Sacramento Home Appreciation Slowing

It's still a seller's housing market in Sacramento, but there are signs that could be slowly changing. 

The median price of a Sacramento-area home was $394,000 in the second quarter. Daren Blomquist with research firm ATTOM Data Solutions says that's an annual increase of 9 percent.

"It's still high, but it's not crazy high like we've seen in the past,” Blomquist said.

He says appreciation has skyrocketed since 2012 when the median was at its low point of $170,000.

"Since home prices bottomed out in Sacramento, they've gone up a whopping 132 percent," he said.

And that's mainly because of Bay Area refugees willing to buy at higher price points.

Blomquist says a slowing appreciation will make the market more affordable.

"It's not going to be an instant overnight shift,” Blomquist said, “but there are some signs here that going forward the market will be tilting back a little bit more in favor of buyers."

That 9 percent annual increase in appreciation in the second quarter was down from the first quarter when there was an 11 percent increase.

The data also suggest more Sacramento-area homeowners are deciding to sell and move up. The average home-ownership tenure in the second quarter was 9.2 years — down 1 percent from a year ago.

"So it's not going down fast but it does appear to maybe have turned a corner,” he said. “It means that these move-up buyers are starting to move out of their homes a little bit more quickly which will free up inventory more for the first-time home buyers."

He says homeowners have gained so much equity in their homes that they're cashing out. The average seller gain in the second quarter was $125,000 — an 11-year high.