By Ron Trujillo, Sacramento Business Journal

It was better times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, after the age of foolishness.

OK, so I altered a few of the classic words, but when you are dealing with the housing market, changing a few things is almost required.

And a lot has changed, especially in the four-county region during the past few years. In fact, we are talking about a tale of two markets — one with great expectations and the other facing grim reality.

Sacramento-area’s median-home price — meaning half the homes sold for more, the other for less — has increased a modest-but-respectable 7.6 percent to $180,000 from the so-called bottom of the market in April 2009, when homeowners hung their heads and home-shoppers licked their lips with the lowest prices in several years.

Read the whole story