Appraisal Blog

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Well what is there to be said.  In current articles the market is still going down.  In the news, the market is starting to show some life.  Speak to Real Estate Agents and their barely surviving.  Read the papers and home sales are up.  New home builders are excited....new home builders are just trying to survive!  Permits for new homes are at an all time low...which is up from last month??? 

OK so if anyone can tell me what the heck is going on you get a free cookie.  I say we take a look at how we are doing 1 on 1.  If your business is not doing what it should be doing, then do something about it.  I had a record year last year and this year its off that track just a little.  I'm hopeful I'll hit the same numbers as last year and thats good considering the news.

What am I seeing?  It seems the early part of the year did take a dip.  Sales were soft and median values reflected that.  Currently it looks like things have stabilized again in most markets, but the high end homes are still slowly coming down.

One thing is for sure, we're nearing the bottom in the Sacramento area.  The only thing that can make matters worse would be an increase in the unemployment situation.  We are still seeing high #'s of REO properties hitting the MLS.  So I think we are at a tipping point.  If the State, County and City unload more workers it could continue to drop more.  Again though, it can't drop much more...can it??

While things continue to lag congress has added more laws to make it difficult for consumers to get loans.  According to TBWS Daily it is more difficult for brokers to get adequate compensation on loans.  They are not going to be able to compete with the big banks and consumers are going to suffer in pricing and interest rates.  If we lose the smaller brokers the big banks are going to take over.  This will have fees on the rise, rates on the rise and big banks cornering the market.  Hey, thanks again congress....way to take care of middle America!!

Appraisers are feeling the lag in sales across the Sacramento Area.  I've called several colleagues all with similar comments.  Fewer appraisals are being order by the AMC's meaning slower sales, fewer financed sales and basically still a lack of activity in the market.  Seems like even REO appraisals are slowing.  This is partly due to the banks ordering more BPO's in the hopes of saving a buck.  Unfortunately, they may save a buck on the appraisal, but the BPO's are reducing the listing prices for the homes in the area and adding to the double dip.  Ooops, hopefully the banks will get back on board with appraisals before this continues.

Won't be much longer and this will all be behind us.  We are going into year 6 and these trends typically run 7 years.  I look forward to getting to the top of this mountain.  Hey look at the stories we get to tell our grandkids right....

Here we go some nice weather comin our way.  Time to get out and have some fun. 

With the great weather comes new home sales and refi's for the toys and vacations...oh yeah we don't do that anymore!! 

We'll we can at least feel better knowing summer is coming.  Time to be with family and friends.  Maybe get out and do something enjoyable for yourself to get some of this pressure off. 

My thoughts...we are very close to things getting better in the economy little by little.  Once the jobless claims start to drop a little at a time, then the housing market will start to recover, then the interest rates will start to rise...ooops sorry got carried away!! 

Let's back up and just enjoy our spring time!!

Well this year has not started off too great.  We are seeing declining median values and declining home sale trends so far this year? 

I think I'd like to see the government just take a step back and watch it correct itself through the open market.  This making new rules and developing new laws is just changing the way we do business at the wrong time. 

Well lets hope for a big swing upward this summer.  Who knows maybe we just need some sunlight??

Look for On Time Appraisers on the FHA Roster again soon.  We had several FHA appraisers last year that were removed due to the updated regulations.  Now we're back to having 2 appraisers (new appraisers available) on the roster with a 3rd coming soon (by the end of February)which will cover the entire Sacramento Valley again.  It will be nice to be back to 100% coverage of our 10 counties.  Feel free to order up.

Don't forget we complete REO and Manufactured Homes as well!!!!