December 12th, 2011 By George Crowe

2011 is ending with a continuation of the trend we’ve been talking about all year: low inventory and strong demand in many areas and segments of the market. As you can see for the chart below, some Marin towns are fairing much better than others. Fairfax, Corte Madera, and Greenbrae, for example, are very different markets than Belvedere and Ross.

And pending rates go down dramatically as price range increases. Things are going to slow down overall as always as we head into the holidays, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens after the first of the year. Drop me an email at george@sfnorth.com if you’d like market stats for your area or price segment.

October 15th, 2011 By George Crowe

This week we brought on this super cute cottage just over the San Anselmo/Fairfax border. It has a flat lawn, tons of charm, and the location is great.  A stone’s throw to downtown and a block from the new Good Earth grocery store, but just far enough from Sir Francis Drake to avoid the road noise. First Sunday open house tomorrow!  www.20willowave.com

September 16th, 2011 By George Crowe

Here are the pending rates for August.  It’s traditionally a slow month, with people out of town, but there’s still been strong activity in some parts off the county.  Corte Madera, Greenbrae, and Fairfax continue to show a lot of demand relative to a small supply.

And here they are by price range. No surprise that the lower end continues to be stronger than the luxury market.

July 12th, 2011 By George Crowe

An interesting year continues, with things still a little wacky in the Marin housing market. We’re still seeing multiple offers on some homes, and then there are some listings that are sitting for months. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, one thing that’s pretty glaring is the continued lack of inventory, especially really desirable houses. Looking at the stats for June, the number of residential properties in Marin is the lowest it’s been in any June in at least the last five years. And the months supply of homes based on pending sales is the lowest it’s been in any month since 2007. It’s 45% lower than this time last year, and 17% lower than June 06!

The conventional wisdom says that July and August aren’t the best time to list a home since people are on vacation, but this could be a good time for sellers to throw that thinking out the window and take advantage of the lack of competition.

May 16th, 2011 By George Crowe

Time to look at the stats now that the April data is in. Inventory ticked up from March as expected, but is still substantially lower than it has been in April the last few years. These charts are for all single family homes in Marin County under 2 millon dollars.

Pendings (the number of homes going into escrow) have remained pretty constant from March, but months supply has ticked up a little because of the increased inventory. The market still feels more active than it has in a while, and we’re hearing the same from other agents, though it’s not across the board. Interest level in properties coming on still varies quite a bit depending on the nature of the home, how realistic the price is, and of course the location.

In 2010 we saw a lot of activity in the early part of the year, and then a decline from the beginning of Summer through the holidays. It’ll be interesting to see if this year things stay more consistent and if this feeling that the Marin market is heating up continues. As always feel free to drop us an email at info@sfnorth.com if you’d like stats for your particular area or price range.

May 3rd, 2011 By George Crowe

There’s a real feeling of renewed activity in the Marin real estate market so far this year, and we’re seeing more multiple offers than we’ve seen in some time. One Kentfield property listed by an agent in our office received eight offers last week, and that’s not an isolated case. Many homes are getting multiple offers, and others have been selling before most buyers even get a chance to view them, either before actually hitting MLS or before the Sunday open house.

Now this is certainly not what’s happening across the board. There are still plenty of homes sitting on the market, and we’re still seeing price reductions in many cases. But in the more popular areas, homes that have a lot of the features most buyers are looking for–and that are priced correctly–are getting a lot of activity. We’re not back to the way things were at the height of the crazy market in 2005, where even less desirable homes were selling fast and for too much money, but we haven’t felt this level of competition for good homes in years. We’ll have to wait and see how much this is function of the time of year and a low supply, or if it keeps up through the rest of 2011.

Here’s a look at the months of inventory based on pending listings for single family homes under $2 million in Marin, meaning how many months it would take to sell all the homes currently on the market based on the rate at which they’re going into escrow. It was down to 3.3 months supply in March, which was 11.4% lower than the supply one year ago, and 43.3% lower than March 2009. The numbers for April will be out soon and I’m guessing they’ll further reflect the increasing activity and relatively lean supply, but I’ll post some charts when they’re available to give a better picture.

If you’d like market info and stats for your specific area of Marin or price range feel free to email me at gcrowe@sfnorth.com.

November 12th, 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.

February 19th, 2008 By Ginger Wilcox

Single Family Residential Homes Only.
Statistics as of February 19, 2007 from BAREIS Marin County MLS®.

February 19th, 2008 By Ginger Wilcox

Single Family Residential Homes Only.
Statistics as of February 19, 2007 from BAREIS Marin County MLS®.

February 19th, 2008 By Ginger Wilcox

Single Family Residential Homes Only.
Statistics as of February 19, 2007 from BAREIS Marin County MLS®.