What You Need to Know About the Sacramento Housing Market

Sacramento housing market report, square-foot prices over 15 months, 12/31/16.

We can talk about low inventory until the cows come home in Sacramento, but the biggest news in the Sacramento housing market report is that prices are slowly creeping up. You can clearly see this reflected in the average price per square foot above. What you don’t see is January 2017 average price per square foot, which is $203. Why is this relevant?

It’s important because we rarely see a price jump in January, usually it is the opposite, and January starts off a little bit slower. Our inventory is relatively the same in December as it was a year ago in December, standing at 1.1 months of inventory. This low inventory is so low if you were trying to dance the limbo under that bar, you would  fall flat on the floor and likely break your back.

It’s a seller’s market in Sacramento real estate, in full fury.

This means if you are a seller, put your home on the market. Do not shuffle your feet. Get that lovely home into MLS as soon as you possibly can and start showings. Every new listing, even the ugly homes, is like tossing bird seed to starving pigeons in the park. Buyers come running from every direction to feast on table scraps. Elbowing each other.

We are seeing multiple offers on almost every listing as well. It’s not as crazy as it was at the bottom of the market, like in 2011, where we could receive 20 or 30 multiple offers on a single listing. I’m seeing more like 2 to 4 offers per listing. That seems much more manageable. If it’s a fixer property, the number of multiple offers tend to be higher.

But what difference does it really make how many offers a seller receives? As long as there are two offers, a seller can negotiate with the Seller Multiple Counter Offer, which has been known to bump up the price. Everybody wants what somebody else wants. And hey, bottom line, we only need one committed, strong and qualified buyer anyway. While it’s nice to tell your friends how many buyers fought over your house, it’s much better to say you got top dollar and no hassles.

If that’s your objective, call a top producer Sacramento Realtor with more than 40 years in the business. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.