Home-Bidding
There ’ s little sign the Capital Region ’ s spike in home prices will end anytime soon — what does it mean for business ?
Wars
BY Steven Yoder | PHOTO BY Fred Greaves
In April 2021 , Renee Edwards figured she and her husband , Jeremy , had finally landed the house they wanted in Carmichael , the 10th they bid on since they started looking a year earlier . On the previous nine , they offered more than the asking price with no contingencies — if a problem turned up during the home inspection , they wouldn ’ t require the seller to fix it . “ That sounded so crazy , especially to my relatives ,” says the 36-year-old elementary school teacher .
They had personal connections this time around . “ There were friends on the street that were pulling for us and other friends that went to church with the ( sellers ) who were contacting them and saying , ‘ This is a great family ,’” Edwards says . It was listed at $ 720,000 , “ wildly higher than any other house on the street .” Still , they put in an offer $ 40,000 over asking . “ I knew we were going to get it ,” she says .
They didn ’ t . It went to someone who came in at $ 800,000 . “ After that , I said , ‘ We can ’ t keep looking . We have to just stop this for a while because it ’ s so emotionally draining to get your hopes up ,’” Edwards says .
But they kept at it anyway and got lucky two offers and a few weeks later on a house several blocks away . Their bid on that one had been rejected too — their 12th rejection in 12 tries . But the financing on the other buyer ’ s offer fell through and the seller was on a time crunch , so the Edwards got the house .
Behold the world of residential real estate , pandemic edition , where sellers reign supreme . The median sales price of a single-family home jumped from $ 386,000 to $ 505,000 between September 2019 and September 2021 in Sacramento County and West Sacramento , according to the Sacramento Association of Realtors . Average workers increasingly can ’ t afford a home . The annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey divides the median house price of a metro area by its median household income to derive an “ affordability metric ” — under 3.0 is considered affordable and anything above 5.1 severely unaffordable . Sacramento ’ s was at 5.1 in 2017 and 5.6 by 2021 , which placed it 43rd of 56 metros nationally on affordability .
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