Sacramento Appraisal Blog

Choosing comps is a struggle in today’s housing market since there just aren’t that many sales. This means it’s tricky to see value. Today, I put together a Q&A of some of the most common questions I’m getting about comps (and I threw in a few extras). Let me know what you think. 

UPCOMING SPEAKING GIGS:

2/20/26 PCAR 
2/26/26 NAPRM Luncheon
3/4/26 Nick Sadek Sotheby’s International Realty (private)
3/12/26 Made 4 More 
3/19/26 Yolo YPN event
3/25/26 Coldwell Banker EDH
4/9/26 Realtist Association of Sacramento
4/14/26 Culbertson & Gray
6/3/26 Wisdom Wednesday in Elk Grove
10/2/26 PCAR 

CHOOSING COMPS IS LIKE A PUZZLE

Choosing comps is like a puzzle, and we have to consider many different pieces. Older sales, newer sales, listings, pendings, competitive areas, etc… 

HOW OLD CAN COMPS BE? 

There is no rule for how old comps can be. Well, technically FHA wants appraisers to use sales within twelve months. But you know what, that might not always be possible. Here’s the thing. We’re in a market that’s missing about 30% of the normal number of sales, so we just don’t have as many comps today. My advice? Look at both newer and older sales, but adjust older sales according to how the market has changed since those properties sold. Also, don’t automatically use a recent sale if it’s really not a comp. I would much rather use a similar older sale than a dissimilar newer one. 

And remember, we might research much older sales to understand the market, but that doesn’t always mean we’ll use them in a report. 

IT’S REALLY OKAY FOR COMPS TO BE OLDER THAN 90 DAYS?

Absolutely yes!! It is not a red flag either when appraisers are using comps from last year. I don’t care if a lender wants comps within 90 days. We’re just not in a market where that’s always possible. The truth is value looks a little ugly today because there aren’t as many comparisons. I would much rather see appraisers and agents use the best comps – even if they are older. The big issue is accounting for how the market has changed since those properties got into contract. There might be an up or down adjustment in order. Yet, there are times when I use a comp from two years ago, and value is sometimes exactly the same today.

CAN YOU PULL FROM OUTSIDE OF ONE MILE?

There is no such thing as a one-mile radius rule for comps. In some areas, one mile can be vast. I think of East Sacramento and Oak Park. Those are two distinct markets despite being located within one mile. In contrast, comps could be multiple miles away in other locations due to properties on acreage. So, don’t get stuck on just one distance. Ask yourself this. Where would buyers go for comps? It’s not how far you can go, but where you should go for comps. Also, are the comps you’ve selected a reasonable substitution? In other words, would buyers consider purchasing those properties if the subject wasn’t available? 

WHAT SEARCH DO YOU USE IN MLS? 

I prefer the map search because I like to visualize where properties have sold exactly. I’m a big fan of the polygon tool to draw boundaries on a map too. Or if I don’t do boundaries, I might type in the city name to avoid seeing a gazillion sales from other areas that aren’t relevant. I don’t recommend doing a standard, ZIP Code, or MLS area search. I mean, if you’re getting credible results that way, then just ignore me. Otherwise, if you can search by map, I think that’s the ideal.

CAN YOU USE COMPS FROM OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS?

Of course. In today’s world, I find myself paying much more attention to what prices are doing in adjacent subdivisions. I’m simply looking for more context to understand what is happening in the market. Just be sure prices are the same in that area (or adjust up or down if needed). If there’s a relevant property competing at the same level in an adjacent area, I have no problem using that sale. Yet, if the adjacent area feels too different, at some point I have to ask myself if I’m making a reasonable comparison or not. The danger is when all the sales come from a nearby area instead of the subject neighborhood. Have we really proved what buyers are willing to pay in the subject neighborhood if we’re pulling from other areas? This is where we maybe use a combination of older sales in the immediate area and more recent ones in an adjacent area. Whatever you do, just don’t cherry-pick higher “comps” from further away to make the numbers work.

DO YOU PREFER GOING BACK OR GOING FURTHER OUT? 

I personally prefer going back in time in the immediate neighborhood first, and then going outside of the neighborhood if needed. I will do both though in my process for comps. I just start with the neighborhood.

YOU REALLY SEARCH ONE YEAR AT A TIME?

Yes, I typically search one year at a time. Otherwise, it’s overwhelming with too many years on the MLS map search or a CMA. So, I might start my search looking at all competitive sales from 2025 to today. Then I’ll look at just 2024. Then 2023. Then 2022. Then 2021. I might only be looking at homes between 1,200 to 1,500 sq ft, so I’m NOT looking at every sale as that would be overwhelming. I do at some point look at all neighborhood sales, but at first, I want to find the competitive ones only. When we take a look at multiple years, that is super helpful context. Sometimes we might walk away understanding that prices are down from mid-2022 or still far up from early 2021 (or maybe down slightly from one year ago). 

HOW MUCH WEIGHT DO YOU GIVE LISTINGS?

I don’t give much weight to active listings because they could be overpriced. I do give more weight to pending contracts because at least we’re seeing where buyers are offering (it’s valuable to understand what a property is pending at if we can get that information). I am HIGHLY interested in what is happening with the pendings because today’s pendings become tomorrow’s sales. Sometimes real estate professionals get stuck on closed sales only, and I don’t understand that because it’s like being stuck in the past. A sale that closes today tells us more about the market from last month when the property got into contract. What is the market like today? Let’s look at listings and pendings. Keep in mind, lenders typically want appraisers to use one or two actives or pendings to see if prices are still at a similar level, so even lenders recognize the importance of looking beyond just sales.

ARE APPRAISERS CHECKING THE DECLINING BOX?

I can’t speak for all appraisers, but I’m hearing from loan officers that they’re seeing the “declining” box checked here and there (not always). This is the box on the first page of the appraisal report where the appraiser describes what prices are doing. For me, I regularly check the box in many local areas, but sometimes I check stable too. 

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF THE MARKET IS UP OR DOWN?

In simple terms, what difference are we seeing between recent sales and actives and pendings? If actives are not selling at the price of recent sales, that could be a clue prices have softened. Or if we see pendings getting bid up beyond recent sales, that could be a clue prices are rising. Of course, if pendings and listings are pretty much the same as recent sales, then we could call the market flat. We always have to consider if it’s just a seasonal thing too. I don’t call the market declining when it’s a standard seasonal downtrend in the fall. If prices are legitimately dropping beyond a seasonal slowing, then I have zero issues calling it declining. 

CAN WE LOOK AT TRENDS BEYOND THE NEIGHBORHOOD?

We could look to price metrics for a county or ZIP Code to get a sense of what the market is doing on a wider level. Yet, a county trend or median price trend doesn’t always rigidly apply to every location and price range either, so we have to be careful. However, in many cases we tend to see that all ships rise and fall with the tide, so what we see on the bigger level could also apply to the submarket too.

Here’s the median sales trend in the region as a whole. I find this shape of the market to reflect so many locations, but I’m also careful to not rigidly apply the results to every single range either. Look to the comps. This is especially true with high-end properties. The trend won’t likely rigidly follow this shape.  

HOW DOES MAKING VISUALS HELP?

This is huge for me. I’ve spoken for years about the importance of seeing the market visually, and I find visuals help to reinforce where value is at. It helps me see a range of value so I can say where the bottom and top of the market is (of course, outliers can be outside of the range). It also sometimes helps me see what prices have done through the years or whether they are flat, rising, or dropping. 

Old Folsom: 

There were literally only two sales between 1,100 and 1,400 SQ FT since 2025, so I graphed many years to see the trend. I actually looked at this same size range throughout the entire city of Folsom too. That might seem like an odd comparison, but I think it works to help show the trend. In today’s world of limited comps, I find myself graphing stuff like this more often where I’ll look an entire ZIP Code or city. Also, can you see how some older sales in recent years might be pretty similar in value to today?

Pocket / Greenhaven: 

I was working to appraise a property between 2,400 and 2,800 SQ FT, and I put this square footage range against the entire neighborhood (blue dots). In this case, it helps me see a range of value for this size, and I can see prices have been pretty flat in recent time too. 

East Sac Triplex: 

There aren’t many triplexes in East Sacramento, so I looked to surrounding areas to get a wider picture of the market. I have all 2-4 unit sales on this graph in blue, and I also have triplex sales in various areas. I think this visual is very helpful to see what’s happening in the wider area. Sometimes we get so focused on just one precise neighborhood that we forget to think about other areas where buyers might be shopping at the same time (or maybe there’s a connection to value). 

MY SPREADSHEET IS READY

I created a spreadsheet recently where you can export MLS data to create instant charts to show stats for sales, actives, or pendings. This is the best one I’ve made so far I think (and it’s so easy to use). I guess at some point I should formally share what it looks like, but if you’re interested for now, send me an email or text. I want to do trainings to help people pull stats and flex real estate expertise. This one can be used to show stats for ZIP codes, cities, neighborhoods, and counties. I do have a fee for the training, and I think this can be life-changing for some people to have definitive stats to show what is happening. Anyway, I did my first training last week, and it went really well. 

Anyway, I hope that was helpful. Thanks for being here. 

Thanks for being here.

Questions: What stands out to you above? What tips do you have for pulling comps in today’s market? I’d love to hear your take.

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