About Sacramento's Carmichael

Carmichael CA Real Estate Market Recovery

In order to truly evaluate the real estate market recovery in any area, I believe that a “snapshot” of the market at a particular time doesn’t really tell the story. I like to present graphs showing the last 12-15 months of transactions to demonstrate how the real estate market is trending in a certain area, like Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento.

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This first graph illustrates the number of listed homes (light green), the number of closed sales (dark green) and the homes placed into escrow or pended (red line) each month from October 2010 through December 2011.

It includes all single family residences (SFRs) in Carmichael, and the picture is clear that the market is recovering. Inventory is much reduced, while sales and new pendings are up. And in case you are wondering if this is simply seasonal, compare December 2010 with December 2011, and you will see why I believe in the Carmichael CA real estate recovery.

Here is a simple graph that shows months of inventory – a little different way of looking at the market trends. In other words, at the rate that homes are selling at a given time, it is anticipated that it would take that many months to sell them all.

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Carmichael is pretty much an eclectic market, with homes for less than $100,000 and homes in the millions of dollars, and everything in between. The most popular price range in all areas of Sacramento County is around $200,000-399,999, and here is a chart limited to the SFRs in that price range.

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We went from 244 homes sitting on the market in all price ranges to just 151, while the number of closed sales went from 37 to 59 and the number of new escrows went from 47 to 58.

In other words, homes that are placed on the market are selling much more quickly than they did in 2010, and it appears to continue to improve.

When it comes to condos, however, the story is very unclear. Here is a graph showing all of the condos listed and sold in Carmichael CA during the same period. While it follows the same general pattern as the full market, there are some differences.

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And here is a chart with the months of condo inventory – you can see that it looks pretty erratic, so more information is needed to understand what is occurring in each condo complex. Call me for more detailed information on any complex.

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Obviously, when trying to evaluate the condo market in Carmichael California, each community must be considered separately. Some condo communities are overloaded with renters, making financing difficult for new purchasers, or there are restrictions on renting, or they have a large number of residents who have experienced difficulties and are in default in their association dues. These things make selling difficult, since in some complexes now, the units must be sold for all cash to a buyer who will be living there.

Other complexes might be so new that units are just coming on the market, or might have a number of foreclosed units. Therefore, if you are interested in a certain complex, contact me or another realtor who knows the Carmichael area to get the specific information to permit you to adequately evaluate it.

I can tell you from my own experience that we are seeing more and more multiple offers on homes and condos in nice condition.

If you are a seller, follow your Realtor’s advice on preparing your home for sale, and you should be able to get it sold quickly and for the appropriate market price. Remember that your buyer will be getting an appraisal that will determine the loan he can obtain, so if you overprice your home, it will not appraise and you might not be able to close an escrow that opens, so that is a waste of your time. Ask your Realtor to provide you with comparable sales information and market trends, so that you can properly price your home.

If you are a buyer, consult a Realtor familiar with the area in which you are interested, and ask her to guide you through the process of getting preapproved for a loan amount, searching for homes in the price range that your loan will cover, and making the right offer, with price and terms that will be comfortable for you. There are many programs available for low down payments, down payment assistance, energy upgrades, and you might even qualify for a grant (free money you do not have to repay). Your Realtor and lender can find all the programs that will be right for you, and some of them can be combined to get you great deals.

Real estate recovery in Carmichael California is happening every day!

This is a great time to buy, but it is also a great time to sell! Call a local Realtor and ask for a free consultation to review your options.

If you are in the Sacramento County area, give me a call and I will be glad to meet with you.

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Susan Neal "Happy clients make me happy."
Broker / Realtor
Century 21 Noel David Realty
Fair Oaks, California

Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 30+ years experience.

I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction.

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916)705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

HUD homes resource Search HUD Homes

Sally Cheeseman issued a challenge to active Rain members to write a post about a miracle this holiday season. I noticed some folks trying to decide what to write about, but I knew immediately what I consider to be the miracle in my life – one that continues as I write.

In August 2009 my sweet uncle Fred Schroder (Freddie) was hospitalized and given just days to live. He had been battling lung cancer and had 4 ½ liters of fluid drained from one lung. He could hardly breathe around all that fluid. Mercy San Juan Medical Center is a wonderful hospital, and the nurses and staff there are very caring, however Freddie's regular doctors thought the best thing would be to simply make Freddie comfortable and await the end.

Draining all that fluid had given him a bit of relief, but the prognosisby those doctors was very bleak. Everyone in the family spent time with him at the hospital, and felt we might be saying our goodbyes. After all, he was nearly 91 years old, and the doctors had said to simply put him in hospice care for the remaining short time left to him, which we were told could be a matter of a few days.

He was still one of the most intelligent and funny people I knew, and his mind was as sharp as ever, but his body was failing him. His doctors said there was no hope, especially considering his age, and recommended that he go straight to hospice.

His loving wife Carol was a hospice chaplain and had worked closely with many dying patients and their families, but had also gotten to know some of the best doctors, including Dr. John Kailath, an oncologist who is Medical Director of First Call Hospice and with whom she had worked for eleven years. She was not about to give up on her husband, and she and Freddie decided they wanted to see if there was some way to give him just a little longer – maybe just a month or so more.

Carol called that wonderful oncologist she knew, Dr. Kailath, and asked him to examine Freddie. Dr. Kailath is affiliated with the Sierra Hematology and Oncology Medical Center in Carmichael, and we consider him to be a miracle worker, and Carol calls the oncology nurses he works with "angels" for the wonderful care they gave Freddie.

After meeting him and realizing that this was not your normal 90 year old with nothing more to offer the world, Dr. Kailath fought hard with two doctors who treated him at Mercy San Juan Hospital who had given up on Freddie, and he won the fight, ordering a series of chemotherapy treatments normally not offered to someone of Freddie’s age. He could make no promises, of course, and said the rest would be up to Freddie and those praying for him, but he felt that it was worth trying for someone as vital as Freddie.

This family never walks away from a challenge – especially one threatening a beloved family member, and we turned up the volume on our prayers, friends joined in, including those at the church where he and Carol are members, and both Carol and I submitted prayer requests to Silent Unity. This is a worldwide organization that prays 24 hours a day for those for whom requests have been submitted, as well as
general prayers for the world. Both Carol and I asked friends to pray for him, and some of my facebook friends brought requests to their churches of different faiths.

Beyond what anyone expected, including Dr. Kailath, Freddie began responding to the chemo almost immediately, and began regaining his strength, returning to light exercising to keep his arthritic knees loose. Although he was weakened somewhat from the chemo, he could breathe again, and had no trouble blowing out the candles on his 91^st birthday cake. He had a nice Christmas 2009 and the family enjoyed sharing it with him. We recently celebrated his 92^nd birthday with Freddie and Carol, had Thanksgiving dinner at their home, and we’re looking forward to a joyous Christmas with them. It is easy for me to know what we are thankful for this holiday season.

Carol has written a wonderful book about our family miracle, and it should be published very soon. When it becomes available I will post a link of where it can be purchased. In addition to our visits and phone calls, Freddie and I exchange emails several times a week, and his are still clever and funny, with his witty intelligence as sharp as ever.

He and Carol are grateful for the chemo, but consider his recovery nothing less than a miracle of prayer by so many people pulling for him. I think it may also have been a miracle that Carol happened to know Dr. Kailath and that he was available and open to treating Freddie. He also managed to get Freddie into a trial program of a medicine that would have cost thousands of dollars a month and it worked amazingly against the cancer, but hard on Freddie’s heart.

Freddie’s heart has been taxed by the multiple rounds of chemo and the doctors have taken him off meds because they might do more harm than good at this point, but good old Freddie just keeps on ticking! I can’t imagine any miracle greater for me
than to keep my dear sweet uncle around way past the time anyone predicted. I love him very much and he is one of the main reasons I moved to Northern California from Orange County – to be near him.

I am thankful for my dear aunt Carol for caring so well for him, for a super oncologist, for the prayers of friends and strangers, and for the strength of a 92 year old man I affectionately call my “Unk the Hunk.”

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 30+ years experience.

I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction.

"Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916)705-8951

or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

2 bedroom, 1 bath, 938sf fixer with attic loft in a great Carmichael location! Updated kitchen, attic loft area, huge backyard, gated driveway access. Offered at $129,000 subject to lender approval of short sale. Sorry, cash offers only please.

Tom agreed to a one-hour interview where he let me pick his brain, and was ever-so generous with his time. Make the time to listen in, listen more than once, and take notes. We all have the power and the potential to create lives we love to wake up to each day, REGARDLESS of what the rest of the world is doing. In my opinion, this is one of the best books to take you in that direction in quite a few years...check it out! Love to hear your thoughts!