Marin County, people, places, culture and real-estateBelvedere had four home sales in December 2007, as compared to only one Belvedere home in December 2006, and three Belvedere homes in December 2005.
| Address | Listing Price | Sold Date | Sales Price |
| 130 Belvedere Ave | $3,995,000 | 12/28/2007 | $3,600,000 |
| 12 Windward Rd | $3,995,000 | 12/6/2007 | $3,850,000 |
| 424 Golden Gate | $5,495,000 | 12/13/2007 | $5,400,000 |
| 57 West Shore Rd | $5,600,000 | 12/28/2007 | $5,400,000 |
There were not a lot of home sales in Greenbrae during the month of December, but the average sales price was good! Below are the homes that sold in December 2007 in Greenbrae.
| Area | Address | Selling Price |
| Greenbrae | 306 N. Almenar | $1,675,000 |
| Greenbrae | 40 Corte Ramon | $1,725,000 |
| Greenbrae | 14 Manor Road | $1,777,000 |
Want to take a twirl on the ice? Normally, Marin residents have to drive to San Francisco or Santa Rosa for a spin. For one weekend only, you can ice skate in Fairfax. The Fairfax Pavilion will become an ice skating rink this weekend.
Can’t make it this weekend? Other ice skating spots near Marin include Snoopy’s Home Ice in Santa Rosa and Yurba Buena Ice Skating in San Francisco.
Many Marin County home sellers took their homes off the market over the holidays. This helped overall stats. Despite the holidays, we still saw quite a few homes go into contract. Many areas of Marin are considered seller’s markets including Corte Madera, San Anselmo, Sausalito and Mill Valley. The situation in Novato still looks dismal. Below are the stats by city. These numbers are likely to fluctuate widely after the New Year when sellers put their homes on the market.
Marin Market Update By City
| City | # for Sale | # in Contract | % in Contract |
| Belvedere | 18 | 2 | 11% |
| Corte Madera | 11 | 6 | 55% |
| Fairfax | 19 | 6 | 32% |
| Greenbrae | 8 | 2 | 25% |
| Kentfield | 14 | 2 | 14% |
| Larkspur | 12 | 3 | 25% |
| Mill Valley | 51 | 19 | 37% |
| Novato | 203 | 23 | 11% |
| Ross | 11 | 2 | 18% |
| San Anselmo | 35 | 16 | 46% |
| San Rafael | 119 | 29 | 24% |
| Sausalito | 16 | 9 | 56% |
| Tiburon | 40 | 12 | 30% |
| Total | 557 | 131 | 24% |
*Marin County Real Estate statistics pulled from BAREIS MLS on 12/29/2007.
Want to explore a new neighborhood? Get a street level view with Google Maps. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. Google has literally hired photographers to take pictures of every street and neighborhood across the country. San Francisco is basically done. Marin County is underway. In the snapshot below, you can see one of my favorite parks in a street view from San Rafael Blvd in Belvedere.
It is a pretty cool tool right now- and will get even better as more photography is completed. I wish they had this when I moved to Marin!
Want to learn how to use it? Watch this goofy but helpful video from Google.
A good reason to jump in and buy a home instead of renting…
Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, recently pointed out some interesting research from the Federal Reserve. Between 1995 and 2004, the average renter accumulated $4,000 in wealth. In contrast, the average homeowner accumulated $184,400.
Can you imagine what those numbers would be for Marin County and the San Francisco Bay Area?
Unfortunately, I deserve it.
UT -52
ASU- 34
OUCH! Even more painful- my proclamation of GO DEVILS, during the game.
And for Jay Thompson for calling his wife a knucklehead , I hope your punishment is just as painful.
I think I might be off to go whimper into a beer.
Did you know the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area is ranked as the #1 most secure large U.S. city? San Francisco is #4. Farmer’s Insurance puts together the rankings, taking into account crime stats, weather, risk of natural disasters, terrorism, air quality, life expectancy and job loss numbers. Santa Rosa-Petaluma made #17 for mid-size towns while Napa was #9 on the small town list.
I guess low crime, good weather and lots of jobs make up for the earthquake risks!
Catch the full story here, and thanks to my buddies over at Soundbiteblog for sharing!
Oh yeah- at the bottom of the list- Memphis, Tennessee.
p.s.- a funny post to follow my stolen purse story!
Off topic…
Last week, I was out shopping with the masses with my youngest (in a stroller) when I realized my purse was gone- car keys, house & office keys, TREO with lockbox installed on it, a special code key I need to access the mls, money, identification, credit cards – a lot of important stuff in a small little bag.
STOLEN– while I pushed a toddler around the mall.
What a way to ruin a kid’s Christmas.
Mill Valley schools have also seen an increase in enrollment over the last few years. San Franciscans with school age children continue to move to the district in droves. Mill Valley’s close proximity to San Francisco, excellent school reputation and charming community make it a big draw to families.
The district had 2,288 students last year and is expected to grow to 2,650 over the next five years according to an article in the Marin IJ.