rose up to 20%<\/a> over January\u2019s figures.<\/p>\nStatewide, however, sales still fell slightly short of February 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing a soft start to the year, the housing market regained momentum in February, with both sales and prices showing solid gains,\u201d said Tamara Suminski, president of the association.<\/p>\n
Slightly more favorable mortgage rates that improved affordability and encouraged more buyers to reenter the market \u201cperked up\u201d sales in the state, the association said.<\/p>\n
But the path forward for 2026 home sales remains unclear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conflict in the Middle East is creating some uncertainty for the broader economy and financial markets, which could lead to some short-term hesitation in the housing market,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know:<\/p>\n
What do the numbers show?<\/p>\n
Home sales in Sacramento County in February rose 20.7% over January, an 8% increase compared to February 2025.<\/p>\n
In Placer County, sales rose 16.7% over January but showed a 4.2% drop compared to February 2025, the association said.<\/p>\n
Home sales in El Dorado County rose by 17.7% in February compared to January, showing an 11% decline since February 2025.<\/p>\n
Sales in Yolo County remained steady since January. But compared to February 2025, sales were hit by an 18.5% drop.<\/p>\n
Median home sale prices in Sacramento County fell by 0.9% to $545,000 from $550,000 in February compared to the previous year, the association said.<\/p>\n
In Placer County, median home sale prices dropped by 1.4% to $640,000 from $649,000 in the same period.<\/p>\n
Median home sale prices in El Dorado County rose 3.4% to $700,000 in February 2026 from $677,000 in February 2025.<\/p>\n
In Yolo County, median home sale prices fell by 5.3% to $600,000 from $633,500 in the same period.<\/p>\n
What do the numbers mean?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe California housing market started off the year with a soft kick-off, due largely to higher interest rates, but rebounded solidly last month also because of interest rates coming down in January when many closed sales opened escrow,\u201d said Oscar Wei, deputy chief economist for the association.<\/p>\n
But sales at the state level remained below February 2025 levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the stronger-than-usual month-to-month increase in pending sales provides some hope that closed transactions could improve in March, the recent spike in mortgage rates will likely slow buyer momentum and keep sales activity subdued in coming months,\u201d Wei said.<\/p>\n
What do buyers need to know?<\/p>\n
Housing supply hit a plateau as demand picked up in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditionally, more properties are listed during the home-buying season, and buyers should have homes to choose from in the coming months,\u201d Wei said.<\/p>\n
Despite a slight uptick in mortgage rates, they remain below rates in February 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith more properties available on the market, sellers could be more willing to negotiate with buyers who are interested in buying during the home buying season,\u201d Wei said.<\/p>\n
What do sellers need to know?<\/p>\n
The home-buying season starts in late March and ends around mid-July or early August, Wei said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany sellers who put their house on the market could see soft housing demand at the start of the buying season because of the geopolitical turmoil and the recent surge in mortgage rates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Home prices may remain soft in March and April, but could pick up later in the home-buying season if international tensions ease or buyers realize mortgage rates are unlikely to drop soon.<\/p>\n
What do figures mean for 2026?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe housing market will likely be softer than previously expected in the first half of the year because of the ongoing uncertainty,\u201d Wei said.<\/p>\n
But mortgage rates could slowly come down once the tension in the Middle East loosens up.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarket conditions could get better toward the mid of the year and could improve further in the second half of 2026,\u201d Wei said. \u201cSales and home prices could still improve slightly by the end of this year when compared to 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loading\u2026<\/p>\n
This story was originally published March 31, 2026 at 9:05 AM.<\/p>\n
Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
Don Sweeney<\/a><\/p>\n The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
Don Sweeney has been a newspaper reporter and editor in California for more than 35 years. He is a service reporter based at The Sacramento Bee.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Home sales in the Sacramento area rebounded in February following a slow start to the year, the California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2861,109794,121,90217,123,90215,122],"class_list":["post-245296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-california-association-of-realtors","tag-february-housing-report","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-county-real-estate","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-home-sales","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}