrum too, which represents a big difference in neighborhoods like White Rock, Lincoln Village, Walnutwood, La Loma, Stone Creek, Sunriver, and Anatolia.

Let’s take a closer look at the 95670 zip code in Rancho Cordova(not Gold River – that’s a different market). Sometimes sales in Gold River and Rancho Cordova are grouped together on graphs because they have the same zip code, but that’s not proper in my opinion. Regarding the 95742 zip code, we can take a look at data in a future post if you’d like (just let me know). Overall it looks like there has been a decline in sales prices over the past year, though not as steep of a decline as in previous years. The trend toward more stability is similar to Citrus Heights.

Now let’s put an age parameter on the data to see if there is any difference between properties built before and after 1990. As you can see when comparing the graph above with the one below, newer areas in the 95670 represent the highest sales in the zip code (this would be basically be the Stone Creek area and Capital Village).

Here is a spectrum of price per square foot for all sales in Rancho Cordova (95670) over the past year. Remember though, don’t just take your square footage and multiply it by the average price per square foot. That’s not always the best idea to determine the value of your house. See my previous post entitled “Is price per square foot an accurate way to measure the value of a house?”

Specific Rancho Cordova Real Estate Market Data (95670 zip code):

165 sales over the past 90 days.
89 current active listings
55 current active short sale listings
42 current short sale contingent listings (this means an offer has been submitted already)
39% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
22% of all sales over the past year were Short Sales
Roughly 61% of all sales were distressed in some regard (REO or SS)
Unemployment in Rancho Cordova is 14.6% per EDD (as of 11/2010)
Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.8% per EDD (as of 11/2010)

A tour of the Citrus Heights real estate market over the past several years

Sac Tax — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 06:00:56 +0000

What’s been happening in the Citrus Heights real estate market? I wanted to give you a glimpse below at some market-wide data to help give some insight. Of course, keep in mind that a specific property in Citrus Heights may or may not fit in with the general trend of the data below.

As you can see, when looking at all sales from 2006, property values have clearly declined over time. When you consider the lower end of the market was hovering around $250,000 in mid-2006, but is now closer to $100,000, the drop in property value is pretty substantial. There is big difference for the upper end too.

But at least the past three years have shown a bit more stability, right? That’s encouraging news for home owners (I know real estate data can feel dysmal at times). Overall the trend below over the past three years appears to show a decline, but the blue dots representing sales sure do look a whole lot more horizontal over the past couple years.

For historical reference, below are two graphs of all sales in Citrus Heights between 1997-2010 based on the 95610 and 95621 zip codes. The blue line represents monthly median price figures for the respective zip code, whereas the red line shows the market-wide median price (Sacramento Area). These historic graphs come from the Sacramento Association of Realtors.

Specific Citrus Heights Real Estate Market Data:

217 sales over the past 90 days.
171 current active listings
108 current active short sale listings
84 current short sale contingent listings (this means an offer has been submitted already)
39.5% of all sales over the past year were REO (bank-owned)
25% of all sales over the past year were Short Sales
Roughly 65% of all sales were distressed in some regard (REO or SS)
Unemployment in Citrus Heights is 9.0% per EDD (as of 11/2010)
Unemployment in Sacramento County is 12.8% per EDD (as of 11/2010)

How we helped a client save $20,000 in property taxes this year

Sac Tax — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 06:03:38 +0000

I got some great news recently that the Assessor’s Office in Sacramento County agreed to lower property taxes by roughly 1.5 million on some acreage that one of my clients owns. The detailed appeal I put together for his 2009 property taxes revealed a total value of $340,000, but the Assessor had this parcel assessed at $1,804,053 (just a little bit of a difference, right?). I’m so glad the Assessor agreed with my research. The tax savings for my client is almost $20,000 for the year.

NOTE: In case you were wondering, there was previously a tear-down structure on the property valued at $53,060 by the Assessor. This structure was removed a couple years ago, so that’s why there is currently no value for it.

How far has the Sacramento real estate market declined since the “bubble” burst?

Sac Tax — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:48:35 +0000

Home owners often wonder how far the real estate market in the Sacramento area has declined since the housing “bubble” burst several years ago. Or in other words, if you bought your house today, how far back would you have to go to find the same price in the past? The graphs below from the Sacramento Association of Realtors help answer this question as they compare median sales price in respective zip codes to the county-wide median sales price from 1997 to 2010.

Have a look at the following graphs, see my commentary below, and let us know what you think. What do you see?

Carmichael Trend Graph (95608 zip code):

Elk Grove Trend Graph (95624 zip code):

Elk Grove Trend Graph (95758 zip code):

Fair Oaks Trend Graph (95628 zip code):

Greenhaven / Pocket Trend Graph (95831 zip code):

Land Park / Curtis Park Trend Graph (95818 zip code):

Mather Trend Graph (95655 zip code):

West Sacramento Trend Graph (95605 zip code):

Basically, if you bought a house today in the post-bubble real estate market in Sacramento, you’d be paying somewhere around late 2001 house prices generally (depending on the area of course). Many areas currently have a median price somewhere just before 2002, while some of the higher-priced zip codes tend to have a median price level right now closer to 2003-ish level. Keep in mind too that each house is different and may or may not be consistent with the overall zip code trend.

If you have any questions or insight, I’d love to hear your comment belows. If you have a need for my property tax consluting services call 916.595.375 or send us an email.

How do the graphs above strike you?

Three years of sales in the Rosemont Area of Sacramento

Sac Tax — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 05:54:48 +0000

I’m doing some market research right now in the Rosemont area of Sacramento. As an FYI, I thought locals might like to see all Rosemont sales graphed out over the past three years. There is a pretty clear trend downward when considering the entire spectrum of time, right?

The first graph contains all Rosemont sales with no parameters, whereas the second graph depicts only sales between 1300-1700 square feet built between 1950-1990. You can see how the second graph trims off some of the top and bottom of the market. If I were to continue to include graphs in this post, you’d see the data getting tighter and tighter as I narrow down the parameters on my data. This tightening phenomenon really helps to illuminuate the beginning part of my appraisal process in researching the big picture in a neighborhood, and then slowly breaking down the data into chunks more similar to the house I am appraising. The more research I do, the more I narrow down a realistic market value for a property.

Let me know if you have questions or any real estate appraisal needs. Call 916.595.3735 or send us an email. We are here to help you.