Property tax information is open to the public and copies of a parcel's actual tax bill in Davis and for most of the greater Sacramento region is availble online.  Yolo County Tax Assessor has a link on their website that allows homeowners to pay their property tax bills online.  With this link you can also view the tax bills on homes for sale.  Taxes for homes in California can vary not only by city but even by subdivision as communities have delt in different ways with the after effects of Proposition 13 which limits the base tax rate to 1% of a property's assessed value and freezes the assesed value to when a property transfers(sells).

Davis, Woodland West Sacramento can be found for Yolo County property tax bills.

Yolo County's system allows someone to search for tax bills both by parcel number or address.

Find other greater Sacramento property tax bill information by counties.  Several counties require an assessor's parcel number to find the tax amount, however the parcel number is also public information and also can be found online.

 

Contributed by Carolyn Gjerde-Tu an agent specializing in selling Davis homes and real estate in greater Sacramento.

 

All Metrolist customers are doing a key exchange with GE/Supra this week.  We are swtiching from the Display key (or D Key) to an ActiveKEY for use with GE/Supra lock boxes.

 

Metrolist subscribers also have the option of using an E key that works with certain cell phones, like Palm treos or most blackberrys (with the use of an additional fob).  This option has been availble for the past few years.

The ActiveKEY has a few cool features that I think Metrolist users will like:

1. No more cradels - the active key updates itself once a day via cell towers.

2. It has a built-in flashlight.

3. There is a cool security feature where you can program your key to alert contacts that you might be in trouble.  See the Active Key user's manual to set this up.  You press and hold the GE button and it sends an alert email/text message to up to three different contacts.

4. When someone opens a lockbox with an ActiveKEY, it gives you instant showing notifications on your listings.

5. It opens key boxes in areas without cell phone coverage.

 

I exchanged my E key on my treo to the ActiveKEY.  My main reason was that I did not want to be limited to the type of phone I could use.  I had been having a lot of trouble with my treo phone and since the exchange earlier in the week I went out and got a Motorola DROID (that is another post).

 

Metrolist's key exchange is taking place for the remainder of this week and D keys will stop working in the next few weeks.  The ActiveKEY is an improvement and I am happy that Metrolist decided to require this upgrade.

 

Carolyn Gjerde-Tu is a real estate agent in the Greater Sacramento Region.  Search homes for sale in Natomas today!.

 

It's always a little scary when you have a well established domain to upgrade the site to a new and hopefully better designed site.  That is just what my friends Cal and Laura Carter just did with their NorthGALife site focused on Lake Lanier Real Estate.  I am certain that the upgrade from a basic template to a semi-custom site is going to work well for them in the long run, but right now while Google and other search engines recrawl the site - it can be a little nerveracking.

Cal documented the process when he switched to a custome site GulfshoresLife which focuses on in Gulf Shore Condos in this post  last year so he's been through this before but it still can be nerveracking. 

I'm certain that this new site will bounce back quickly and will start generating more leads than the template site it replaced.  Cal and Laura, the new site looks great.  Looking forward to seeing how this site evolves.

I'm very happy that my new site for Sacramento Real Estate is live.  The site is not done by any means but it will soon be a resource for buyers and sellers for the greater Sacramento region.  The website covers homes for sale in Sacramento, Yolo, El Dorado or Placer counties. 

 

If you are looking more specifically for homes for sale in Davis then visit Discover Davis Homes.  That site also has information on greater Sacramento homes but has specfic home searches for Davis neighborhoods and property types.

 

Winters CA being a town of 6,990 (July 2007) has a much different housing market than the most of the greater Sacramento region.

 

	1 year	15 months
	Mar 08	Mar 09	% Change	Jan 08	Mar 09	% Change
For Sale	36	33	-8.3%	32	33	3.1%
Sold	3	6	100%	1	6	500%
Pended	5	6	20%	0	6	n/a

 
Because the numbers are so small they should be looked at more to see the general trend than to be taken at face value - also can use the numbers to see how the Winters market  fits in with the rest of the region.
The number of homes for sale has decreased by 8.3 percent since March 2008, however this is only a total of three homes in addition the number of sold homes increased 100% from 3 to 6 homes.  Again, the numbers are so small, any variation makes a large percentage change.  Sales are up in the region and that is reflected in these numbers.  Pending sales went from 5 to 6 in this time period.  

The average sales price changed from $339,000 to $224,000 which is 33.9% change.  What is very interesting about the market statistics for Winters is that 5 of the 6 homes that sold were REO/Bank owned properties.  So while inventory numbers have remained relatively stable for the past year, the number of foreclosures on the market has increased.  About 1/3 of the Winters homes listed for sale in March 2009 are bank owned properties.  This number should be monitored as many experts feel that there will be more foreclosed homes come onto the market in the next few months.

Visit my site to see all Winters homes for sale.

I haven't spent much time at active rain lately - I spent a lot of time in 2008 here - made some friends - I had a closing or two from people that found me from my blog here - consider the time I spent worth the effort last year.  I haven't given up on blogging - in fact I'm blogging a lot more in multiple places this year.  Just wanted to try something for fun.  I started my blog on active rain about the same time as one on Real Estate Webmasters.  I have posted more lately to my REW blog but in terms of total numbers I have more posts on this one - my AR blog.

I think I already know which blog is going to win out - however, when I was looking through some results in google to try and come up with some topics to write about I did notice that I had both Real Estate Webmaster posts as well as Active Rain posts on page one of google for a number of terms.

I'm going to write three posts for each blog - they will be market statistics for March 2009 - the most recent full month I have data on.  Since it was too confusing to figure out if I had written about a city before - I'm picking three cities that are in my market area but ones I have not written market analysis about in the past - there are SO many areas I haven't written about...

Winters, CA

El Dorado Hills, CA

Rocklin CA

This isn't going to be a perfect test - I don't write duplicate content for ANYTHING - and REW blogs do not allow for duplicate content either - so these will be similar posts on similar subjects - if the posts on AR and REW are too similar I know I will have to change the REW post - that is the rules over there and I'm fine with that concept.  So let's see how these blogs do.

I love Twitter - I really like how you can use twitter on your phone or on the web - I use it to stay in touch with my friends, ask questions, gather information and even get some news.  Early on I found that using the web interface (twitter.com) was a bit limited and after trying a few different desktop applications decided that Tweetdeck worked best for me.  I could group people, I didn't have to constantly check for updates.  Even though I use Tweetdeck I still end up using twitter.com quite a bit.  Well there is a modification to Twitter.com that you can do through firefox that makes using the web interface a lot more fun.

Troy's Twitter Script is a firefox extension - follow the instructions (you download the greasemonkey extension and then Troy's script) and all of a sudden your twitter page looks like this:

 

Sorry about the quality of the screen capture I did this very quickly.  All of a sudden conversations are nested- you can follow conversations and replies of friends even when you aren't following their friends.  Videos and photos get expanded, you can watch them right on the twitter.com page.

This is a really nice modification - there is a group function but I haven't been able to see how you use groups yet.  The script also adds a RT (retweet) button to make it easier to pass on tweets you have found useful.  It also expands out the URLS so you can see what you are about to click on (instead of just the URL shortner like tinyurl.com)

There is also a way to add social links to twitter profiles (another feature I have yet to play with) but another great way to build connections with people.

This is an easy modification - but only works with firefox.  Learn more about this Cool Twitter Script

Almost forgot, be sure to follow me on twitter @cgjerdetu

As of today there are 85 homes for sale in Woodland listed as short sales.  A short sale is when the seller owes more on the house than what it will sell for.  In order for a seller to "sell short" the mortgage holder(s) must approve the sale and agree to accept less than what is owed on the property.

Since there is never a guarantee of what a home will sell for until there is a contract - most banks will not even look at a seller's package until there is an offer in place.  Banks are also overwhelmed with the volume of home owners who are looking to complete a short sale and the process of reviewing files can take some time. 

 

A better metric as a buyer is to see if the seller is working with a short sale negotiator - they work on behalf of the seller to negotiate directly with the bank - leaving the listing agent to do what they do best - market the property and work directly with the seller. 

 

There are some bargains out there for patient buyers - but the key is PATIENCE.  Search Short Sales in Woodland to look specificially for homes listed in MLS as a short sale.  You can also search all homes for sale in Woodland, CA on my website.

I'm updating Discover Davis Homes with 2008 market data and noticed an interesting pattern for single family homes in Davis.

Davis CA Homes Sold in 2008 : 332

• Average List Price for Davis Homes: $583,943
• Average Sold Price for Davis Homes: $ 566,058
• Average Days On The Market: 68

Davis CA Homes Sold in 2007 : 509 

• Average List Price for Davis Homes: $583,145 
• Average Sold Price for Davis Homes: $ 570,081
• Average Days On The Market: 57

While the number of single family homes sold decreased dramatically last year, the average sold and list price stayed virtually the same.  Micro-markets in Davis have seen many fluxuations, however on a broad scale, homes values in Davis have held pretty steady.

Visit my site to search homes for sale in Davis CA

Davis, CA is a true college town - it is one of the only places on the west coast where the university is still a major part of the city - there are restrictions on growth in the area which for the near future will help keep the balance between town and university in check. One of the main events every year is Picnic Day - a tradition that goes back to the 1920's a time for parents to visit their students - this always takes place in early April, which means that some years it rains on Picnic Day. Here's a video from 2007 when it did rain on the parade.

Typical for a parade in Davis, there are plenty of bikes and the UC Davis marching Band-uh. It's interesting living in a place tied so closely with a unversity. One of the more curious observations though is how little the students seem to notice the people who live here - it's almost like they just walk past without even noticing anyone over the age of about 22. There is a strong emphasis on education here and the schools are considered some of the best in the state. To see what is currently for sale here visit my website on Davis CA Real Estate