How Old Are the Homes in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado Counties?
43.8% of the 872,304 homes in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties were built before 1980 and 74.0% before 2000, according to the US Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey.
Key numbers
What the data shows
The Census Bureau asks a sample of households every year when their building was built, and publishes the answers grouped by decade. In the latest five-year estimates, 43.8% of the 872,304 homes in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties were built before 1980, 30.2% between 1980 and 1999, and 26.0% in 2000 or later. “Homes” here means every housing unit: houses, apartments and mobile homes, occupied or vacant.
Sacramento County has the oldest housing of the three: nearly half its homes (48.4%) were built before 1980, and its median year built is 1981. El Dorado County is close behind at 44.7%, with a median of 1983. Placer County is much newer. Only 28.1% of its homes were built before 1980 and its median year built is 1994; on both measures it has the newest housing of California’s 58 counties, ahead of Riverside County (30.3% before 1980, median 1990). The gap is larger than the survey’s margins of error.
Taken together, the three counties’ housing is newer than California’s (56.0% built before 1980, median 1976) and than the country’s as a whole (49.7%, median 1980).
Share of all housing units, by the decade the building was built.
- Built before 1980
- 1980 to 1999
- 2000 or later
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates, table B25034. Three counties = El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento combined.
Homes by year built, by county
| Place | Homes | Before 1980 | Before 2000 | 2000 or later | Median year built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Dorado County | 94,653 | 44.7% (42,315) | 76.7% | 23.3% | 1983 |
| Placer County | 179,266 | 28.1% (50,332) | 60.6% | 39.4% | 1994 |
| Sacramento County | 598,385 | 48.4% (289,657) | 77.6% | 22.4% | 1981 |
| Three counties | 872,304 | 43.8% (382,304) | 74.0% | 26.0% | — |
| California | 14,644,735 | 56.0% | 80.9% | 19.1% | 1976 |
| United States | 143,775,355 | 49.7% | 74.9% | 25.1% | 1980 |
Before 1980, Before 2000 and 2000 or later are shares of all housing units (homes built before 1980 in brackets). The three-county median is not shown because the Census Bureau publishes medians for each county, not for combined areas.
Community by community
Housing age varies far more between towns than between counties. Census estimates put more than half of homes before 1980 in 17 of the 32 communities we serve; in 10 of them the whole margin of error is above half. The highest estimates are South Lake Tahoe (73.7%), Carmichael (70.5%) and North Highlands (70.4%), though their margins of error overlap, so their order is not certain. At the other end, Lincoln (8.1%), Elk Grove (9.3%) and El Dorado Hills (11.9%) have the lowest shares built before 1980, and the latest median years are in Lincoln (2005), El Dorado Hills (2002) and Elk Grove (2000).
The 32 communities we serve in the three counties, oldest housing first
| Community | County | Homes | Before 1980 | Margin | Before 2000 | Median year built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Lake Tahoe | El Dorado | 16,662 | 73.7% | ±4.2 | 90.1% | 1973 |
| Carmichael | Sacramento | 33,048 | 70.5% | ±3.1 | 92.2% | 1972 |
| North Highlands | Sacramento | 16,876 | 70.4% | ±4.1 | 93.4% | 1971 |
| Walnut Grove † | Sacramento | 499 | 68.9% | ±21.9 | 93.2% | 1939 or earlier |
| Isleton | Sacramento | 273 | 68.1% | ±6.3 | 90.8% | 1972 |
| Rio Linda | Sacramento | 5,356 | 63.0% | ±6.8 | 86.3% | 1969 |
| Citrus Heights | Sacramento | 34,946 | 61.9% | ±2.8 | 92.7% | 1977 |
| Foothill Farms | Sacramento | 12,768 | 61.2% | ±4.8 | 96.1% | 1977 |
| Orangevale | Sacramento | 14,184 | 60.1% | ±4.1 | 88.4% | 1976 |
| Fair Oaks | Sacramento | 13,603 | 58.7% | ±4.3 | 89.7% | 1977 |
| Placerville | El Dorado | 5,074 | 58.0% | ±8.7 | 81.9% | 1975 |
| Newcastle † | Placer | 697 | 55.5% | ±15.0 | 95.0% | 1978 |
| Sacramento | Sacramento | 212,485 | 53.6% | ±1.1 | 76.6% | 1977 |
| Auburn | Placer | 6,446 | 52.2% | ±5.8 | 87.2% | 1978 |
| Meadow Vista † | Placer | 1,452 | 51.7% | ±10.9 | 86.6% | 1979 |
| Rancho Cordova | Sacramento | 29,313 | 51.4% | ±2.7 | 69.7% | 1979 |
| Loomis † | Placer | 3,136 | 50.2% | ±13.4 | 86.4% | 1980 |
| North Auburn | Placer | 5,672 | 48.9% | ±6.4 | 78.8% | 1981 |
| Shingle Springs † | El Dorado | 1,539 | 47.4% | ±13.3 | 89.7% | 1981 |
| Wilton | Sacramento | 2,029 | 43.1% | ±9.7 | 68.3% | 1984 |
| Colfax | Placer | 1,069 | 40.0% | ±9.6 | 71.7% | 1987 |
| Granite Bay | Placer | 8,003 | 39.0% | ±5.9 | 79.9% | 1987 |
| Penryn | Placer | 477 | 37.9% | ±9.9 | 55.6% | 1987 |
| Cameron Park | El Dorado | 7,967 | 28.4% | ±3.7 | 77.9% | 1987 |
| Galt | Sacramento | 8,706 | 22.2% | ±3.7 | 73.2% | 1994 |
| Roseville | Placer | 61,242 | 17.3% | ±1.1 | 54.5% | 1998 |
| Rocklin | Placer | 26,993 | 15.3% | ±1.6 | 54.3% | 1998 |
| Folsom | Sacramento | 30,868 | 12.6% | ±1.7 | 58.3% | 1997 |
| Antelope | Sacramento | 15,513 | 12.3% | ±2.6 | 78.5% | 1993 |
| El Dorado Hills | El Dorado | 18,791 | 11.9% | ±2.0 | 42.9% | 2002 |
| Elk Grove | Sacramento | 57,004 | 9.3% | ±1.0 | 50.0% | 2000 |
| Lincoln | Placer | 20,779 | 8.1% | ±1.5 | 21.9% | 2005 |
Before 1980 and Before 2000 are shares of each community’s housing units; Margin is the Census Bureau’s 90% margin of error for the before-1980 share, in percentage points. † Margin of error above 10 points (small samples in Walnut Grove, Newcastle, Meadow Vista, Loomis and Shingle Springs): treat these rows as a rough guide. Communities are Census places where we have a service-area page. Every Census place in the three counties is in the CSV download below.
The 2026 window rules these homes now face
California’s energy code for buildings was first put into effect in 1978, according to the California Energy Commission. The Census groups homes by decade, so “built before 1980” is the closest cut to the homes designed before or in the first years of that code. Whatever the year a house was built, replacement windows are held to the code in force when the permit is applied for, not the one the house was built under.
The current code is the 2025 Energy Code. The Commission says buildings whose permit applications are applied for on or after January 1, 2026, must comply with it. Its compliance manual sets the prescriptive limits for replacement windows in existing homes: a maximum U-factor of 0.27 in climate zones 1–5, 11–14 and 16 (down from 0.30) and 0.30 in zones 6–10 and 15, and a maximum solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) of 0.23 in zones 2, 4 and 6–15. A lower U-factor means a window loses less heat; a lower SHGC means it lets in less of the sun’s heat.
The Energy Commission assigns every ZIP code area that touches the three counties to climate zone 11, 12 and 16. Sacramento County’s ZIP code areas are in zone 12, Placer County’s in zones 11 and 16 and El Dorado County’s in zones 12 and 16. All three zones have the 0.27 U-factor limit; zones 11 and 12 also have the 0.23 SHGC limit, while zone 16, in the higher parts of Placer and El Dorado counties including the Lake Tahoe area, has none.
Prescriptive limits for replacement windows in the climate zones of the three counties (2025 Energy Code)
| Climate zone | ZIP code areas | Max U-factor | Max SHGC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 11 | 19 | 0.27 | 0.23 |
| Zone 12 | 73 | 0.27 | 0.23 |
| Zone 16 | 21 | 0.27 | No limit |
ZIP code areas are the Census Bureau’s ZIP Code Tabulation Areas that overlap each county, matched to the Energy Commission’s climate zone list by ZIP code. An area that crosses a county line is counted once.
There is a small-job allowance: under Exception 1 to Section 150.2(b)1B, up to 75 square feet of replacement windows may instead meet a U-factor of 0.40 and, in zones 2, 4 and 6–15, an SHGC of 0.35. Projects can also comply through the performance method rather than these prescriptive limits. Your building department decides what applies to a given permit. Our guide to Title 24 window replacement requirements explains the paperwork.
What this means if you are planning new windows
- Year built is not window age. Many homes built before 1980 have had their windows replaced since. The Census figures tell you how old the housing is, not what windows it has now.
- The rule follows the permit date, not the house. A window replaced in a 1981 house and one replaced in a new house are held to the same 0.27 U-factor limit in these three counties under the prescriptive path.
- Ask for the NFRC numbers in writing. U-factor and SHGC are printed on the National Fenestration Rating Council label of a certified window. Compare them with the limits for your climate zone before you sign.
- Foothill homes have a second set of rules. In wildfire hazard areas, the state’s wildland-urban interface code also covers windows. See our wildfire exposure study and guide to California’s 2026 wildfire building rules.
Method
We took table B25034 (Year Structure Built) and table B25035 (Median Year Structure Built) from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2020–2024 five-year summary files, for the United States, California, all 58 California counties and every Census place in El Dorado, Placer and Sacramento counties. “Before 1980” adds the groups built 1970 to 1979 and earlier; “before 2000” adds 1980 to 1999. The three-county figures are sums of the county counts. Margins of error for sums and shares use the Census Bureau’s published formulas, and the statements that Placer County has the newest housing of the 58 counties, and that the three counties are newer than California, pass the Bureau’s significance test at 90% confidence. Climate zones come from the Energy Commission’s ZIP code list, joined to counties with the Census Bureau’s 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county file. Window limits are quoted from the Commission’s 2025 Single-Family Residential Compliance Manual (pages 272, 300 and 301).
Independent check: on 12 November 2026 we fetched the same tables again from the Census Bureau’s data API, a different route from the summary files, and recomputed the headline, county, state, national and community figures from those values; we also re-read each quoted rule from the Commission’s PDF and web page. All 124 checks matched.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates, table B25034 (Year Structure Built) and table B25035 (Median Year Structure Built), from the ACS summary files (accessed 12 November 2026).
- California Energy Commission, 2025 Building Energy Efficiency Standards and its 2025 Single-Family Residential Compliance Manual (CEC-400-2025-005).
- California Energy Commission, Building Climate Zones by ZIP Code, and the Census Bureau 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area to county relationship file.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 place-by-county reference file for California, to assign each community to its county.
Limits
- These are survey estimates averaged over 2020 to 2024, not a count. Small communities have wide margins of error; read the Margin column before comparing towns.
- Year built is reported by residents and is less precise for older buildings. It describes the building, not later remodels or replacement windows.
- “Homes” includes apartments and mobile homes as well as houses, and vacant units as well as occupied ones.
- Community figures cover Census places only. Communities we serve that are not Census places, such as Cool, Rescue, Pilot Hill, Christian Valley, Gold Hill and Sloughhouse, are included in their county totals but have no row of their own.
- Climate zones by ZIP code are approximate near zone boundaries; the Energy Commission’s climate zone search tool checks a single address. The window limits are a summary of the prescriptive path, not legal advice, and your building department decides what a permit needs.
Cite this study
Suggested citation:
Heritage Exteriors. (2026). How Old Are the Homes in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado Counties?. https://hexteriors.com/research/sacramento-homes-by-year-built/ Data: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024, tables B25034 and B25035; California Energy Commission, 2025 Energy Code.The table behind this study is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: please credit Heritage Exteriors and link to this page.
Download the data (CSV)County, three-county, state and US rows plus all 71 Census places with housing in the three counties, with margins of error.
Related guides
Replacing windows in an older home?
We quote windows with their NFRC U-factor and SHGC in writing, matched to your climate zone, and handle the permit with your building department.
Request a Free Estimate →Or call (916) 546-2991