With less than a week left in this dramatic decade of boom and bust, let us assign it to history and to memories.
We soared, we fell back to earth. Let's review our crazy real estate during the 2000s.
We closed escrows
Real estate agents, builder reps and title companies closed 539,478 escrows during the decade in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. The 2000s opened with 52,757 sales in 2000, peaked at 75,738 in 2004 and bottomed at 33,267 escrows in 2007, according to researcher MDA DataQuick.
We built houses
Home builders sold 114,124 new houses and condos over 10 years. The housing boom exploded across Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Natomas, Antelope, Folsom and Roseville, creating thousands of acres of instant neighborhoods. (As a result, Roseville added the region's first suburban mega-mall, Westfield Galleria, and expanded it last year). Construction on a mall in Elk Grove began but then halted when the recession hit.
The decade opened with 11,949 new home sales in 2000 in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. They peaked at 17,491 in 2004 and ebbed to 2,700 the first 10 months of 2009.
We put up for-sale signs
January 2000 opened with 4,283 existing houses for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties and reached a stunning high of 16,262 in the panicky late summer of 2007. By last month the flood tide of for-sale signs receded to 6,160, said Sacramento researcher TrendGraphix.
We saw a Bay Area rush
The first five years of the decade brought 150,000 fresh arrivals from the Bay Area to the Sacramento region. It was like the entire population of Reno picking up and moving down the mountain. But the Bay Area people had more money. Santa Clara County sent the most: 40,000 in five years. Most Bay Area newcomers flocked to the suburbs, especially El Dorado County and Placer County. Thousands were retirees heading for Del Webb's massive new Sun City Lincoln Hills community, whose population swelled to 11,000 residents as the decade progressed.
We saw prices rise and fall
Median sales prices for new and existing homes combined opened at $140,000 in Sacramento County in January 2000. They end this decade – as of last month – at $175,000. The county's 2005 boom-era peak of $387,000 is history.
Placer County started the decade at $211,250 and ends at $305,000. Its prices peaked at $525,5000.
El Dorado County's median opened at $165,000 and closed at $289,000. Prices there crested at $531,250.
Yolo County entered the 2000s at $170,000 and ends at $246,000. The boom high was $474,000.
We built a new skyline
Developers in the decade about to end added heft to downtown Sacramento with the Esquire building on the K Street Mall, the California Environmental Protection Agency building on I Street, new Sheraton and Marriott towers on J and L streets, Meridian Plaza on L Street, US Bank Tower and Bank of the West Tower on Capitol Mall, and a new California State Teachers' Retirement System building just across the river on the J Street alignment. Notably, the Esquire building's blue vertical light and US Bank Tower's "Lumetric River" added the first iconic electronic art to the skyline.
We fell short in big ways
Downtown's Capitol Towers, two 53-story condominium and hotel visions, died in the 2000s bust. Down, too, went the planned high-rises Epic and Aura.
It's been wild like this for two decades now. Let's hope the next 10 years are a little more sedate.