Sacramento Area Home Prices Continue To Outpace Wages

Owning a home is getting a lot harder to afford in the Sacramento area, according to new real estate data.

Over the summer, home prices in the four-county region increased by 12 percent while average weekly wages fell by less than one percent, compared to the same period last year.

The numbers come from ATTOM Data Solutions. Daren Blomquist with the research firm says property values in Yolo, El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties have come a long way since bottoming out in the first-quarter of 2012.

"Since then they've increased 101 percent. During that same time period, over the last four years basically average wages have only increased two percent," says Blomquist. "We're talking about home prices increasing at a rate that's 50 times faster than wages."

He says the Sacramento area is still affordable by historic standards. But that will likely change if home prices continue to outpace wages.

"The bad news is that all four counties are seeing affordability worsen compared to a year ago," says Blomquist. "They're headed toward being less affordable than their historic norms in the next couple of quarters if we don't see some of these trends change."

Diagnosis of what's causing this intensifying affordability affliction and some possible antidotes. (ATTOM Data Solutions)