Bay Area Real Estate Sales.com Newsletter

February 2007

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

 

Marin Home Sales Statistics

Update On Liz's Micro Preemie Daughter

Map Based Home Search Announced On Bay Area Real Estate Sales.Com

What Did Your Neighbors' House Sell For?

Marin Median Home Price increases 10% over previous January

Navigating Home Inspection Process

What Do Liz's Clients Say?

Fast Facts

 

 

MARIN HOME SALES STATISTICS

 

Monthly Stats

These statistics show how many homes are available for sale in Marin, and of those how many are currently in contract (either pending or contingent.  For the 5^th month in a row, the Marin overall real estate market is in a "Buyers Market."

 

There are just over 100 more Marin homes for sale this February (893) then there were in February 2006 (782).  The percentage of homes in contract went substantially (29.34% as compared to last month (23.89%).  It is almost a Balanced Market (30%) and is fairly close to that of a year ago, when 34% of available Marin homes were in contract.  As I predicted in last month's newsletter the market seems to be more active, and other agents have confirmed this to me.

 

I believe that the market is going to continue to heat up.  I think because interest rates have stabilized and the talk of the housing bubble has cooled down a bit that there is some pent up demand for homes (at least in Marin County).  I think that there is again some pent up demand from last year when the market seemed to be unstable.  However, interest rates are higher than they were a year ago, and this seems to have greatly affected the lowest end of the market (homes under $500,000) are in a strong Buyers Market.    Again, this is just my $.02. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

The overall Marin Real Estate market is in a "Buyers" market, where almost 29% of all listed homes are in contract, there are some interesting facts to note:  Greenbrae is in an Extreme Sellers market - this means:  If you are looking to buy a Greenbrae home, don't be expecting any "bargains", and if you are looking to sell a Greenbrae home, this is the time!  Corte Madera, Fairfax, Mill valley and for the first time in a while, San Anselmo are all in Sellers Markets!!  This is really big news.  Ross, on the other hand is in a Strong Buyers Market.

 

As far as price range break-down:  as I mentioned earlier, the homes priced under $500,000 (are there any in marin?) are in a Strong Buyers market.  The Sellers market homes priced from $500K to $750K. Homes priced from $750,000 to $1M are in a Balanced market, and Homes priced from $1M to $4M are in a Buyers Market. 

 

2006 Year in Review

After a year of media headlines shouting "The Bubble is about to burst", "Home prices being slashed," and so on, I was surprised to discover that as 2006 has come to a close the Median Marin home price WENT UP in 2006.  (Not a lot, but it did go up a very small amount (down slightly for single family homes and up slightly for condos). These are just my informal statistics, pulling data from our local MLS system (BAREIS).  But I showed that in 2005, the Median home price (including Condos and Single Family Residences) was $850,000 and for 2006 it is $864,000. 

 

I created charts for 2006 showing the average and median Marin home prices with Condos broken out from Single Family Residences. To view these charts, go to:  http://www.bayarearealestatesales.com/marin.html  and click on the charts titled: Marin County Average and Median Home Prices. Additionally, I've included link to additional charts with average home prices broken down by city and by month.  There is a lot of good data here for you to review in your spare time!

 

 

Now that 2007 is here, I was surprised to see a lot of Marin Real Estate activity already.  I had some clients put an offer in on a well priced $1,000,000 home this week, and we competed against 8 offers!! Yes 8 offers!  As I've always mentioned, there seems to be a continued shortage of well-priced homes in Marin, especially in areas like Mill Valley that has so much to offer.  Additionally, at an open house I held open this last weekend, I had over 25 groups of buyers through to view the $1.4 Million dollar property.

 

And for those of you who do read these stats, I'd love to know that you find the information useful!  It actually takes me quite a lot of time to track, compile and post the data each month - and I'd love to know that it is being utilized!  Send me an email to let me know you like getting it!

 

I'm always searching for ways to bring my clients and readers more local real estate statistics.   I'm pleased to announce the launch of my new Marin home Sales Statistics page.   To view, go to:  Marin Real Estate Statistics.

 

If you know of anyone who would like to receive this monthly newsletter or is thinking of either buying or selling a home please let me know.   I'd love your referrals!

 

 

 

 

 

**Based on information from Bay Area Real Estate Information Services, Inc. (BAREIS).   Information has not been verified, is not guaranteed, and is subject to change and is based on one period of time."

***Includes all: Sale Pending & Contingent properties

 

FREE...You can search for Marin listings directly on BayAreaRealEstateSales.com:  Search for Homes

 

UPDATE ON LIZ'S MICRO PREEMIE DAUGHTER

 

I'm sorry that the link in last month's newsletter wasn't correct.  I'm repeating this story this month with the correct link.  Many of my clients are aware that I gave birth to Micro Preemie Twins 13 weeks early in October of 2005. Both of my daughters together weighed a tad over 3 pounds. Sadly, my first born, Corinne only lived for 3 hours.  Her surviving twin, Kaitlyn spent 127 days in the NICU.  Kaitlyn has been home with us now for almost a year and is 15 months old.  She is doing amazingly well for how sick and tiny she was at birth.  She now weighs 18.5 pounds (that's almost 12 times her birth weight:  1.5 pounds).  She is crawling all over the place and prefers to pull herself up whenever she can.  Sadly, she still does have some medical issues that we are dealing with on a daily basis.  She has a paralyzed vocal chord and doesn't vocalize much.   Kaitlyn doesn't eat anything by mouth; she is fed 100% via a feeding tube, which has been surgically implanted into her stomach - she has horrible reflux and oral aversions and still vomits multiple times a day.  She is also socially delayed; she only started smiling a few months ago.  After spending your first 4 months of life in a hospital being prodded and poked and then vomiting every day since, I don't think I would smile much either.  With all she's been though she's an incredibly good natured baby, and has quite an energy about her.  

 

I have been changed forever by experiencing the pain of loosing a child and having a medically fragile daughter.  I have been amazed by all the people that have reached out to us to give us support during these tough times that I want to try to give back to the community of premature babies.  I have started a local support group for preemie moms, a support group for children with feeding issues, as well as a virtual micro preemie support group.  If you know of anyone who can benefit from these groups, please let me know!  I continue to chronicle Kaitlyn's progress and am absolutely amazed that her blog has received 70,000 visits!  She has a fan base from all over the world.  If you would like to check in on Kaitlyn, you can visit her blog at:  http://lizmccarthy.blogspot.com/

 

MAP BASED HOME SEARCH ANNOUNCED ON BAY AREA REAL ESTATE SALES.COM

 

We've added a new map based home search on BayAreaRealEstateSales.com  This will allow you to search in any particular area via map,  narrow down the specific homes that are available in that area.  You can then view specific home sale details like pictures, square footage and price.  I hope you like this new feature - be sure to give me any feedback!

Marin Map Based Home Search

 

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WHAT DID YOUR NEIGHBORS' HOUSE SELL FOR?

 

 

The Neighborhood Homes Sold listing is a weekly reader feature of the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle and is provided by California REsource, a title abstracting company.  The data posted here is typically months after the property officially sold.  This is the public data available in the published tax records.  The home addresses, sales price, number of bedrooms, square footage and the year the homes were built are based on information supplied from Bay Area counties' property transaction records which, in some cases, may not be complete.

Neither The Chronicle nor California REsource guarantees the completeness or accuracy of the information. Questions or requests for additional information should be directed to Cal Resource

 

Click on the following links to see what price homes sold for in your neighborhood:

 

2/11/07    2/11/07 Marin Home Sales

2/4/07      2/4/07 Marin Home Sales

1/28/07:  1/28/07 Marin Home Sales

1/21/07:  1/21/07 Marin Home Sales

1/14/07    1/14/07 Marin Home Sales

 

Previous editions of Neighborhood Homes Sold

 

FREE...You can search for Marin listings directly on BayAreaRealEstateSales.com:  Search for Homes

 

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MARIN MEDIAN HOME PRICE INCREASES 10% OVER PREVIOUS JANUARY

By Liz McCarthy

(Data from DQNews.com and MarinIJ.com)

 

All Homes	No Sold Jan-06	No Sold Jan-07	Pct. Chg	Median Jan-06	Median Jan-07	Pct. Chg
Alameda	1,316	1,279	-2.8%	$565,000	$570,000	0.9%
Contra Costa	1,298	1,158	-10.8%	$575,000	$550,000	-4.3%
Marin	224	195	-12.9%	$754,500	$830,000	10.0%
Napa	111	98	-11.7%	$580,000	$542,500	-6.5%
Santa Clara	1,618	1,606	-0.7%	$650,000	$660,000	1.5%
San Francisco	369	402	8.9%	$745,000	$750,000	0.7%
San Mateo	482	499	3.5%	$725,000	$735,000	1.4%
Solano	544	468	-14.0%	$470,500	$430,000	-8.6%
Sonoma	472	463	-1.9%	$569,000	$510,000	-10.4%
Bay Area	6,434	6,168	-4.1%	$610,000	$601,000	-1.5%

Source:  DQnews.com

 

 

Amid headlines of Bay Area Home Prices dropping, Marin actually had a 7.6 percent increase (935,000) last month in the median price of a single-family home over the previous January, even as prices remained flat across the nine-county Bay Area, according to DataQuick Information Systems.   It's interesting to note that the median condo home price was down 5.7 percent.   As reported earlier, the interest rates have greatly affected the low-end of the Marin market.

 

The overall median, including condos and townhouses, was up 10 percent over the previous January, to $830,000. Marin's overall performance was by far the strongest in the Bay Area. Now Dataquest (where these stats come from) has said verbally that the price increase is a "statistical fluke" of sorts, as there were a lot of condo conversions in January last year and that a more accurate price appreciation is much lower than 10%. It will be interesting to see how the numbers look next month.   

 

The median price is the point at which half the homes are more expensive and half less. Marin's record median for single-family homes was $979,000, set in April 2006.

 

Sales were soft last month throughout the Bay Area, which posted its 24th consecutive monthly decline in volume. Single-family home sales fell 5.6 percent across the nine counties from January to January.

 

In Marin, single-family home sales fell less than 1 percent - from 145 to 144. Condo sales fell from 48 to 46, or 4.2 percent.

Across the Bay Area, the overall median home price in January, including condos and townhouses, was $601,000, down 1.5 percent from the previous January. Overall sales were down 4.1 percent.

 

Statewide, the median price hit $462,000 in January, up 2.4 percent from $451,000 a year ago and down 2.1 percent from December, DataQuick reported.

 

DataQuick also reported that the typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $2,804 last month, down from $2,828 the previous month and down from $2,812 a year ago.

 

Indicators of market distress are still at a moderate level. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is declining slightly. Foreclosure activity is rising but is still in the normal range. Down payment sizes are stable and flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity is down, DataQuick reported.

 

NAVIGATING HOME INSPECTION PROCESS

By Dian Hymer

 

There's one thing that buyers and sellers agree on: home inspections are no fun. Buyers and sellers hope for a good end result, but something invariably comes up.

To complicate matters, inspectors sometimes disagree on what is wrong, what should be done to correct a problem or how much it will cost. Finding the right inspector isn't always easy, but it's often critical to resolving an issue.

A home inspector recently found a defect in a chimney. He recommended that the fireplace not be used until the problem was corrected. A chimney contractor looked at the problem and said that fixing it was beyond his area of expertise.

The buyer's agent suggested calling a second specialist who said he could repair the defect, but he was too busy to do the work before the transaction closed. Furthermore, he wouldn't be able to issue a firm bid for the repair work without dismantling part of the chimney in order to access the problem.

The sellers agreed to fix the problem, but they were unwilling to sign a blank check. So the chimney contractor came up with a cost-not-to-exceed price. The sellers agreed to leave enough money in an escrow account to cover the maximum cost for the repair work; any unused funds would be returned to them after the work was completed.

This was a relatively easy solution. The sellers took responsibility for paying for the repairs. And, the buyers agreed to wait to have the work done until after closing.

Not all inspection-related negotiations go so smoothly. Some sellers, particularly in the current market, feel that they sold for a bargain price and don't want to give up a penny more for anything.

Sellers who adopt a hard-line on inspection-related defects -- particularly if the buyers didn't know about the defects before they entered in to contract -- can sabotage the deal. With an increase in the number of homes for sale in many areas, it's easier for buyers to find another house to buy if a deal doesn't work out. And, they can usually wait if the right house isn't immediately available.

HOUSE HUNTING TIP: You can best work out inspection-related issues by hiring a real estate agent before you get into contract to buy or sell a house. The agent should be a strong negotiator, resourceful and have a good track record for keeping transactions together.

If you don't have past experience with an agent you're considering, ask for references. Then, contact the references. Be sure to ask if the buyer or seller felt well-represented during the inspection process. Ask for specific examples.

Open lines of communication facilitate working through the inspection process. Sellers often balk when they find out at the eleventh hour that there is an issue. Rather than wait until the last minute to gather critical information, start working on your due diligence as soon as your offer is accepted. Frequent conversations between the buyers' and sellers' agents during the inspection process can pave the way to a more successful resolution to issues that arise.

Buyers can be understandably upset if they find out only after their offer is accepted that the sellers neglected to disclose a material fact. A material fact is anything that might be relevant to someone's decision to buy or the price he'd be willing to pay. Along with full disclosure upfront, presale inspection reports can be beneficial. Note that disclosure laws vary from state to state.

THE CLOSING: The more the buyers know about the property before they make an offer, the less chance there is of a deal falling apart or of the sellers being sued later for failure to disclose.

 

FREE...You can search for Marin listings directly on BayAreaRealEstateSales.com:  Search for Homes

 

 

WHAT DO LIZ'S CLIENTS SAY?

 

"After years of apartment living in San Francisco, we decided to make the move to the warmer, sunnier Marin County.  As first-time home buyers in the wild Bay Area real estate market, we were at first anxious and somewhat overwhelmed by the undertaking.  Liz McCarthy quickly provided us with the resources, information, and confidence we needed to navigate our way through the process.  Liz proved to be much more than we ever expected from a real estate agent.  Apart from providing us with the most up-to date listings, extraordinarily useful market data, and useful information regarding schools, neighborhoods, and the like, Liz served as our advisor and our advocate.  With ease and grace, Liz navigated us through the process, always making a point of listening to our concerns, understanding our needs, and working within our limitations.

 

We especially appreciated Liz's candor and her ability and willingness to articulate all the facts and issues that we should be considering.  Obviously, we wanted to make the right decision for ourselves, but were not always certain that we were considering all of the important issues.  Far from being pushy, Liz has a talent for understanding her clients and providing them with balanced, thoughtful advice.  She helped us reach our own conclusions without pushing us in any specific direction.

 

We would recommend Liz McCarthy to any potential home buyer.  Whether first-time buyers or experienced buyers, she will impress them all with her extremely hard work, dedication and professionalism.  Whenever anyone tells us that they are thinking about buying in Marin, we immediately tell them that they we have the greatest real estate agent for them!

-D. & A. Morris

 

If you would like to have Liz help you sell your Marin home or help you find a home, or you know of someone that could benefit from her services, just send her an email:    liz@BayAreaRealEstateSales.com  or give her a call:  415-250-4929

 

"High-Touch through High-Tech":  Did you know that Liz McCarthy is ePro Internet Certified by the National Association of Realtors and that 70 percent of home buyers today use the internet in their home search?  Why are you still working with a Realtor who isn't a technology expert?

 

What this means to you:

 

Home Buyers:  Liz is an expert in helping save you time by using the internet, email and other technology resources to help save your valuable time and money.  She knows how busy you are! 

 

Home Sellers:  Liz will hire a professional photographer and market your home extensively on the internet:  a personal property website (see www.417Greenfield.com or www.50milland.com for samples), she will post your home on over 50 websites.

 

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FAST FACTS

 

Marin median SFR + condo price- Jan07: $882; 2006: $864,000 [Source:  BAREIS]

Marin average SFR + condo  price-:  Jan07: $1,243,000; 2006:  $1,089,129  [Source:  BAREIS]

Marin median SFR home price - Jan07:  $960,000; 2006:  $956,000 [Source:  BAREIS]

Marin median condo price - Jan07: $545,000; 2006: $548,000 [Source:  BAREIS]

 

Calif. median home price -Dec 06: $567,690) [Source: C.A.R.]

Calif. highest median home price Dec 06:  Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,250,000   [Source: C.A.R.]

Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region Dec 06:  High Desert $324,560  [Source: C.A.R.]

Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Third Quarter 06: 24 percent [Source: C.A.R.]

 

Mortgage rates - week ending 2/22/07:  (Source: Freddie Mac)

·          30-yr. fixed: 6.22%; Fees/points: 0.5%

·          15-yr. fixed: 5.97%; Fees/points: 0.5%

·          1-yr. adjustable: 5.52%; Fees/points: 0.6%

 

FREE...You can search for Marin listings directly on BayAreaRealEstateSales.com:  Search for Homes

 

Be sure to check out all the other great content & features of my website:

www.BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

 

View the newsletter archives

 

The Bay Area Real Estate Newsletter is provided to you by:

 

Liz McCarthy

"High-Touch through "High-Tech"

Real Estate Broker, e-PRO certified

Vision Real Estate

Liz@BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

415-250-4929

 

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