Yolo County’s housing market splits in two directions this spring

Yolo County’s spring housing market pulled apart this quarter, with two cities posting double-digit annual price gains while the other two saw values fall. According to Redfin data covering the three months ending April 2026, West Sacramento’s median sale price climbed 12.2% year over year to $549,716, and Winters jumped 14.1% to $696,141. At the same time, Davis prices fell 6.1% to $765,355 and Woodland slipped 5.5% to $552,715. The divergence reflects the small scale of these markets — Winters recorded just 10 sales in the period — and a shifting balance between where buyers are finding value and where demand has cooled.

Prices: West Sacramento closes the gap

Davis remains the most expensive city in the county at $765,355, though its median is down $49,645 from $815,000 a year earlier, per Redfin. Winters ranks second at $696,141, up from $610,000 last spring — but with only 10 closed sales, that figure carries the caveat that small samples can produce outsized percentage swings.

West Sacramento, historically the more affordable option, narrowed its gap with the rest of the county. Its $549,716 median is now within $3,000 of Woodland’s $552,715, after a year in which West Sacramento gained $59,716 in median value while Woodland lost $32,285. For buyers comparing the two lower-priced cities, the spread that existed a year ago has effectively closed.

Nationally, the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index was essentially flat year over year in March 2026, according to the Federal Reserve’s FRED database — a backdrop that makes both Davis’s decline and West Sacramento’s gain stand out as local rather than national stories.

Sales activity and days on market

Sales volume diverged as sharply as prices. Woodland closed 115 homes, up 7.5% from 107 a year earlier, and West Sacramento closed 92, up 9.5% from 84. Davis moved in the opposite direction, with 90 sales versus 103 last year, a 12.6% decline. Winters recorded 10 sales compared with 27 a year ago, a 63% drop — again, a figure tied to a very small sample.

Homes are moving faster in three of the four cities. Davis led with a median 10 days on market, down from 12 a year earlier, followed by Woodland at 13 days (down from 19) and West Sacramento at 19 days (down from 26). Winters sat at 39 days, the slowest in the county but a meaningful improvement from 88 days a year ago.

Competitive pressure was strongest in Davis, where 42.0% of homes sold above list and the sale-to-list ratio was 100.2% — the only city in the group where the typical home closed above asking. West Sacramento followed with 36.7% sold above list, Woodland with 33.9%, and Winters with 30.0%. Davis buyers, in other words, are paying a premium even as the median price falls, suggesting smaller or lower-priced homes are pulling the median down rather than a broad softening.

Inventory and new listings

Active inventory was relatively balanced across the three larger cities, with Davis at 216 active listings, Woodland at 212, and West Sacramento at 189. New listings ran highest in Davis at 168, followed by Woodland at 154 and West Sacramento at 128. Winters had 22 active listings and 14 new listings, consistent with its much smaller market footprint.

The combination of rising sales and falling days on market in Woodland and West Sacramento suggests buyers there are absorbing inventory at a faster pace than a year ago. In Davis, fewer sales paired with a 10-day median DOM and 42% of homes selling above list points to a market where listings clear quickly when they hit, but fewer are transacting overall.

Rents: Winters tops the chart, Davis edges down

Rental data from Zillow as of April 30, 2026, shows Winters with the highest median rent in the county at $2,762 per month. Davis followed at $2,498, Woodland at $2,479, and West Sacramento at $2,216 — the most affordable rental market of the four.

Year-over-year rent changes were modest. Woodland posted the largest gain at 4.2%, rising from $2,379 a year earlier. Davis rents edged down 1.1% from $2,525, and West Sacramento was essentially flat at -0.3% from $2,222. A year-ago figure was not available for Winters.

The rent-to-price relationship varies notably by city. Davis carries the county’s highest home price but a mid-range rent, making it relatively more attractive for renters than buyers compared with the rest of the region. West Sacramento, by contrast, pairs the lowest rent with a home price nearly identical to Woodland’s — and Woodland’s rents are climbing while its home prices fall, narrowing the gap between renting and owning there. Winters, with the highest rent and the second-highest home price, sits at the most expensive end on both sides of the ledger, though its small market makes those figures more volatile.

Rate environment

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.33% in April 2026, according to Freddie Mac data published by the Federal Reserve, up from 6.18% in March but down from 6.72% in April 2025. The 15-year fixed averaged 5.68% in April, compared with 5.9% a year earlier. Borrowing costs remain below where they stood last spring, even as they ticked up from the prior month — a national backdrop against which Yolo County’s split between gaining and losing cities has played out.