Erin Attardi's Blog

Enviable home in fantastic East Sacramento neighborhood offered at $389,900. Great layout w/huge living room, fireplace, dining area, spacious bedrooms, refinished hardwood floors, freshly painted interior & exterior, crown moulding, remodeled bathroom, cute kitchen with gas appliances, indoor laundry, new Milgard dual pane windows, newer central heat & air, newer composition roof, pest clearance, oversized detached 1-car garage, BIG .173 acre (per assessor) lot. Close to Bertha Henschel Park & McKinley Park, CSUS, restaurants, shopping, Sutter Memorial Hospital, Mercy General Hospital, and more! Nearby schools include Theodore Judah Elementary, Caleb Greenwood Elementary, Kit Carson Middle, Sacred Heart School, Saint Francis High School, and others.

For more information, or to schedule a private showing, please contact:
Erin Attardi
Lyon Real Estate
erin@erinattardi.com
916-342-1372 cell
***More photos & virtual tour http://www.199colomaway.com/

Garbeau's Dinner Theater will host "A New Year's Wish at Garbeau's."

The event kicks off with cocktails at 5pm, dinner at 5:30pm, followed by a musical production of "Smokey Joe's Cafe," at 7:30pm. After the show, the BBC Beatles tribute band will provide entertainment for the rest of the evening's New Year's celebration.

Ticket cost is $125 for the dinner and both performances, $90 for dinner and musical production, and $45 for only the BBC Beatles tribute band performance. All proceeds will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  Reservations are required. Call 916-985-6361.

Anyone heard the song by Robert Earl Keen called "Merry Christmas from the Family?"  I know there are Texans here on Active Rain!?  Not too many people in California have ever even heard of Robert Earl Keen, but he is one of my favorites.  I highly suggest both of his live albums...download them from iTunes or something.

 Anyway...my husband and I always take a goofy photo with our dogs at Christmas.  We have bloodhounds, and people always joke and say we are rednecks...if you have ever heard the Robert Earl Keen song referenced above, the connection will be clear...

The Sacramento Children's Theatre debuts in February!
"The Tale Spinner"
Plot summary: One rainy night, when a thunderstorm knocks the power out to both the computer and the television, two bored children go exploring and find a big, beautiful, mysterious book on a shelf. A book they've never seen before, called "The Tale Spinner".  As they open the book, a shower of glitter brings the Tale Spinner, herself, to life and through three tales of inter-planetary comedy, derring-do and long-lost love, she opens the children's eyes to a world beyond electronics, a magical world of imagination found only in books.

February 5 to March 7 (Tuesday's & Friday's);  Twice Weekly Performances 

For reservations, please contact: Pat Boyd at 916-961-0241 or goldens4me@ulink.net

Performances will be at the Hiram Johnson School Theater at 6879 14th Avenue, Sacramento, CA 95820.

The November numbers just came out...I wish there were enough space on this blog to post all the graphs that show what our market is doing, but unfortunately there just is not enough.  If anyone wants me to email them all of the graphs showing price per square foot, inventory, days on the market, etc. for Sacramento (or any specific areas within Sacramento), please just shoot me a brief email. 

From an overall inventory perspective, the Sacramento market total homes on the market has dropped to under 10,000 homes for the first time since the spring...another encouraging stat is that the total number of pending sales has climbed to 1,151 homes, its highest number since <get ready for this> August 2006!     

As usual, there are certain micro-markets in Sacramento that are really pulling down the market stats as a whole.  On the other side of the coin, there are some other micro-markets that are doing well and are stable.  I will try to show the overall trends for 4 areas to adequately portray what the market is doing...Graph #1 shows the average price per square foot for all of Sacramento County as a whole.  Graph #2 shows the average price per square foot for Downtown Sacramento, East Sacramento, and Land Park / Curtis Park - notice how consistent the pricing per square foot is.  Graph #3 shows the average price per square foot in the Arden / Arcade areas...again you will see consistency and stability.  Now...Graph #4 shows the average price per square foot in Natomas.  Here you will see a steady decline in prices!  Graphy #5 shows the average price per square foot in Elk Grove...another area of steady decline.

I can tell you from my own client activity is that buyers are definitely out there right now.  I am representing a buyer right now on a house in 95842 (Foothill Farms)...it is a bank owned property that in February 2006 sold for $319k...we are in escrow for $175k. It is a 3/2 of about 1000sf. I am representing another buyer right now on a house in 95823 (South Sac) for $169,900 - newer construction, 3/2, 1300sf...the house appraised 2 years ago in the high $200k's.  

I am pleased with what is available out there for under $200k.  The buyers I am working with right now who are in escrow on the above mentioned properties will actually be paying LESS for their fully loaded mortgage payments (including loan payment, property taxes, and homeowner's insurance) than they currently do for their rent.  AWESOME!  100% financing too. 

For the second year in a row, the Sacramento SPCA is reducing its cat adoption fees from $85 to just $45! Each adoption includes the cat's spay or neuter surgery, vaccinations, microchip, licensing, a certificate for a free veterinary visit and more.

Last the SPCA's "Home for the Holidays campaign" resulted in the adoption of more than 775 cats, dogs, rabbits and other small animals.

The Sacramento SPCA is located at 6201 Florin Perkins Road in Sacramento, and is open Tuesdays - Sundays (closed on Mondays) from 11am - 6pm.

http://www.sspca.org

My husband and I went on a self-guided driving tour of Christmas lights late last night...too much caffeine for us - darn Starbucks!...here are some great streets ya'll should check out:

Pope Avenue in Sacramento

Random Lane in Sacramento

La Sierra Drive in Sacramento 

Winding Creek Road in Sacramento

Cloverdale Lane in Carmichael

Shelfield Drive in Carmichael

Huntington Road in Sacramento

Kadema Drive in Sacramento

I am getting ready to leave for the 2nd annual "Red Red Holiday Invitational" in Davis...if you have never watched a live Roller Derby bout, you are missing some great fun!!  Tonight at the Davis Indoor Sports Complex (2801 2nd Street, Davis) from 4pm - ? you can come watch...tickets are $23 at the door.  Proceeds will be donated to the Sacramento Childrens Home. The after party will be at Andiamos, 32nd Street and Folsom Blvd in Sacramento, and is included in the price of your ticket.

Maybe I will see you there??

The HOPE NOW Alliance has created a hotline for homeowners facing foreclosure, and provides free, independent, bilingual, HUD-approved advice 24x7.  Counselors will answer questions for homeowners in danger of loosing their homes who need information with regard to their mortgage loans.

The HOPE NOW Alliance consists of consumer credit counseling organizations, mortgage service providers, lenders, investor groups, housing industry trade associations.

Call 888-995-HOPE or visit http://www.hopenow.com

Campus Commons is large Planned Unit Development (PUD) located just east of downtown Sacramento, and west of Sierra Oaks - one of the last residential communities before crossing the river into the East Sacramento community.  Prior to development, the Campus Commons property was known as the Horst Hop Ranch, where "hops" used for making beer where cultivated.  The Horst family had other ranches (in Sloughhouse, Wheatland, and Hopland, among others), and sold the tract where Campus Commons sits after Emil Horst's death.  It was planned and constructed by a partnership of many prominent local Sacramentan developers whose names are still recognizable today (such as the Teichert, McClatchy, Powell and others). There are roughly 1,160 single family attached and detached homes.   

The 'Villages of Campus Commons' and 'Nepenthe Association' are the two local Homeowner's Associations.  Monthly homeowner association dues range from $200's to almost $400 per month depending on the tract.  Both associations are professionally managed by local property management companies, and governed by residents of the Campus Commons community.   

Campus Commons is a very serene community.  On any given day, one can see numerous residents taking walks, gardening, and socializing.  Residents have access to private clubhouse facilities, multiple tennis courts, swimming pools, and a fitness center.  There are plenty of mature trees, a nicely manicured landscape, paved paths, fountains, and more.  It is a short distance to downtown, to the American River Parkway, CSUS, shopping, restaurants, and more.   

Properties in this community sell in the mid-$200k's - high $400k's, depending on the association and floorplan.  Feel free to contact me for more information on this wonderful community! I can be reached at erin@erinattardi.com or http://www.erinattardi.com/.  

Links: http://www.nepenthehoa.com/ http://www.rtumble.com/nepenthe/nepenthe_archive.htm http://www.meritpm.com/meritpm/index.htm http://www.arpf.org/ http://www.ncga.org/courses/campus.php http://ccphvos.com/

Fairytale Town at William Land Park is adding a new feature to the park - a new 'Wizard of Oz' themed play set!  In addition to the play set, also being constructed is a Yellow Brick Road...

In order to raise funds for the construction of the play set and the road (in addition to other park improvements), Fairy Tale Town is allowing individuals, families, and sponsors a chance to donate funds by purchasing a brick.  They are available for $100, and you can have a personal message imprinted on the brick.  Each brick has enough space for three lines up to 15 characters.

For more information, visit http://www.fairytaletown.org.

There is no entry "fee", however spectators are asked to bring an "entry form" and an unwrapped gift for Toys for Tots, and entry forms are available at the El Dorado Chamber of Commerce, the Mountain Democrat and Les Schwab Tires.

I have a wood-burning fireplace in my house, and unfortunately starting this year, the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District will restrict when I can use it.  Boo! Beginning today (December 1st), it will be illegal in Sacramento County to burn wood in indoor or outdoor fireplaces or wood stoves on days where it has been determined that air pollution is "moderately to dangerously high."  With this year being an exception, these rules will be in affect every year now from November 1st to February 28th.

Call 1-877-NO-BURN-5 (1-877-662-8765) for daily recorded burn status updates.  You can also check burn status updates and learn more about this new ordinance at http://www.sparetheair.com/burncheck.cfm.