{"id":457919,"date":"2026-09-09T04:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/457919\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T04:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T04:42:10","slug":"sacramento-buyers-havent-disappeared-theyve-gotten-pickier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/457919\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento buyers haven’t disappeared, they’ve gotten pickier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Higher payments\u00a0haven’t\u00a0eliminated\u00a0demand.\u00a0They’ve\u00a0raised the standard a property\u00a0has to\u00a0meet before a buyer feels comfortable acting. That also means pricing matters more. Buyers increasingly seem willing to test sellers with lower offers when a home has been sitting, while many sellers are still anchored to what they believe their property should be worth. The result is a growing expectations gap, one\u00a0that’s\u00a0playing out across the country as\u00a0homebuyer demand hits a record low while seller inventory keeps widening<\/a>, not just here in Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New construction is competing for those buyers\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another major factor in Greater Sacramento is\u00a0new\u00a0construction. We have a significant amount of new-home development throughout communities such as Elk Grove, Roseville, Folsom and the surrounding areas, and I see more buyers considering new construction because builders are giving them something many resale sellers\u00a0can’t: financial incentives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A resale seller might be reluctant to reduce the price by $20,000.\u00a0A builder, on the other hand, may be willing to offer substantial closing-cost\u00a0assistance, a\u00a0rate\u00a0buydown or special financing through its preferred lender, part of a pattern of\u00a0builders leaning harder on price cuts and buydowns than resale sellers can match<\/a>. For a payment-conscious buyer, that can be extremely powerful. A buyer may prefer an established neighborhood or a larger lot on a resale home, but when they compare that home at the prevailing market rate against a new home with a significantly lower promotional rate or substantial closing-cost incentive, the new construction payment can become difficult to ignore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That’s\u00a0why resale sellers and their agents need to understand that they\u00a0aren’t\u00a0necessarily competing only against the house down the street anymore. In some parts of Greater Sacramento, a region\u00a0where\u00a0pending home sales have climbed faster than almost anywhere else in the country<\/a>,\u00a0they’re\u00a0competing against builders with an incentive budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opportunity is property specific\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is why broad statements about whether Sacramento is a buyer’s or seller’s market aren’t particularly useful right now.\u00a0A desirable home that is updated and priced correctly may still require a strong offer. A property that has been sitting for 45 or\u00a060 days\u00a0could give the buyer an opportunity to negotiate price, seller\u00a0credits\u00a0or both. And a new construction community may present an entirely different opportunity because the builder is motivated to move inventory and can use financing incentives to make the monthly payment more attractive. The strategy\u00a0has to\u00a0change with the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Higher payments\u00a0haven’t\u00a0eliminated\u00a0demand.\u00a0They’ve\u00a0raised the standard a property\u00a0has to\u00a0meet before a buyer feels comfortable acting. That also means pricing matters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[180655,180654,121,123,122,73775],"class_list":["post-457919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-green-haven-capital","tag-kevin-oto","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457919","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=457919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}