By Sara Beth Williams–
The spring real estate market in Citrus Heights and the surrounding region is beginning to take shape, with softer housing prices overall compared to last year, local real estate appraiser and housing analyst Ryan Lundquist reports on his Sacramento Appraisal Blog.
Unlike predictions of another housing crash from some others in the real estate industry, housing prices are falling just slightly from last year, Lundquist said. Data from February for the Sacramento region shows the median sales price is down by 1.68%, Lundquist reported. Data for March is not yet available.
In his latest post on March 26, Lundquist tackled the question of why home prices haven’t crashed, noting as a key reason that active listings are nowhere near 2008 levels. In 2008, Sacramento County had around 9,000 listings, compared with only 1,500 today.
“Can you imagine how different the housing market would feel if we added 7,500 more listings? No wonder why prices haven’t been able to implode like back then since the supply situation is far different today,” Lundquist said.
Data from pending sales and closings on homes early in 2026 has started to reveal a slight downward trend in housing prices. Charts from Lundquist’s report on how the housing market is doing so far show median and average housing prices are down slightly in February 2026 compared to February 2025. Lundquist said closed sales now generally represent what happened in pending contracts in January.
Closed sales volume overall is down in 2026, but February numbers this year are higher than last year, Lundquist said the hope is to see stronger volume in the future, since there is a stronger showing of pendings that will presumably close in coming months.
In a chart showing active listings in Sacramento County from 2001 through 2026, data shows that the highest number of listings on record within the last 25 years occurred between 2007 and 2008.
Listings fell dramatically in 2009-2010, then spiked somewhat by 2011, the chart shows. Since then, the number of listings has risen and fallen in a more consistent manner.
“Overall, this year looks pretty similar statistically to last year, though price stats are down slightly, and it’s taking a little longer to sell,” Lundquist said. “There isn’t any big change with supply though, and volume is similar in many areas.”
But Lundquist added that there is also new uncertainty to consider, such as the economy, job market, and the war with Iran, that weren’t present earlier in the year.
“How long will the war with Iran last? How will consumers respond with higher gas prices (or energy prices maybe)? And what other unexpected things might happen? We need time to understand,” Lundquist said.
The market has shown signs of tightening up, Lundquist writes, with homes on the market averaging one or two offers, or zero if the home is overpriced.
Per MLS data shared by Lundquist, 77 percent of current pendings in the Sacramento region have one or two offers, and only 7.5 percent of the market is showing five or more offers. Eighty-six percent of properties with ten or more offers in the region are priced under $500,000. Lundquist said many underpriced homes are fixer-uppers, strategically underpriced to attract more offers.
“I remember in 2021 when a property in Citrus Heights had 121 offers, and that story went viral,” Lundquist said, adding that that is the extreme and not the norm.
“Market competition levels are now very similar to the pre-2020 norm after having been softer for so much of last year,” Lundquist said. Supply and demand are growing closer together this year so far, closing a gap that had continued to widen between 2019 and 2025.
