Elk Grove’s real estate market is hot for sellers as home prices soar and buyers scramble
Elk Grove’s red-hot home market continued its blistering pace in April as would-be buyers scrambled to get into new homes.
A Sacramento Bee scan Friday of online sites Zillow, Homelight.com, Realtor.com and Redfin tells a familiar story: It’s a seller’s market out there with the typical home listings hovering between $530,000 and $550,000 — all double-digit percentage point increases from the dawn of the pandemic, according to the sites’ market information.
The median price for single-family homes in the Elk Grove area in March, according to Zillow’s seasonally adjusted index, was $535,000. That’s a 13.7% increase over the median price in March 2020 when the median for a single-family home hovered around $480,000.
At Redfin, Elk Grove’s housing market earned a 96 out of its 100-point “Most Competitive” rating. The online site said its listed homes were selling anywhere from 5% to 9% above list price and go pending in four to six days.
Friday’s population data from the state’s Department of Finance showed how Elk Grove and suburban Sacramento-area cities became attractive (and affordable) landing spots for remote-working coast dwellers helping to push the demand. Nearly 670 single-family homes were built last year in Elk Grove, good for 10th highest in California, according to state figures.
Drive along Elk Grove’s Whitelock Parkway, south down Bruceville Road or along Grant Line Road to see how builders are meeting the demand as more new neighborhoods take shape.
Even with the increase in inventory in Elk Grove, Homelight.com said its Elk Grove home prices have increased by 10.5% from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020; while Redfin said home prices, trending at $558,000, have soared by nearly 21% from last year’s levels.
But the higher home prices in Elk Grove and across California haven’t discouraged buyers just yet, said the California Association of Realtors in its May 3 Market Minute report.
California homebuyers have been buoyed both by encouraging signs that the state is turning the corner on the COVID-19 pandemic, showing more upbeat economic numbers as a result, the association says in its report.
“California Realtor optimism about the housing market remains high as California consumers remain relatively bullish on selling, and, despite a highly competitive market environment, relatively undaunted on buying as well,” the report read.
There’s good reason for Realtors’ sunny mood. California’s housing market saw 40% or higher growth from the same point in 2020 every week in April. The market leaped even higher in the first week of May, posting a 52.5% increase above the first week of May 2020, according to the association’s report.
“Optimism in our weekly survey was also amongst the highest we’ve measured since the onset of the crisis,” the report read.
Even with the robust demand and the hopeful signs out of the ongoing public health crisis, California buyers, sellers and Realtors alike are heeding the warning signs of higher home prices, creeping interest rates, and yes, lack of inventory.
“The chronic lack of supply and consequent competition amongst homebuyers is pushing prices up more quickly than incomes ... leaving Californians even more challenged by affordability,” the Realtors’ report read.
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