Marin County, people, places, culture and real-estateInitial stats are in for December home sales. The median price in Marin plummeted in December of 2008 to $675,000. This is for single family homes ONLY. The number does not include condos. WOW!!! When you add in condos, the median drops to $590k. The numbers may change slightly as last minute sales are reported. 70 properties were sold compared to 111 in December 2007 and 158 in December 2006.
Wow.
I snapped this early this morning- a breathe taking sight to see the fog swirling around Mt. Tamalpais.
I have to toot my own horn just a little. Last week, I was honored by Sellsius Real Estate Blog as one of the “Top Women Real Estate Bloggers” for 2008. According to Sellsius, the honorees were selected for their “exemplary efforts in publishing local consumer-centric content across multiple channels, building their brand identity, awareness and trust and, most importantly, for their community involvement and service, both online and offline.â€
The other honorees are all women I respect and admire. I am extremely honored to have made the list!
The holidays are almost through and many Marin homeowners are thinking about putting on their homes in the New Year. Here are a few tips to prep your home for sale.
The real estate stats lie. If you have spent any time on my site, you know I LOVE real estate stats. I am stats junkie as a matter of fact. They provide a ton of valuable information. Unfortunately, what you can’t see from the currents stats are real listing inventory numbers.
In Marin County, a HUGE number of home are for sale, but are not on the MLS. Tons of homes are coming on the market or are staying on the market, but you won’t find a good chunk of them on whatever search engine you might be using.
Home sellers and agents are afraid of the all important DOM- Days on market. Fearing a high number, they are withholding the listing from the MLS. This skews the stats for both real, accurate days on market numbers and also for market absorption rates.
I believe keeping listings off the MLS is a bad for everyone, even sellers fearful of too many days on the market.
Marin home sellers- listen to me now, most buyers are smart enough to know that the days on market stats aren’t accurate. The tradeoff of being off MLS is that you miss a huge portion of buyers. Suddenly, you rely on agents, many of whom may not know that your home is for sale. What if the home buyer happens to have an agent who isn’t connected? This also assumes active buyers are working with an agent. There are tons, and tons of home buyers doing their initial research on their own. Those buyers are very real, and they aren’t being exposed to your property. As much as high days on market may be undesirable, it is even more undesirable for you to limit your access to home buyers. Staying “off the MLS” is really like being off the market. It just doesn’t make sense if you want to sell your home.
Unfortunately, do-it-yourself home buyers are really only seeing a small portion of true home inventory. If you are a buyer not working with agent, there are a lot more homes available for sale in Marin than show up on the MLS. Contact a qualified (and connected) agent to give you the inside scoop. As much as I dislike off the market listings, the reality is that there are a ton of them out there, and unless you are working with agent “in the know”, you may never see them.
These are certainly very dynamic and fast moving times in the mortgage market these days! Just when you think things are settling down a bit, another curve ball comes our way. The most recent one came to us courtesy of Secretary Treasurer Hank Paulson yet again.
As you know, the Treasury has already announced a plan to buy mortgage backed securities (MBS) issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Yesterday, they came out and said that they would ideally like to step up those purchases in order to drive mortgage rates down to 4.5% for conforming loans. I would love to see that happen as much as the next person…but there is NO guarantee that rates will actually get there. A couple of points to consider:
We certainly are not in a typical trading environment for mortgage backed securities as we are still experiencing significant volatility which is causing rates to move rapidly. If you are buying a home or refinancing and have locked in a rate that you are happy with now, you should grab it while you can. There is no guarantee that rates will go lower and in waiting for an incremental drop that may never come, rates could move up fast and furiously in this environment as well.
Most mortgages now come with no prepayment penalty so if down the road rates do come down further, you can always refinance again and can even do it with no closing costs…just ask your mortgage professional about that option.
Stacey Fleece is a Mortgage Loan Consultant with Countrywide Home Loans in Mill Valley in Marin County, California.
I snapped these pictures on a recent hike in Baltimore Canyon and had to share. The sun was shining through the redwoods, but the ground was covered in what looked like a blanket of leaves.
Being raised in Arizona and the land of the cactus, I am truly inspired by the beauty of Marin and resources almost literally in my backyard.
There have been 21 Marin homes with a sales price over $5,000,000 sold year-to-date. In the same time period in 2007, 29 Marin homes with a sales price over $5,000,000 were sold.
| Address | Selling Price |
| 1960 Straits View Drive, Tiburon | $12,518,000 |
| 106 Mount Tiburon Rd, Tiburon | $10,500,000 |
| 210 Beach Rd., Belvedere | $9,750,000 |
| 3 Upper Ames Ave., Ross | $9,000,000 |
| 324 Palm Ave., Kentfield | $8,575,000 |
| 104 Laurel Grove Ave., Ross | $8,500,000 |
| 2 Upper Rd W, Ross | $8,000,000 |
| 1499 Lucas Valley Rd, San Rafael | $7,250,000 |
| 37 W. Shore Rd, Belvedere | $7,000,000 |
| 148 Seadrift Rd., Stinson Beach | $6,595,000 |
| 49 Glenwood Ave., Ross | $6,500,000 |
| 135 Belvedere Ave., Belvedere | $6,485,000 |
| 21 Sky Rd., Mill Valley | $6,350,000 |
| 276 Seadrift Rd., Stinson Beach | $6,300,000 |
| 100 Spencer Ave., Sausalito | $6,250,000 |
| 19 Place Moulin, Tiburon | $6,100,000 |
| 3636 Paradrise Dr., Tiburon | $5,975,000 |
| 700 Goodhill Rd., Kentfield | $5,900,000 |
| 109 Fawn Dr., San Anselmo | $5,850,000 |
| 59 Bridge Rd., Ross | $5,500,000 |
| 321 Summit Ave., Mill Valley | $5,300,000 |
*Statistics pulled from BAREIS MLS
Initial November Marin home sales numbers are in. As expected, median home prices in Marin County have dropped. As of now, the median price for single family homes in Marin dropped to $805,375. (The numbers may change slightly as last minute sales are reported.) In November of last year, the Marin median home price was $1,000,000. The number of units sold was down over 41%, a dramatic drop off in sale activity.
Clearly the election and the volatility in the financial markets has had a significant impact on the Marin real estate market. Buyers who have jobs or cash are sitting pretty right now. Great interest rates, motivated sellers, and low home prices make it a great time to purchase for those who are able.
Data is pulled from BAREIS Multiple Listing Service.