Home Listings Agents Resources Contact Search

Archive for May, 2008

Memorial Day - Marin Report

Attached are some the latest statistics from the Marin Report.

 trends

As you can see we have seen sales of existing single family homes increase by 43% from March but are still below 2007 same period by 31%. Below are the details by City:

aprilsales 

We are still seeing a decrease in the number of units sold throughout the county for the month of May to date. 108 Single family homes have sold from May 1- 26 compared to 187 for the same period last year. The number of homes in contract on the other hand is increasing. There are 259 single family homes currently in contract which represents 24.2% of total homes currently marketed. When the percentage reaches 25% we are looking at a more balanced market between buyers and sellers. Sellers have gotten the message that aggressive pricing is needed to make the sale and the median and average prices we have seen in April are a reflection of buyers being attracted to seller concessions. If you should have any questions on this data feel free to drop me a line at rparks@visionrealtors.com or call me at 415-297-9000. Marin Real Estate Blog

 

 

 

No comments

May 10, 2008 Update on Marin Luxury Real Estate

It is Saturday May , 10, 2008 and the weather is warm and beautiful here in Mill Valley. Tomorrow is Mothers Day and I hope everyone has a wonderful time in celebration of our wonderful Mothers. I thought I would spend some time on the Luxury End of the Marin County market. It is interesting and a phenomenon versus the rest of the State and the Country. Marin’s Luxury properties are still strong.

My outlook remains strong for Marin in the high end category. There are many more buyers than sellers in these price categories and as you can see from the statistics even though number of units sold are don the average and median price are not fluctuating the same as prices of homes at $1 Million or less.

As a point of reference for the first quarter 2008 versus 2007 for homes sold $1,000,000 and below Volume was down 43%, Average price was down 4%, Median price was down 4% and the number of units sold was down a whopping 43%. This gives you some pause and tells the accurate story that the lower end buyers and sellers are having trouble moving there homes as the number of qualified buyers are reduced as well as home prices in this category have moved down. Marin county is not completely immune to the mortgage issues surrounding the banking industry.

As always the Marin Report will be able to give you drill down details on the average and median price of a home in every city in Marin. In addition if you go to the home page of www.Westbayre.com you will be able to get all the details on the San Francisco and the Sonoma county markets. It is a great deal of work to keep these statistics up to date but it is one of the best ways to determine the state of the market and some indication of its direction.

Here are some numbers in Marin for the first quarter:

Single Family homes in Marin from $1,000,000-$3,000,000
Description Jan-March 2007 Jan-March 2008 Percent change
Dollars Sold $295,924,000 $183,692,000 -37.9%
Units Sold 189 114 -39.7%
Average Price $1,565,700 $1,611,300 +2.91%
Median Price $1,375,000 $1,437,500 +4.55%
Average Days
on Market
71 87 +22%
Single Family homes in Marin from $3,000,000 and Greater
Description Jan-March 2007 Jan-March 2008 Percent change
Dollars Sold $101,800,000 $79,186,000 -22.2%
Units Sold 19 16 -15.8%
Average Price $5,357,000 $4,950,000 -7.6%
Median Price $3,950,000 $3,800,000 -3.8%
Average Days on Market 287 106 -22.1%

.Of course feel free to call or drop me a line at rparks@visionrealtors.com or call me at 415-297-9000.

No comments

Marin Real Estate Update - May 2008

It is Saturday May 3, 2008 and the weather is warm and beautiful here in Corte Madera. Marin County is marching to a slightly different drummer as it relates to the housing market. The market in Marin is still robust in certain areas and very slow in others. The areas of Novato, Petaluma and certain parts of San Rafael are feeling the effects of the mortgage debacle. Many more home owners are in default on their mortgage obligation, no doubt due to the easy lending of the past few years.

As always the Marin Report will be able to give you drill down details on the average and median price of a home in every city in Marin. In addition if you go to the home page of www.Westbayre.com you will be able to get all the details on the San Francisco and the Sonoma county markets. It is a great deal of work to keep these statistics up to date but it is one of the best ways to determine the state of the market and some indication of its direction.

I always look like at the percentage of homes in contract to give us some guidance. This percentage is calculated from the total number of homes listed and those that are in contract with buyers. Anything around 20% or less is a buyer’s market. Anything 30% or more is a seller’s market. A balance market would be somewhere around 25%.

Please don’t let some of these numbers fool you. When we have only a handful of home selling in a specific community during the month you cannot get a true indication of the health of that real estate market or its direction. I can tell you that from my empirical analysis as well as from the feedback I am getting from my clients, people are looking for fair prices. In no case have I seen average homes selling at inflated prices. In many cases I have seen those same home sell in 2005 and 2006 for up to 10% greater. Many homeowners here in Marin are seeing large gains if they have held their homes for a long period of time. Those that have purchased since 2005 are lucky to break even if they need to sell now. Also, there are many exceptions to this in Marin. I recently put a client into a house in Mill Valley that was not on the market. It sold at $150,000 more than the previous owners paid for it just 3 years ago, and they did no significant improvements on the house. This was due to the superb location of the home and its ambiance.

Novato is still showing signs of a very depressed market. There are winners and losers here and if you are a buyer and looking on a long term basis to hold some real estate you can get some good deals on homes. These numbers do not tell the whole story. Prices are down and days on market on up greatly. Please go to the Marin Report to see the details. Of course feel free to call or drop me a line at rparks@visionrealtors.com.

The percentage of listed homes in contract as of May 3, 2008 is as follows:

CITY TOTAL LISTED TOTAL IN CONTRACT %
Belvedere 19 4 21%
Corte Madera 36 14 39%
Fairfax 28 6 21%
Greenbrae 14 4 29%
Kentfield 32 6 19%
Larkspur 29 5 17%
Mill Valley 138 33 24%
Novato 300 45 15%
Ross 20 4 20%
Sausalito 29 8 28%
San Anselmo 71 12 17%
San Rafael 243 58 24%
Tiburon 51 13 25%
TOTAL 1010 212 21%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments