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Holiday Weekend in Marin- from Tiburon to Novato

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Ginger Wilcox

I am a sucker for the holiday season.  I really get into the spirit of it and there are no shortage of holiday events in Marin.

TIBURON: The Tiburon Holiday Festival takes place tonight and will feature an ice rink.  Ice skate by the Bay?  How cool is that?! There will also be a tree lighting ceremony, Christmas carolers, and lots of activities for kids including the holiday standard- gingerbread decorating.  The Tiburon festival takes place on Main Street in downtown Tiburon starting at 5:30 pm. More information at  shoptiburon.info.

SAN ANSELMO: The Town of San Anselmo will light up on Saturday night, December 4th with the annual Holiday Lighting Ceremony.  The event takes place on San Anselmo Avenue at 525 San Anselmo.  Santa will arrive in a firetruck! There will be free photos with Santa, music and more.

The event sponsored by the San Anselmo Chamber of Commerce takes place from 5:00-6:30 pm on Saturday.  Parking is available in the Creek, Magnolia Street, and Pine Street parking lots. More information:  415-454-2510

SAN RAFAEL: The Marin Symphony will be hosting Holiday Concert by Candlelight with the chamber choir, soloists and instruments (including my favorite- handbells!) on Saturday Sunday.  Tickets range from $25-30.  More information at www.marinsymphony.org

The seasons classic- The Nutcracker will be performed this weekend by the Stapleton Ballet for the 22nrd year.  The performances take place on Saturday and Sunday at 1pm and 5pm at the Marin Veteran’s Auditorium in San Rafael.  Tickets are $18-30.  More information:   www.stapletonschool.org.

NOVATO: Novato will also be lit up like a Christmas tree (so to speak!) on Saturday with the tree lighting ceremony in downtown Novato on Sherman Avenue.  The event starts at 4:30 and features special guests of honor- Santa and Mrs. Claus along with a variety of other activities.  More information:   www.downtownnovato.com.

Hope to see you out and about this holiday weekend.

Warm Wishes for Bay Area Homeless

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Ginger Wilcox

I don’t know very many people who haven’t been impacting by the economy.  The financial crisis has significantly impacted our community and our day to day lives and spending habits.  Despite that, most people I know are fortunate to have a roof over our heads and food on our tables. Sadly, many Bay Area residents aren’t as fortunate.

In the San Francisco Bay area, there are approximately 35,000 homeless people; In San Francisco, estimates put the number between 7,000-15,000, which is the highest per capita rate of homelessness in any major American city. *  Affluent Marin County had more than 1770 homeless people living within its borders at least count in January 2009, with more than 3000 people on the verge of becoming homeless.**

Yesterday morning I was complaining about how cold it was as I had to defrost the ice on my windshield.  I can’t imagine living on the streets ever, let alone in the freezing nights of winter.

This Saturday, December 4, 2010 volunteers will be gather to make and distribute 5,000 StreetPacks to bay area homeless adults and children who live on the street.  The “StreetPacks” are backpacks filled with cold weather necesseties including gloves, hats, scarves, wool socks and rain ponchos.  5,000 Bay Area children hand write a personal holiday card to be included in the backpack. The backpacks will be distributed to 40 sites around the Bay Area, including Marin County, San Francisco, Richmond and the East Bay.

The event is run by Warm Wishes, a non-profit organization who describes it’s purpose as this:

Our purpose is for the homeless people to stay warm; perhaps to save a life. But our purpose, too, is for our volunteers to reap the rewards of looking into the eyes of a stranger, of coming closer to understanding his or her plight, and  filling with the feeling of doing good for others.

How you can you help?

  • Volunteer: Join volunteers on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at Unity of Marin in Novato, 600 Palm Drive.  8am.  Volunteers will assemble the backpacks and then go out into the community to personally deliver the StreetPacks to Bay Area homeless. Volunteers are asked to donate $10.00 or more to offset the cost of the backpack items.
  • Donate: Donations can be made online at WarmWishes.org.

Sources

* Philanthropedia.org
**Marin’s Homeless Report

Views Around Marin- Fall!

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Ginger Wilcox

Since I was born and raised in Arizona, anything remotely related to “fall” makes me happy.   I didn’t see the seasons change too much growing up!  This stunning display of fall leaves next to the brilliant blue sky made me pull over my car and snap a photo.  This photo was taken in Larkspur, just off Magnolia Avenue.  Enjoy!

Marin Market Update Part 2 – Now for the Nitty Gritty

Posted on November 17, 2010 by George Crowe

While it’s interesting to look at trends in the county overall, you get a much more useful picture when you get more specific about just exactly what sort of property you’re talking about. Continuing with some more market stats, we can see there continues to be a dramatic disparity between areas and price segments in Marin County.

Here’s a look at the percentages of Marin properties that entered escrow the last two months by city/town. Convention says these percentages determine the state of the market in that segment, for example 10% or below is considered a strong buyer’s market, while 31%-35% represents a balanced market. Those designations are somewhat arbitrary, but they are useful. Towns like Corte Madera, Fairfax, and Greenbrae remain relatively active, with the supply of homes and demand from buyers somewhat balanced, while buyers in Belvedere and Kentfield are in a much stronger bargaining position since there is so much inventory compared to the number of sales happening.

And here’s a look at activity by price range, where we continue to see a big difference between the entry level segment and higher end luxury homes. For example, only 1 of the 48  listings priced at $5,000,000 or more went into escrow in October, while more than a third of those listed at $500,000 or below found buyers. This is why there has been some stability in prices in the lower ranges, while luxury properties continue to take a hit.

These stats bear out what we’re experiencing anecdotally in the lower price segments. Accurately priced, well prepared homes in desirable areas are selling, and the inventory is drying up as we head into the holidays. This may be a tough time to sell that $8,000,000 mansion in Belvedere, but maybe not such a bad time to sell a charming $800,000 home in San Anselmo or Fairfax.

Dine out to End Hunger in Marin – Benefit for Homeward Bound

Posted on by Ginger Wilcox

Thinking of dining out this week?  Thursday, November 18th is a great night to do it for the 6th annual Dine Out to End Hunger which benefits Homeward Bound of Marin.  Homeward Bound is Marin County’s chief provider of shelter and residential services for homeless families and individuals, serving approximately 1,400 people per year in 14 inter-related residential programs.  97% of families and 83% of adults completing Homeward Bound’s programs go on to stable housing.

Tavern at Lark Creek, Larkspur, California

Supporting the event is easy.  Simply dine at one of the participating restaurants and twenty percent of your bill will be donated to Homeward Bound of Marin.  The restaurant list has some of my favorite local restaurants as well.

Participating Marin Restaurants

Corte Madera Restaurant Partners

Larkspur Restaurant Partner

Mill Valley Restaurant Partners

Novato Restaurant Partner

Point Reyes Station Restaurant Partner

San Anselmo Restaurant Partners:

San Rafael Restaurant Partner

Marin Market Update

Posted on November 12, 2010 by George Crowe

With the holiday season approaching it’s a good time to take a look at what’s happening with the housing market in Marin County.

It was a pretty slow summer, but as you’ll see in the chart below there was a nice uptick in homes entering escrow in October, the most new pendings since the little run of activity that peaked in April. Inventory is ticking down and we would expect it to drop off dramatically in November and bottom out in December as it typically does as homes sell without being replaced by new inventory and sellers pull their properties off the market for the Holidays.

We saw a bit of a glut of inventory overall through the summer, but as you can see from this chart of months supply based on pending sales, supply and demand are closing. And this fits with what we’re seeing, as there have been few homes coming on the market the last several weeks, while buyers are still buying. Inventory could get pretty slim over the winter, which could be a good argument for sellers to buck the conventional wisdom that says you should wait for spring to bring your home on. A desirable, well-priced home can attract a lot of attention in a period with very little competition.

And here’s a look at price in dollars per square foot. I’ve limited it to homes under $3 million, since higher end luxury properties tend to skew the numbers and have been more volatile.

As you can see, Marin residential properties (under $3 million) on average have been bouncing along between about $400 and $440 per square foot for a while now. In fact if we look at a five year graph you can see the big drop in 2008, but then relative stability over the last two years.

Wishing you a Giant(s) Win & a Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Ginger Wilcox

I just returned from trick or treating with the kids.   Along the way, we saw lots (and lots, and lots!) of Giants fans, beards and the like.  The energy and excitement over the Giant’s game was thrilling.  I was concerned about missing the World Series, yet people had brought large screen tvs into their front yards, invited us in for beverages and an inning, and generally cheered and updated us on the score. I loved this pumpkin we found.

The Giant sense of community (pun intended), was clearly felt.

And this, is why I love Marin.

Social Media could kill your home purchase or sale

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Ginger Wilcox

How Social Meda Killed the Deal- Negotiation Killers in the Social Media Age

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn- everywhere we go people seem to be tweeting, facebooking or posting status updates on some kind of online group or social network.  Unfortunately, many of these seemingly innocuous updates could cost you as home buyer or seller thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars, if not an entire deal.

Recently I have seen updates similar to these on social networks I participate on:

From a Home Buyer

From a Home Seller

“Looks like we are getting an offer on our house this afternoon. About time.”

From a Seller’s Real Estate Agent

“Sitting at an open house AGAIN.  This listing is totally over priced.”

From a Buyer’s Real Estate Agent

“Writing a counter offer for a client.  Hope they get it.  We have written 5 offers and they have to move next month!”

You can probably see how all of these different scenarios could impact how negotiations happen if the other party (or their agent) happens to see your message.  Do the updates make you appear desperate, motivated, anxious?  As a buyer or seller, your social status updates can have serious and significant ramifications in your home sale or purchase.  Your words in online forums can and will be used against you when you negotiate on a home purchase if you have a savvy and aware negotiator on the other side.  The key in negotiations is knowing the motivations of the other party.  Social status updates of both you and/or your real estate can inadvertently provide information to the other party that could be costly.

Case Study

Consider Jane (name changed for privacy sake).  Jane had been looking for a new home in the lovely town of Mill Valley for eight months.  We looked at home after home until one day, we found the perfect home.  The right number of bedrooms, a lovely back yard with a swingset, even a basement area- perfect for games, television and play.  She was so excited about the home, she ran home to tell her husband.  She also posted an update on her Facebook account about finally finding her dream home in the xxxx neighborhood.  Unfortunately, this neighborhood was highly coveted and one of her Facebook “friends” happened to have another very close friend (we’ll call her Buyer 2) looking to move to the same neighborhood.  This so called friend notified Buyer 2 about the house and at the end of the day, that second buyer, Buyer 2, was the one who walked away with keys in her hand.    Buyer 2’s agent was not aware of the home even being on the market until the Facebook post by Jane was shared.

While in the world of transparency and social networking it might be tempting to talk about the ups and downs in your home sale or purchase, it might pay to keep quiet until the transaction is closed.

“Have to vacuum and clean up the kids toys AGAIN.  So tired of showing this house, I hope we sell it soon.”

While we like to think we have some sort of privacy in online forums, our social networks may not be as tight as we deem them to be.  This same situation applies to our offline activities and interactions as well, but social networks magnify your message, however unintentional it might be.  Use your words cautiously as you make a move- it is possible it could have a significant impact on your bottom line and the success of your real estate transaction.

P.S. Before you hire your real estate agent, you may want to look and see what they are posting on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Do they talk about their clients and transactions?  Even “generic” complaints or comments can harm a transaction.  Sure, they didn’t post the client’s name or address, but hey, they only had one listing!  Which listing do you think they might be talking about?  Yours?  Make sure their words in online forums don’t cost you too!

Marin Luxury Homes Sold Year to Date

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Ginger Wilcox

There have been 50 Marin homes over three million dollars sold since January 1, 2010.  In the same time frame last year, there were 37 homes over three million dollars sold in Marin. Yes, despite the mortgage mess the overall luxury home market has actually improved since 2009 in terms of number of sales.

As you can see in the chart above, the town of Tiburon tops the list of the most homes over three million dollars sold.  The bulk of the luxury home sales are still under 3.5 million.

Top Ten Most Expensive Homes

The top ten most expensive homes sold year-to-date in Marin are as follows:

Ross 1 Upper Rd Ross, CA 94957 17,500,000 1/15/10 14,000,000
Ross 7 Laurel Grove Ave Ross, CA 94957 10,000,000 1/20/10 8,000,000
Tiburon 3680 Paradise Dr Tiburon, CA 94920 8,800,000 4/2/10 7,800,000
Belvedere 8 Eucalyptus Rd Belvedere, CA 94920 7,500,000 10/19/10 7,140,000
Tiburon 4639 Paradise Dr Tiburon, CA 94920 7,485,000 8/3/10 7,000,000
Tiburon 133 Sugarloaf Dr Tiburon, CA 94920 6,995,000 7/15/10 6,900,000
Sausalito 77 Harrison Ave Sausalito, CA 94965 8,750,000 4/15/10 6,834,000
Tiburon 232 Trinidad Dr Tiburon, CA 94920 7,995,000 3/10/10 6,500,000
Kentfield 65 Rock Rd Kentfield, CA 94904 5,500,000 5/17/10 5,500,000
Mill Valley 401 Lovell Ave Mill Valley, CA 94941 5,695,000 9/26/10 5,500,000

Both the price per square foot and the list price to sales price ratios were almost identical in 2009 and 2010.  What’s to come for the luxury market?  It’s still unclear how the meltdown of the mortgage markets will impact the overall economy and confidence in the real estate market. We’ll be watching carefully to see what’s next.

*information from Bay Area Real Estate Information Services.

Measure A to Fix Overcrowded Schools in the Ross Valley School District

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Kim Baskind

Contributed by Ross Valley mom Kim Baskind

Measure A is on the ballot this November in an effort to raise a $41 Million bond to fix the overcrowding in Ross Valley schools. Two thirds of classrooms at the White Hill Middle school campus are being conducted in deteriorating portables. In two years the high population of fourth graders will be entering sixth grade at White Hill School which is already beyond capacity. The parents of children in the Ross Valley school district put this video together to help inform the public.

Measure A costs $29 per $100,000 of your home’s assessed value. For more answers to your questions about prop A visit their website, or visit  Ross Valley Schools FAQ page.