Home valuation
What Is My Home Worth Right Now?
Online estimates cannot see your remodel, your view, or how your home actually lives. We will give you a real number, with no obligation to list.
The Question Behind So Many Big Decisions
Maybe a neighbor's house just sold and you caught yourself doing math. Maybe you're wondering whether a bigger home is within reach, whether it's time to downsize, or what the house means for a divorce, an estate, or retirement plans. Or maybe you're just curious. Homeowners in every price range ask us, from first condos to large custom homes.
Whatever brought you here, it's a smart question to ask. Your home is likely one of the largest things you own, and knowing its value helps you plan with confidence instead of guessing.
Asking doesn't commit you to anything. Many homeowners request a value from us years before they sell, and some never sell at all. We're glad to help either way. You'll get an honest range, even if it's lower than you hoped. Planning around a real number beats planning around a hopeful one.
What is it actually worth?
Why We Will Not Give You an Instant Number
You can get an automated estimate anywhere in about four seconds. It will be confidently wrong, and it will be wrong in a direction that costs you money either way.
Those tools read public records and recent sales. They cannot see that your neighbor gutted their kitchen and you did not, or that your lot backs a ridgeline with a view and theirs faces a wall. On the same street, in the same tract, those differences are worth tens of thousands of dollars.
We would rather be useful than fast. Anyone who quotes your home without seeing it is guessing, and if they quote high to win the listing, you find out sixty days and two price cuts later.
The Five Things We Need to Know
When we start asking these, a few homeowners assume we are being nosy. We are not. These are the five things that move your number the most, and every one of them is invisible to a computer looking up your address.
Answer them honestly, including the uncomfortable one. A seller who keeps quiet about the thing working against the house does not end up with a higher price. They end up with the same price sixty days later, after a buyer found it during inspections and used it against them. Tell us now and we price it in from the start.
- Do you have a view? In this valley a view is not a nice extra. It is a price bracket.
- What have you upgraded, and when? A kitchen done in 2010 and one done last year are different animals to a buyer.
- Is there anything great you added that a buyer would actually pay for? A pool, a casita, RV access, solar you own outright, real landscaping.
- Is there anything working against the house? Tell us now. We would rather price it in than discover it during escrow.
- Are you on a main street? Or backing one, or under a flight path, or beside the school pickup line. These are real and they are knowable.
Those five move a valuation more than square footage does, and not one of them shows up in an automated estimate.
What Goes Into the Value We Prepare for You
What we build is called a comparative market analysis, and the name makes it sound more mysterious than it is. It is the same homework the appraiser will do later, and the same homework the buyer's agent will do when they sit down to tell their client whether your price is fair.
That is exactly why we do it properly instead of quickly. A number you cannot defend gets talked down the first time somebody pushes on it. A number with the actual sales sitting underneath it holds. So here is what goes into yours.
- Recent sales of homes most like yours in size, age, lot, and location
- Homes in escrow now, which show where prices are heading
- Active listings you'd be competing against
- Listings that didn't sell, which show where buyers said no
- Your home's condition and upgrades, which we learn from you and, when helpful, a walkthrough
- Location details like views, street traffic, and what's behind the fence
- The current pace of the market, including how quickly similar homes are selling
The result is a realistic range and an explanation of how we got there. We'll also tell you what could push your home toward the top of that range and what might hold it lower, so the number comes with a plan.
What Goes Into the Value We Prepare for You
Measured against what actually sold nearby
Value Is One Number. What You Keep Is Another.
If you're thinking about selling, the more useful figure is often your estimated net proceeds: the likely sale price minus your loan payoff, selling costs, and any credits you might agree to. We're happy to sketch that out with you so your plans for the next home, retirement, or dividing assets rest on a realistic number.
A quick note: market value isn't the same as the cost to rebuild your home for insurance purposes, and it isn't a formal appraisal. If you need an appraisal for a lender, court, or estate, we can explain the difference.
Not planning to sell for years? Knowing your equity can still help with long-range planning alongside a financial advisor.
A Valuation Is Not Your Property Tax Assessment
These get confused constantly, and the difference is worth real money.
Your assessed value is what the county taxes you on. Under Proposition 13 it has been creeping up slowly since you bought, which is why a long-time owner can be assessed at a fraction of what the home is worth.
Your market value is what a buyer would pay today. They are unrelated numbers, and a high market value does not raise your taxes while you stay put.
Where it matters is moving. Sell and buy again and the new home is assessed at its purchase price. But under Proposition 19, a homeowner 55 or older can transfer their base-year value to a replacement home anywhere in California, up to three times, within two years of selling. Ask your CPA about it before you decide, because it changes the math on whether moving is affordable.
If You Need It for a Divorce, an Estate, or a Buyout
This is one of the most common reasons people ask, and the requirements are different.
We can provide a written valuation dated for the date you need, which matters because in an estate the relevant date is often the date of death, not today. Attorneys, CPAs and mediators use these regularly.
What we provide is a broker valuation, not a licensed appraisal. For a contested divorce or a formal court filing, your attorney may want a certified appraiser instead. In probate, the court also has its own probate referee who sets the official value.
Tell us what it is for and we will tell you honestly whether ours is enough or whether you need the appraisal. Sending you to spend money on something you do not need is not how we do this.
See also divorce sales and probate and trust sales.
If You Need It for a Divorce, an Estate, or a Buyout
What an inspector goes looking for
What Homeowners Do With Their Number
Almost nobody wants a home value for its own sake. There is a decision sitting behind the question, and usually that decision has been sitting there a while.
That changes how we answer you. A number on its own is trivia. A number attached to the thing you are actually trying to work out is a plan. So when you ask, tell us what is behind it, and we will run the part that makes the decision rather than just the part that satisfies the curiosity. Here is what homeowners bring us most often.
- Plan a move up to a larger home while you sell this one, as explained on our move-up buyers page.
- Decide whether downsizing makes sense. See downsizing.
- Understand options during a separation. See selling during divorce.
- Settle a loved one's estate. See probate and trust sales.
- Help a parent plan their next chapter. See senior home sales.
- Talk with a lender about refinancing or a home equity loan with a better sense of your equity.
- Decide whether a big remodel makes financial sense before you start one.
Not one of those commits you to anything, and a fair number of them end with us saying the numbers do not support a move this year. That is still a useful answer, and it is a lot cheaper to hear now than after the sign is already in the yard.
What Happens After You Ask
Tell us your address and a little about your home. We may ask a few questions about upgrades or condition, and if you'd like, we'll schedule a quick walkthrough. Then we send you your analysis and walk you through it.
No automated drip of sales calls. No pressure to list. If you have questions, call Michelle. She answers her own phone. If your plans change, or a year goes by, just ask and we'll refresh your value with the latest sales.
Why Homeowners Trust How We Price
Pricing is where a sale is won or lost, and it's where experience shows. In August 2026, homes in the Santa Clarita Valley averaged 50 days on market, according to the Southland Regional Association of REALTORS®, so the first price you choose carries real weight. Michelle has been pricing homes here since 2004, and she is ranked by RealTrends in their 2025 America's Best Real Estate Professionals list, in the top 1.5% of agents nationwide. What all of that has taught us is that the right number is the one the market will confirm, not the one that feels best in the moment. Most of the business we do today comes from past clients and the people they send our way.
We prepare values for homes in all six Santa Clarita Valley communities, Valencia, Saugus, Newhall, Canyon Country, Stevenson Ranch, and Castaic, and across Los Angeles County. Use the form to request yours, or book an appointment or call 661-219-5517. Whether you're selling next spring or simply want to know where you stand, you'll get the same careful, honest analysis.
How to Start
Send us your address and the details through our home valuation request and we will come back with a real analysis based on sales near you.
Or book an appointment and we will walk it together and go through it step by step. That is the version that produces the most accurate number, because we can see the house.
Thinking about what comes after? See selling your home, or the neighborhoods we serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the home value really free?
Why is your number different from an online estimate?
Is a home value the same as an appraisal?
Do you need to come inside my home?
How often does my home's value change?
Will my renovations increase my home's value?
How much would I walk away with if I sold?
Can I use your home value for a divorce or estate?
Will you pressure me to list?
Do you prepare values outside Santa Clarita?
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Ready to make your move with Dubner Real Estate Group?
Meet the team
You would be working with our team
We are Michelle and Jon Dubner, husband and wife, and Dubner Real Estate Group is ours. Our team is here to serve you: to understand what you are hoping for, walk you through it step by step, and make sure you get there. Michelle answers her own phone and is quickest by text, so ask us anything, at any point, however small it feels.
Michelle Dubner DRE #01496647 Jon Dubner DRE #02118617 Equity Union