May Marin Real Estate News

The median price for single-family, re-sale homes in Marin County rose 8% in April, compared to the month before, and set a new record of $1,080,000. This is 9.6% higher than last April. The average price gained 7.4%, up 10% year-over-year.
Sales of single-family homes were up 22.5% from March, up 9.3% year-over-year.
The median price for condos fell 8.9% to $549,500, a year-over-year gain of 0.9%. The average price fell 7.6% to $591,536, down 5.8% compared to April 2006. Condo sales dropped 23.6% from March, and were down 30% year-over-year.

These statistics show how many homes are available for sale in Marin, and of those how many are currently in contract (either pending or contingent. For the 8th month in a row, the Marin overall real estate market is in a "Buyers Market."

As always, it's important to view the individual city and price range stats for more details:

Although the overall market shows that it's a "Buyers Market': Novato, San Rafael and Tiburon are the in that "Buyers Market" category and Belvedere, Ross, Sausalito are all in a "Strong Buyers" market. On the other hand, Corte Madera, Fairfax, Greenbrae, Larkspur and San Anselmo are all in a "Sellers" market; Mill Valley is in a "Balanced Market", but is close to a Sellers Market. As I indicated last month the spring market has "heated up" again where multiple offers are once again becoming commonplace.

Homes priced under $1M and over $1M are all in a "Buyers Market", whereas homes priced from $1M to $1.5M are in a "Balanced Market."

My take on the current market: The real estate market is very hard to generalize. It is a market made up of many micro markets. For complete information on a particular neighborhood or for an evaluation of your home's worth, call me.
If I can help you devise a strategy, just let me know.

I think that the general consensus among agents currently is that there is a lack of inventory. Interest rates have been very good and there are buyers ready to purchase homes, but there is still a lack of homes that are finished and priced correctly. Multiple offers are becoming commonplace again, especially in popular areas like: Anywhere you can walk to town in Mill valley, Larkspur, San Anselmo and San Rafael.

If you are looking to purchase a home, it's important that you be ready with a pre-approval letter so that you can be ready if the home that fits your requirements comes on the market. Buyers once again have to forgo some of their "must-haves" and make compromises for what they are looking for.

MY ADVICE?

For buyers, the same as last month: prime property is selling quickly and, in many instances, with multiple offers. Buyers need to be prepared to make an offer immediately on prime property. That means you need to have a loan in place. For more information about buying in a multiple offer situation, call me.

For sellers, where your home is, the condition and what segment of the market it's in, entry-level, move-up or million plus, are the determining factors in whether or not you will be able to sell your home quickly and for a good price. Demand in the entry-level market has fallen, which will impact the move-up market. The million dollar plus market is pretty much immune to the sub-prime mortgage tightening.

The real estate market is very hard to generalize. It is a market made up of many micro markets. For complete information on a particular neighborhood or for an evaluation of your home's worth, call me. If I can help you devise a strategy, call or click the buying or selling link in the menu above.

I'm always searching for ways to bring my clients and readers more local real estate statistics. I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new Marin home Sales Statistics page. To view, go to: Marin Real Estate Statistics.

For the whole May Newsletter, charts, graphs and more, go to: May 2007 Newsletter