Getting ten offers was so 2021. Today, you might only get one. Or maybe two. But then again, zero if you’re overpriced. I have some brief stats today, and I hope they resonate and help build expectations for today’s housing market.
UPCOMING SPEAKING GIGS:
5/8/25 Empire Home Loans (register here for today’s event)
5/13/25 PCAR
5/21/25 Grounded Real Estate
6/5/25 Auburn Marketing Meeting
6/12/25 Realtist of Sacramento
9/16/25 Culbertson & Gray (private)
9/26/25 PCAR
9/30/25 Elk Grove Regional MLS Meeting
10/15/25 EDH Coldwell Banker (private)
10/21/25 Orangevale MLS Meeting
11/4/25 SAR Main Meeting
BE HAPPY WITH ONE ‘CUZ YOU MIGHT NOT GET MORE
Gone are the days of getting a gazillion offers. Over the past week of pendings, 56.6% of homes had only one offer in the Sacramento region per MLS data, and 79.9% had one or two. In short, the vast bulk of properties (that get into contract) are going to have just one or two offers at most. In short, if you are priced right, the hope today is to get one to two offers. Not 5 or 10.
GETTING ZERO OFFERS
There are about 4,000 active listings right now with zero offers in the Sacramento region, which is important to talk about. We don’t want to get so fixated on what’s happening with pendings that we forget to think about these properties. The number of listings has definitely increased lately. We’re not back to normal levels, but sales are still really low, so the market is definitely feeling the extra listings.
FLAT PRICE VIBES
It was slightly too early to push out my big monthly recap this week, so I’ll do that next week. For now, I wanted to share some stats to help show how flat the market has been. We’ve been talking about this for many months, and it’s what the stats are showing year-over-year. More next week.
UNICORN SITUATIONS STILL HAPPEN
Look, there are still situations with a ton of offers. I get it. There was one this week with 21 offers. All I’m saying is that’s unicorn territory that doesn’t represent the rest of the market. By the way, the property with 21 offers was a cosmetic fixer in Sacramento priced below $290,000.
FRUSTRATION FOR BUYERS IS REAL
Buyers have more power today, and there is a greater chance of being able to get concessions from the seller too, but there is still decent competition out there for the good stuff. I was at an open house last Friday night in my neighborhood, and while I was talking to the agent for about thirty minutes, there were five other people who came through the house. This property just listed last week, and it’s now pending with two offers. All I’m saying is buyers are very patient and picky today (rightly so), but they’re ready to act quickly when the right house hits the market. This is why it feels competitive out there…. for the good stuff anyway.
STATS TO USE ON SOCIAL MEDIA THIS WEEK
- 3,835 active listings do not have any offers
- 38.5% of current actives have had a price reduction
- Price reductions have ranged from $1 to $800K for active listings
- 27.4% of pendings over the past two weeks had a price drop before getting into contract
- Price drops ranged from $2,131 to $275,000 for properties that went pending over the past two weeks
- 56.6% of pendings this week had one offer
- 79.9% of pendings had one or two offers this week
- Only 5.1% of pendings had more than five offers
- 1.3% of pendings had ten or more offers
Stats based on single family detached units in MLS as of 5/7/25 (Sac, Placer, Yolo, El Dorado). Please cite me with the stats. Thanks.
Thanks for being here.
DATA: Yes, our local MLS has a field that shows the number of offers as well as a “yes” or “no” multiple offers field.
LEAVING COMMENTS: The captcha is not working perfectly. If you open up a new browser, that should solve the issue. It’s been a problem to comment when clicking from my weekly email. My apologies.
Questions: Why are some properties generating offers and others nothing at all? I’d love to hear your take on things.
If you liked this post, subscribe by email (or RSS). Thanks for being here.
Flat and stable are words I’m using frequently. Rising inventory, too.
Thanks Ryan
I relate to that. I’ve been using “flat” so often. Let’s keep comparing notes.
Thanks so much Ryan, your insights are incredibly helpful as always!
Thanks Michael. I really appreciate you. Hope you’re well. I keep seeing your posts on social. Glad to see you’re selling stuff. 🙂
It would be interesting to know what percentage of over-priced listings that were reduced were caused by agents “buying the listing.” (aka agents who promise owners that they can get the home sold for x$ higher than fair market value and the comps).
Hmm, that would be interesting. Not possible to show probably without some sort of a survey. Lots of opportunities in today’s market for a second agent to come along after it doesn’t sell the first time.
Great data. I wish our MLS showed us the number of offers in our market area. That would be great.
Thanks, Gary. Yeah, I think it’s really valuable. So helpful for appraisers too when looking at the pendings.
Two components to Real Estate, Land and Improvements. General wisdom says that inflation will raise cost of materials and labor and the cost of a home. Any sudden move in the market would be tied to the value of the land. An increase in the listings of vacant land might be a indicator of a change in the market. For any developer In times of recession, it is better to be cash rich and land poor.
Thanks David. I have a land appraisal coming up. I’ll be curious to see if there is anything noteworthy about land to observe. Not so easy to make the numbers work today for building, but then again, we’re seeing a ton of builds at luxury price points (where those owners are not so sensitive to rates and prices). I will say new homes have taking a beating this year so far. Sales volume over the past 90 days is down 28% in the region from one year ago. So, we do wonder if some land acquisition will slow down a bit. I realize builders buy years ahead in many cases though.