Realty educator Corina Rollins of Greenbrae says that if Marin’s real estate market hasn’t bottomed out yet, it’s very close. “You are starting to see people move into the market, attracted by the low prices,” said Rollins, senior real estate instructor at the College of Marin for more than 20 years. “We are as close to a buyer’s market as we are likely to be,” she said. Marin home sales remain lower than last year, though sales are picking up a bit after several months of record lows.
The median price of a single-family home in Marin last month was $935,000, down from $1,010,000 a year earlier, and just 165 single-family homes were sold – down from 254 in April 2007, DataQuick Information Systems of La Jolla reported Tuesday. In March, the median single-family home price in Marin was $862,500, and 110 single-family homes were sold. April statistics included total sales of 216 single-family homes and condominiums, down from 313 in April 2007 – but up from 148 sales in March.
DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said Marin remains a “unique market that doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the ups and downs of mainstream meat and potatoes real estate in the state of California.” “The issues that seem to concern Marin homeowners are not the issues that concern 97 percent of homeowners,” he said. Describing last month’s median price for a resale home in Marin as “stratospheric,” Karevoll noted Marin was the first county in the state to exceed a million-dollar median price one year ago. “And Marin is going to be the first to re-cross it,” he said.
Levi Swift, president of the Marin Association of Realtors, said the statistics indicate “Marin County and San Francisco County are the ones holding up the best. É Realtors on the ground are seeing lots of traffic and if a house is properly priced, it sells and it sells pretty quickly.” Across the Bay Area, 6,310 homes and condos sold. That was up 29 percent from 4,898 in March but down 15 percent from 7,447 in April 2007. The month-to-month jump was the strongest for any March-to-April in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. From last September through March, each month was the slowest on record.
The median price for a Bay Area home was $518,000 last month, down 3.4 percent from $536,000 in March, and down 21.4 percent from $659,000 in April last year. Rollins said the combination of low prices and affordable rates may lead condo dwellers and those living in small homes to consider bigger homes. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen rapidly,” said Rollins, a residential appraiser in addition to her teaching duties.
The Marin market – especially among condos where the median price jumped to $508,000 in April from $477,500 in March – should benefit from a federal move to increase the conforming loan rate to as much as $729,750. The move cuts interest premiums. Foreclosure property resales accounted for 26 percent of last month’s Bay Area market. Foreclosure properties accounted for 9 percent of Marin’s market. Appraising a home in foreclosure in a Petaluma subdivision, Rollins found 8 of the 9 homes for sale in the area were in some stage of foreclosure.
This article appeared in the May 20th, 2008 issue of the Marin Independent Journal.
For the full article and statistical graphs from DataQuick CLICK HERE
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