Michael Janzen

I got another email on my home’s value from Zillow.com this morning and it shows the curve making a turn upward! These numbers could simply be a market fluctuation due to a temporary increase in home sales. It is fall after all, a traditional time to make last minute moves before the school year begins. But I’m hopeful that maybe it’s a sign we’ve hit bottom and might start to see a slow climb back up. As you can also see these numbers aren’t reflective in the US (dark blue) or California (light blue) chart lines, just my house (dark green) and Sacramento (orange).

I get a newsletter from Zillow.com regularly with an update on local home values. There has been no good news for a long time, home values continue to drop here in California. Below is a chart that shows the most recent numbers. When you add this to the overall outlook for the economy it looks like millions of people are going to be stuck in their homes or seriously considering letting the bank take it back simply because the climb back up is looking longer and less likely.

Another option I’m still keeping in the back of my mind is adding onto the house simply to raise the value. I definitely don’t want any more house myself… I have too much as it is… but I can see adding on right before selling. But for now we’ll just continue to hang on and hope for the best.