Sacramento's housing numbers for September 2026, charts left in
Every month I pull the same handful of Sacramento housing series off FRED, the St. Louis Fed's public data site, and write down what moved. September 2026 is the latest month posted. Houses went under contract a little faster than a year ago. There were a few more of them for sale, and the median asking price was lower.
- 51 days
- median days on market, Sept 2026 (56 in Sept 2025)
- 5,286
- active listings, Sept 2026 (5,192 a year earlier)
- $599,950
- median list price, Sept 2026 (down 2.6%)
- 40.9%
- share of active listings with a price cut, Sept 2026 (my math)
Source: FRED, Housing Inventory Core Metrics, Sacramento metro series.
The September table
All of this covers the Sacramento metro area, CBSA 40900, which FRED still labels Sacramento--Roseville--Arden-Arcade. The counts include single-family homes, condos and townhomes. None of it is seasonally adjusted, so I compare September with September. Comparing September with August mostly tells you that school started.
| Measure | Sept 2025 | Sept 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median days on market | 56 | 51 | 5 days faster |
| Active listings | 5,192 | 5,286 | +1.8% |
| New listings during the month | 2,180 | 2,394 | +9.8% |
| Pending listings | 2,212 | 2,190 | -1.0% |
| Listings with a price cut | 2,166 | 2,164 | flat |
| Share of active listings with a cut (my division) | 41.7% | 40.9% | -0.8 points |
| Median list price | $615,745 | $599,950 | -2.6% |
| Median list price per square foot | $340 | $340 | none |
| 30-year mortgage rate, monthly average (my average) | 6.35% | 6.86% | +0.51 points |
The mortgage rate is a national number from Freddie Mac's weekly survey, which publishes on Thursdays. The listing data is monthly, so I average the weekly readings that fall inside each month and use that. The most recent weekly reading on Freddie Mac's rate page was 7.32%, for October 22, 2026.
What it says if you have to sell soon
Thirty years of counting cars on Caltrans corridors taught me that one reading means very little and a direction means a lot. These are the directions I see in the September numbers.
- We are on the slow side of the calendar. Median days on market rose from September to December in every year of this series, 2016 through 2025. The 2019 to 2025 average for December is about 58 days. For April and May it is about 34. A house listed this month is listing into that climb.
- Buyers have more to look at. In September 2026 there were about 2.4 active listings for every pending one (my division of the two counts). In September 2019 the ratio was about 1.5.
- Price cuts are routine. Roughly four in ten active listings had a reduction during September, and that has held within a point or two every September since 2023.
- Asking prices are drifting lower. The $599,950 median is the lowest September figure since 2021 and about 11.7% under the June 2023 peak of $679,322.
- Rates moved against sellers this fall. The monthly average climbed from 6.05% in February to 6.86% in September, and every weekly reading in October so far has been above 7%.
One wrinkle on item 4. Price per square foot was $340 in both Septembers, while the median list price fell 2.6%. Part of the drop may just be a different mix of houses on the market, with more smaller or cheaper ones listed. The numbers can't settle which.
None of this tells you what your house will sell for. A metro median lumps a two-bedroom condo in with a five-bedroom on an acre. Read it as the temperature of the market, the way a corridor count tells you about the freeway and nothing about your commute.
If your deadline is firm, say a job transfer or an estate to settle, plan on the slow season and price for the house you actually have. If the listing math doesn't fit your calendar, there is a guide to selling fast in this market that lays out the other routes, selling to a Sacramento cash home buyer as-is among them.
The three deep dives
- Median days on market by month, 2019 to 2026. The seasonal curve, year by year, and what a median hides.
- Price cuts and inventory. Active listings, new listings and the share of listings that took a cut.
- Mortgage rates and Sacramento listings. Freddie Mac's 30-year rate next to local pending sales and asking prices, with my usual warning about correlation.
One tax note, since a rushed sale tends to skip steps. If the house was your main home, the IRS rules for excluding up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, if both meet the tests) are in Topic 701, including the two-out-of-five-years test. Check with a tax preparer before you close, not in April.
FRED lists the next release of the Sacramento series for November 5, 2026. The October numbers go up here after that, charts and all.
Marcus Delahaye spent thirty years as a traffic data analyst for Caltrans District 3. Since retiring to Natomas he tracks Sacramento's housing numbers the same way: monthly, from public data, with the charts left in. He is not a real estate agent or appraiser.