Buying a home in Woodland is becoming less attainable for young adults and other prospective owners as mortgage rates rise to their highest level in decades.
According to Zillow, the median home price in the city of Woodland has increased by around $120,000 to $570,000 since the start of 2021.
Although Woodland is still cheaper than many Northern California cities, high-interest rates have greatly increased monthly payments. The interest rate on loans to buy a house jumped from 3% to 7% in 2022.
“It just stopped being affordable,” Joseph Lynch, a real estate appraiser in Woodland said. “At the beginning of the year, you could get a loan for 3% and your payment would be $1,500. Now it’s approaching $3,000 for the same loan. That’s it right there in a nutshell.”
Lynch added that those increases have put a dent in the dreams of young people being able to buy their first home.
“Right now it’s difficult if you’re looking to buy your first house,” Lynch said. “It doesn’t matter where you are. The cost of money right now is so high. It’s very difficult to buy your first house, especially if you don’t have any equity.”
Young Woodland residents say they have little hope of affording a home at current prices and mortgage rates.
“It’s no longer just people here from within,” 23-year-old Woodland resident Celeste Fregoso said. “It’s a lot of people from Davis who have moved here for new housing.”
Fregoso moved to Sonoma for college in 2017 and returned after graduating to a much more-developed Woodland.
“I would love to own a house,” Fregoso said. “I live with my parents because rent is insane.”
People have begun to call Woodland “Wavis” after many students have resorted to moving to Woodland for cheaper options, according to Fregoso.
Hunter Hoffman, a 20-year-old Woodland resident who can’t afford a home, said the northern side of town has been taken over by residents connected to Davis. The incomers are people going to college in Davis or families that want to have their kids go to Davis schools but choose to live here because the houses are cheaper.
“Its kind of like that [northern] corner of Woodland is its own little ecosystem,” Hoffman said. “They have their own parks, their own little schools inside the housing communities.”
Davis’ cityscape preservation efforts are now affecting Woodland, according to Fregoso. Davis residents want to keep that town the way it is.
“I don’t think they should try to turn a different city into a carbon copy of it,” Fregoso said. “Davis is a college town, and Woodland is not.”
Grandfathered Woodland residents feel locked into the city. Moving elsewhere within the town may be an unfeasible option.
“We got the house that we have because it was given to us,” Fregoso said. “If we ever wanted to move elsewhere, it would be kind of impossible because we can’t afford it.”
Ryan Lundquist, who runs a Sacramento appraisal blog, agrees that Woodland is much more affordable than Davis.
The median home price in Woodland is around $570,000. That same-sized median-priced house in Davis is around $890,000, according to Realtor.com.
“It’s a much more expensive market,” Lundquist said. “For some people, [Woodland] is sort of a refuge from Davis… all across the region, the market is reacting and saying we can’t pay these prices when they’re more than doubled.”
But there’s a reason for optimism, according to Lynch. He said Woodland home prices have hit their peak and the market prices could go down.
Lundquist also agrees. He said the market started to see a drastic change this past spring.
“Honeymoon market – that ended in April,” Lundquist said. “We are in a different arena right now where prices have been going down. The market is starting to lose steam in a lot of places in the Sacramento region…It was almost like when mortgage rates went below 3%. It was like a steroid for the market. Buyer demand went crazy.”
By Tony Rodriguez and Cameron Salerno
This story is part of a collaborative project between The Woodland Daily Democrat and seniors in the journalism program at Sacramento State. For more information, visit facebook.com/sacstatejournalism.
