What's the story with HOUSING COSTS in Sacramento? (Bakersfield, Arden-Arcade: for sale, real estate)

[Tiger Beer]

Seems like most in Sacramento reference it to be costly for home ownership, etc.

However, if I look at Sacramento on realtor.com, I see quite a few affordable nice houses.

For example, 2-bedroom house (not condo), less than $160,000, they list 1,399 listings found.

So, I"m a bit surprised with many from all over California going to a much more expensive Seattle or Portland or wherever, when it seems like Sacramento is significantly less for the same house?

Is there something I'm not seeing here?

[NewToCA]

It was expensive a few years ago, now it is pretty reasonable. Seattle and Portland equivalent homes cost a bit more than Sacramento, though I don't believe that was true back in the 2000-2006 timeframe.

[CityGirl72]

Where in Sac are those prices? I'm guessing not the best areas. Plus how many were short sales???

I just came from Seattle, and our house we sold was still holding it value, so houses in Sac are dropping, but there are SO MANY short sales I can hardly find any houses to buy the "regular way"...no one wants to put their house up for sale.

Plus it depends on where you are looking. We are looking in Folsom/Fair Oaks around 400K. And that is closer/on par with Seattle

[Tiger Beer]

Actually since I don't know Sacramento that well, I am solely looking on the internet - realtor.com in particular.

The housing stock for the prices that I put in, look great! So I don't know the story. If I put in the same data for somewhere like Seattle, I just get a few manufactured homes way out on the outskirts.

I'm not really a real estate person to know/understand 'short sales' and if those are put on the internet's realtor.com as well...curious if anyone else has insight into that...

Here is the link of houses I saw: Sacramento real estate & Sacramento homes for sale | Single family homes,2 Bedrooms - REALTOR.com®

[White Mountain]

My son bought a great home in Elk Grove for less than 200k last year and Elk Grove is not a bad area at all.
Sacto is a big place and some of these great deals are in places that you would not want to raise your children in, but, with a great Realtor and patience, someone should be able to get a very nice home for a good price in a good area...
White Mountain

[Majin]

If you're paying 160k for a 2 bedroom house it's either a short sale, foreclosure that will actually sell for 2x the price, or the house is not in a desirable area.

[d_deathrage]

There are a couple of different factors here. First incomes are higher in both Seattle and Portland, so you would expect that in the places where people earn more money, they will have more money to spend on housing.

http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/regi...df/mpi0809.pdf

Additionally the economy in both Seattle and Portland has been stronger longer than in Sacramento.

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Economy at a Glance
Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA Economy at a Glance
Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA Economy at a Glance

Housing prices rose faster here the boom and the bust started early here as well. This has a couple of different effects. First it has meant the construction industry in Sac has been hurt proportionately more than in Seattle or Portland. Second, more people here are upside on their mortgages. That means there have been more foreclosures here which has pushed prices down here faster. Third when you are upside down on your mortgage, that acts as a forced savings program. Banks won't let you take out a second mortgage to say buy a car, so there is less spending here in the local economy and that spreads the pain from industries directly effected by drop in real estate prices like construction to secondary industries like local retail and government which rely on sales taxes and income taxes.

There are a couple of different reasons people move to higher cost regions. Some of it is just local amenities. Housing is more expensive in Hawaii, Santa Barbara or Sf because the climates are nicer in those location than Sacramento where as housing is much cheaper in Merced, or Bakersfield because those places just aren't as nice of a place to live in as Sacramento.

But there are some professions that pay more if you do them in certain locations and there are some professions that you can't practice in smaller communities. Lawyers in bigger cities like Seattle, SF and LA generally make more money than lawyers in smaller towns. There really isn't much of a market in Sacramento for entertainment lawyers, for patent lawyers, etc. If you want to do film scoring, you pretty much have to be in LA. If you are a researcher doing drug development for a biotech firm, you can find work in SD, LA or SF, but might have problems finding that type of work in Sacramento.

Part of the reason, you have people fleeing high housing costs in Coastal California but the reason they are moving to say Seattle over Sacramento is that they can't find the type of employment in Sacramento that would utilize their skills. There really aren't many big companies located in Sacramento. If you want to get promoted in a lot of firms you need to be near the headquarters. So for a lot of people in the labor force, there really aren't strong employment options in Sacramento vs a bigger city like say Seattle.

People move to areas for several reasons but two of the bigger ones are amenities the region provides and two because it allows them to find work that they find interesting.

[NorCal Dude]

Theres a glut of homes in the down town area of roseville going for under 150 k

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Actually since I don't know Sacramento that well, I am solely looking on the internet - realtor.com in particular.

The housing stock for the prices that I put in, look great! So I don't know the story. If I put in the same data for somewhere like Seattle, I just get a few manufactured homes way out on the outskirts.

I'm not really a real estate person to know/understand 'short sales' and if those are put on the internet's realtor.com as well...curious if anyone else has insight into that...

Here is the link of houses I saw: Sacramento real estate & Sacramento homes for sale | Single family homes,2 Bedrooms - REALTOR.com®

some short sales will show up on realtor.com but short sales can be a total pain in the tush. they can take months to go to settlement.

As for property in Sacramento, like anyplace else, if you don't know the areas which obviously you do not, there is no way you can even begin to know the values.

Nita

[volleyballer]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Theres a glut of homes in the down town area of roseville going for under 150 k

The glut of homes in the downtown Roseville area are LISTED under 150K. They are not selling for under 150K. That is a gimmick price because they are short sales. There might be a sprinkle that sell under 150K, but that is certainly not the norm.