April 2013 Sacramento Median Home Price -- values on the rise...

WOW...do my eyes deceive me? This graph, courtesy of Trendgraphix (which pulls local MLS data), illustrates the median home price in Sacramento County for the last 15 months. Our median price is now at $220,000 for April 2013. That is a 31% increase since April of 2012! This level of appreciation is not sustainable for the long term, but I do think that this increasing trend is the result of a market that over-corrected itself. The bottom of our market was basically too low...and basically at the beginning of 2012, with low rates and amazing affordability -- everyone decided it was time to buy. There are still many short sales and foreclosure properties in our marketplace, and those will be here to say for a while, but I am also encouraged by the number of traditional equity sales I am seeing right now! Interest rates for mortgage loans are still under 4% for most conventional and government-backed loans. We shall see how this progresses. I suspect that when rates increase this frenzy will cool down a little.