Four in ten Fair Oaks homes sold above their asking price during the three months ending in April — a notable jump from roughly a third a year earlier, and a clear sign that competition has intensified in this Sacramento County suburb of about 32,800 residents. Newly released Redfin data shows buyers moved quickly and often bid up listings, even as borrowing costs remained well above pre-pandemic norms.
Prices and sales both move higher
The median sale price reached $714,631, up 5.6% from $676,500 in the same three-month period of 2025. Price per square foot tracked almost identically, rising 5.7% to $339, which suggests the gain reflects genuine price appreciation rather than a shift in the size of homes changing hands. Compared with two years ago, when the median stood at $625,000, prices are roughly $90,000 higher. Over a five-year horizon, Fair Oaks home values have climbed 12.1%, a far more modest pace than many California markets posted during the pandemic-era boom.
Sales activity strengthened as well. Closed transactions rose 7.8% year-over-year, with 97 homes sold compared with 90 a year earlier. Momentum carried into the spring: sales were up 21.2% from the three months ending in March, a jump that partly reflects the typical seasonal pickup but also points to firmer underlying demand.
A tight market for buyers
Active inventory stood at 181 listings, down 1.6% from a year ago and only slightly above the 166 recorded a month earlier. With 97 homes selling during the period, Fair Oaks has just 1.9 months of supply — well below the four-to-six months typically associated with a balanced market, and a clear indication that sellers continue to hold the upper hand.
Homes also changed hands faster than they did a month ago. The median time on market was 15 days, down from 18 in the three months ending March, though slightly longer than the 14 days recorded a year earlier. The sale-to-list ratio came in at 100.4%, meaning the typical home sold for just above its asking price.
Affordability and borrowing costs
Mortgage rates eased compared with last spring but ticked up from the prior month. The 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.33% in April, down from 6.72% a year earlier but up from 6.18% in March, according to Freddie Mac. On a median-priced Fair Oaks home with 20% down, the principal-and-interest payment works out to roughly $3,550 a month — about $51 more than a year ago, as the lower rate only partly offset the higher price.
That payment consumes 36.4% of the area’s median household monthly income. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income in Fair Oaks is $116,975, putting the price-to-income ratio at 6.1 — above the 5x threshold commonly used to flag affordability strain, though incomes here run well ahead of state and national medians. Nationally, the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index was essentially flat year-over-year in March, underscoring that Fair Oaks is appreciating faster than the country as a whole.
Where the market stands
Taken together, the April data paint a picture of a market that has tilted further toward sellers compared with last year. More homes are trading above asking, supply remains lean, and prices are climbing at a steady mid-single-digit pace. Days on market remain near the historical norm for the area but are noticeably longer than the seven days seen in the frenzied spring of 2021, when active inventory was actually slightly higher than today but sales volume was stronger.
For buyers, that means competition for the limited number of available listings remains stiff — particularly as new listings (135 over the period, up from 128 a year earlier) have not kept pace with the rebound in sales. For sellers, the combination of rising prices, faster sales, and a high share of above-asking offers continues to favor those bringing homes to market this spring.