Bidding Wars to Buy a Home in Sacramento

A potential home buyer called yesterday to talk about buying a home in Lincoln. Lots of buyers gravitate toward Lincoln because it’s newer and often more affordable than Roseville, although it’s a bit further out from the core of Sacramento. He wanted to know what the market was like in Lincoln. The real estate market in Lincoln is the same as anywhere else in Sacramento right now, mostly a seller’s market. Limited inventory. Too many buyers. Crazy bidding wars.

This fellow said he did not want to get into a bidding war. Hey, I did not want my car to stop in the middle of the freeway the other day either but it did. All the lights on the dashboard came on and it just stopped running. Fortunately, I was in stop-and-go traffic, coming back to Sacramento from Roseville, one of the few times I was grateful for the slow down in traffic. And now that I think about it, my car is not even 2 years old, and I better take it in to have it checked out or I could die next go around if it happened again. This is how busy I’ve been — not enough time to think about why my car died on the freeway, of all places.

The point is we deal with what’s at hand, and right now, we have a seller’s market. This means that some first-time home buyers will not buy a home. Because there are not enough homes for sale to feed the demand. There is not enough for everybody, no. No sense griping or complaining, it’s just the way it is. If you want to buy a home, you might end up bidding for it against one or more buyers. It’s not the fault of your Sacramento real estate agent, so don’t blame her.

Is it a good time to buy? You betcha. Interest rates are so low it’s almost laughable. It’s as though you’re getting money for free. Prices are still low, even though they are edging upwards. Do you want to wait until interest rates reach a point where they double? Do you want to be priced out of the market or have to settle for a home you don’t want? A little competition doesn’t kill you. What can kill you is to sit back and watch all of this action without participation. Or, not taking your car to a mechanic, as in my case.

So, the worst happens and you pay $5,000 more or $10,000 more or whatever amount more than the seller asked. The list price is not all that important in today’s market. The market value carries a lot more weight than a silly listing price. And what difference will it make a year from now or two years from now?