*Key:

  0% - 10% of Homes in Escrow:  Extreme Buyer's Market  36% - 45% of Homes in Escrow:   Seller's market

11% - 20% of Homes in Escrow:  Strong Buyer's Market  46% - 55% of Homes in Escrow:   Strong Seller's market

21% - 30% of Homes in Escrow:  Buyer's Market   56% - 100% of Homes in Escrow: Extreme Seller's market

31% - 35% of Homes in Escrow:  Balanced Market

Including both single-family homes and condominiums and townhouses, the Marin median price was $740,000, a 19 percent jump over the same period a year ago and up slightly from November 2004, the previous all-time high.

"It's just total madness out there right now," Marin Association of Realtors President Jack McLaughlin said.

Marin's median home price, both for single-family homes and overall, was by far the highest in the Bay Area, with San Mateo County a distant second at $698,000 and $693,000, respectively.  Marin's median price for townhouses and condos was $493,000 in January, up more than 13 percent over last year. San Francisco had the highest median price in that category at $670,000.

A combination of several factors is sending prices through the roof, several local industry experts said.  The biggest factor is lack of inventory, they said. While buyer demand traditionally outstrips inventory at this time of year, the situation is exacerbated by high demand.  McLaughlin said the trend of multiple frenzied buyers making offers well above the asking price - a phenomenon that peaked early last year - has returned.

McLaughlin said he personally has been involved in at least 12 listings that have received multiple offers above the asking price. We have to keep checking and making sure the fax machine has paper in it we've been so busy," he said. "I am totally buried in real estate transactions."  Lack of inventory is the only thing preventing the housing market in Marin from exploding, said Larry Brackett, chief executive of Frank Howard Allen Realtors.  "The buyers are out there," he said.

Even with the lack of inventory to match buyer demand, a total of 309 homes in Marin were sold in January, a 23.6 percent leap over January 2004. The numbers reflect the closure of sales, and sales normally plummet in the winter months.   

Another major factor in the craze continues to be appreciation, according to Barry Crotty, an agent with Pacific Union Residential Real Estate in Greenbrae.  For example, he said a typical $600,000 home in Terra Linda has appreciated by $100,000 just in the past year.  Sellers have gotten more savvy about the presentation of their homes, which changes the perceived value of a home even beyond the increase in its actual value.   "The perceived value is certainly a little greater than it was in past years," he said.

Given continued low interest rates, even with the recent increase by the Federal Reserve, homeowners are also able to remodel and expand their homes relatively cheaply, several experts said. As a result, the actual quality of homes being sold is improving, furthering that appreciation.

"If you drive around Marin, all you hear are saws and hammers," he said. "People are really upgrading the housing stock in Marin. We're not selling the same houses that we did six months ago or three or five years ago."   The phenomenon is not limited to Marin, Brackett said.   A total of 7,509 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county region in January, DataQuick reported. That was a nearly 6 percent jump over the same period a year ago.

"As far as identifying trends, January and February numbers are generally shaky because of somewhat atypical mid-winter purchase patterns," DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said. "Still, last month's statistics were a continuation of trends we saw toward the end of last year. More surprising than the strong sales counts was the strong appreciation rate."

The median price paid for a Bay Area home was $534,000, a new record. That was up 0.2 percent from $533,000 in December, and up 20.5 percent from $443,000 for January a year ago. The last time annual price increases in the Bay Area were more than 20 percent was in January 2001, when the $375,000 median was up 20.2 percent from $312,000 a year earlier, DataQuick reported.

Local industry experts said the market shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, particularly if sellers step up and match buyers' demand.

"I don't think that anybody who works in this industry right now really believes that there is a bubble," Crotty said.

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Do you need Earthquake Insurance?

 

This month Liz McCarthy interviewed Jay Zemansky, Insurance Broker from Sadler & Company Insurance, on the subject of Earthquake Insurance:

 

Q:  What is the California Earthquake Authority and how does it work

 

California Earthquake Authority was created so that ALL homeowners/renters/condo unit owners would have access to a market for earthquake insurance no matter where they live in California.  It was created to be self funded by insurance premiums with no State of Calif. Funds used to pay claims.  It has been in existence for over 10 years and is now fully funded and ready to pay out on any disaster that might occurred due to an "event".

 

If a person has a policy for earthquake insurance through their insurance carrier there is a 70% plus chance that it is a CEA policy.  The individual insurers handle the paper-work for their Clients with homeowners, renters or condo insurance and place the earthquake coverage with the CEA.  The balance of the insurance companies carry the earthquake coverage directly.  When and if an "event" occurs a claim is made to the Client's insurance carrier