Sacramento’s median sale price fell to $499,701 over the three months ending May 2026, down 2.1% from $510,500 a year earlier, according to newly released data from Redfin. But the price per square foot — a measure that strips out the size of homes changing hands — slipped just 1.8%, from $344 to $338. The narrower gap suggests that part of the headline decline reflects buyers gravitating toward smaller, less expensive properties rather than a broad markdown across the market.

Prices ease as the market stays tight

Even with the year-over-year dip, prices in Sacramento held roughly flat compared with two years ago, when the median stood at $500,000. Over the longer arc, prices have risen 7.9% since the spring of 2021, a notably slower pace than the run-up seen in many California metros during the pandemic years.

On a monthly basis, the median sale price ticked up 0.9% from April, consistent with the typical spring lift in buyer activity. Homes continued to sell at a slight premium to asking, with the sale-to-list ratio at 100.4% and 41.3% of homes going for more than their list price — down from 43.6% a year ago, but still indicative of competition for desirable listings.

Nationally, the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index was down slightly from a year earlier, suggesting Sacramento’s modest decline is broadly in line with the national picture rather than a local outlier.

Supply remains thin, but homes are sitting longer

Active inventory stood at 2,167 listings, essentially unchanged from a year ago (down 0.5%) but up 8.8% from April as more sellers entered the spring market. With 1,039 homes sold during the period, Sacramento has roughly 2.1 months of supply — well below the four-to-six-month range typically associated with a balanced market, and a sign that sellers still hold meaningful leverage.

Despite that tightness, homes are taking longer to find buyers than they did a year ago. The median days on market climbed to 18, up from 15 in the same period last year — a 20% increase that means a typical listing now sits nearly three days longer before going under contract. Compared with April’s 24 days, however, the pace has clearly picked up with the spring season. For longer-term perspective, homes were selling in a median of just 7 days during the frenzied spring of 2021 and 10 days two years ago, underscoring how much the market has cooled from its peak.

Affordability and the rate backdrop

The combination of slightly lower prices and lower mortgage rates has nudged affordability in buyers’ favor. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.44% in May, down from 6.82% a year earlier, though up from 6.33% in April, according to Freddie Mac. On a median-priced Sacramento home with 20% down, the monthly principal-and-interest payment works out to roughly $2,511 — about $157 less per month than a buyer would have paid a year ago.

Still, affordability remains stretched. The median home costs about 5.7 times the median household income of $87,321, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a ratio well above the 3x threshold generally considered affordable. The monthly mortgage payment on a median home now eats up about 34.5% of median household income — stretched, though not outside the bounds that lenders typically accept.

Sacramento’s population reached 539,765 as of January, up 1.3% from a year earlier, according to the California Department of Finance — continued growth that helps explain why inventory has stayed tight even as sales have softened modestly. Sales volume of 1,039 homes was down just 0.9% from a year ago, but up 10.7% from April, the kind of pickup typical of the spring buying season.

The bottom line

Sacramento’s market in the three months ending May looks much like a market in slow, orderly adjustment. Prices are off slightly year-over-year, homes are taking a bit longer to sell, and the share of homes fetching above asking has eased. But with supply still thin at about two months, sellers continue to hold the upper hand — even as lower rates have given buyers a modest break on monthly costs compared with a year ago.