All That Drama For 1%?
From the Sacramento Bee:
Since 1976, the Sacramento housing market has experienced three distinct booms and busts. Each was longer and more dramatic than the one preceding it, according to a Bee review of data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
In the first boom, from 1976 to 1981, inflation-adjusted Sacramento home prices shot up by 37 percent, more than twice the national average, before falling by 15 percent, about the same as the rest of the nation. In the boom that lasted from 1984 to 1990, home prices rose by 48 percent, after adjusting for inflation, while rising 12 percent nationwide. During the next seven years, Sacramento prices fell by 29 percent, compared to a 5 percent fall nationally.
The most recent boom ran from 1997 to 2006. It was the longest and the most extreme. Spurred by easy credit and subprime lending, Sacramento home prices soared 135 percent after being adjusted for inflation, compared to a 50 percent increase nationwide. So far during the bust, home prices here have fallen 53 percent. The average drop across the United States has been about 25 percent.
The net result of all the ups and downs: Sacramento home prices grew by just 33 percent during the past 35 years, after adjusting for inflation, for a relatively mundane growth rate of about 1 percent each year.
