Home prices in south Placer, El Dorado Hills are skyrocketing. Why buyers just keep coming
The foothills are booming. And so are the real estate prices.
South Placer County, in particular, has seen a burst of home building and buying in the past 16 or so months, making the area a key landing spot in the COVID-19 era of migration out of urban areas.
The West Roseville ZIP code of 95747 led the way with a net growth of 2,352 new residents in 2020 – taking the top spot in the Sacramento region.
El Dorado Hills had the second highest net growth, gaining 1,315 people. Just across the El Dorado County line in Sacramento, the hills south of Highway 50 in Folsom were another hot spot for new homes and new people last year.
The numbers gathered from change of address forms filed with the United States Postal Service and analyzed by the CBRE real estate consultancy, give some insight into the changing complexion of the Sacramento region.
Sacramento’s suburbs, foothills are growing rapidly in the pandemic. Here are the hot spots
People move where the houses are. West Roseville neighborhoods in the area of Fiddyment Road and Blue Oaks Boulevard in particular have been the site of explosive new construction in recent years, adding to its appeal to home buyers looking for bigger, newer homes.
That trend continued through February of 2021. New home sales in south Placer County were up 38% over February of the previous year (before COVID-19 hit), according to the North State Building Industry Association.
Normally, Sacramento County has by far the largest number of new homes being built and sold. But South Placer nearly matched Sacramento County for total number of new home sales in February.
“Homes in both Placer and El Dorado County tend to be newer and larger, both of which have been highly sought features during the pandemic,” real estate analyst and appraiser Ryan Lundquist said. “Sacramento County has a much older housing stock as a whole. Being that Placer County and El Dorado Hills have had massive construction over the past couple of decades in particular, the homes are simply larger.”
For example, in the first part of 2021 the average size of a home sold in Sacramento County was 1,754 square feet. In West Roseville, it was 2,170 square feet and 3,074 in El Dorado Hills, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service.
“These new designs provide space for buyers to have home office space instead of being forced to work from their kitchen tables,” said Michael Strech, head of the North State Building Industry Association.
Larger homes are more expensive
The added size makes houses in the foothill areas of Placer and El Dorado counties among the most expensive in the region.
The median price of a home in the West Roseville ZIP code was nearly $499,000 in early 2020, according to data from MLS, Lundquist said. A year later, the average price rose by 18%, to nearly $591,000.
Still, plenty of buyers are clamoring for a home in the Sacramento region, fed in part by those fleeing the Bay Area and historically low interest rates. The median number of days a home was on the market also dropped significantly during that time period, with homes selling in six days in 2021 compared to 14 days in 2020.
El Dorado Hills experienced a similar boost during the pandemic. In 2020, the median home price in the desirable enclave east of Folsom was $675,000. By the first quarter of 2021, the median price rose to $800,000. And the median days on the market also dropped from 29 in 2020 to just eight in 2021.
“We can’t ignore highly-rated schools too in both (El Dorado Hills) and Roseville,” Lundquist said. “There is no mistaking buyers are targeting these communities because of that.”
The south Placer zip code of 95648, which includes parts of Lincoln and Rocklin, also increased in population and desirability during the pandemic, gaining 863 people in 2020.
Lincoln is one of the fastest growing cities in Placer County, according to U.S. Census Data, and it’s showing in the city’s growing real estate market. The city, lying along Highway 65 north of Roseville, had a median price home price of $480,000 in 2020. By this year, the median price increased nearly 18% to $565,000. The average size of a home in Lincoln is 2,315 square feet, MLS data show.
Who is driving the migration? Lundquist said Bay Area residents fleeing high prices and small homes are definitely a contender but Sacramento County residents moving to the foothill can’t be ignored.
“We are certainly seeing more Bay Area migration, but lots of locals in Sacramento County are also heading to Placer and El Dorado Counties,” Lundquist said. “In fact, historically Sacramento County is the number one sender of residents to both counties according to Census Bureau data. We don’t have perfect stats yet for the pandemic to really know who is moving into these areas exactly, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Sacramento County still as the top contender.”
