Bay Area Real Estate Sales.com Newsletter

July 2007

 

IN THIS ISSUE:

 

Marin Home Sales Statistics

Bay Area Home Sales Slow, Prices Still Up

What Did Your Neighbors' House Sell For?

Marin's Single-Family Home Median Hits Record $1.125m

Free Energy Efficient Light Bulbs

The Secret To Pricing Your Home To Sell

What Do Liz's Clients Say?

Fast Facts

 

 

MARIN HOME SALES STATISTICS

 

Home prices are continuing the move upward and sales volume is moving slightly lower as buyers are being very particular on what they will buy in this environment. There are some areas that are holding up quite well under any perceived pressure for lower prices, those being Larkspur, Greenbrae, Mill Valley and Corte Madera. We have seen some record prices for homes sold in Corte Madera in the last month. 7 Grace Court sold for $3.3 Million; a wonderful 5 Bedroom 3 bath home on one half acre built in 2002. This was the second highest sale since a $3.6 Million home on Verona Place sold in May 2007.

 

The chart below shows a combination of Single Family Residences combined with condos. As the condo market has slowed down dramatically, it shows the overall market as a buyers market. When you break out the Single Family Residences, however, the market is closer to a balanced market.

 

As of July 11 there were 967 Single Family Homes on the market. Of those 252 are in contract which is 26% of the total. That leaves 715 homes on the market and available for buyers to enter into contracts. This overall calculates as a balanced/Buyers market. If you look at City by City you can see that Mill Valley is at 37%, Corte Madera at 52% and Greenbrae at 42%. Some of the lagging communities in % in contract are San Rafael at 24%, Sausalito at 25% and Novato at 23%. Remember that real estate in Marin is Community specific so you must look at the details to ascertain the Real Estate heath of each community.

 

The median price for single-family, re-sale homes in Marin County rose 12.1% in June, compared to the month before, and set a new record of $1,160,000. This is 7.9% higher than last June. The average price gained 0.2%, up 0.8% year-over-year.

Sales of single-family homes were down 7.1% from May, off 9% year-over-year. Year-to-date, home sales are outpacing last year's rate. Marin is the only county in the Bay Area with higher home sales this year than last.

 

The median price for condos rose 1.8% to $595,000, a year-over-year gain of 2.2%. The average price gained 1.5% to $644,772, down 0.2% compared to June 2006. Condo sales dropped 1.7% from May, and were down 3.3% year-over-year.

 

As always, it's important to view the individual city and price range stats - see the chart below for more details.

 

MY ADVICE?

 

For buyers, the same as last month: prime property is selling quickly and, in many instances, with multiple offers. Buyers need to be prepared to make an offer immediately on prime property. That means you need to have a loan in place. For more information about buying in a multiple offer situation, call me.

 

For sellers, where your home is, the condition and what segment of the market it's in, entry-level, move-up or million plus, are the determining factors in whether or not you will be able to sell your home quickly and for a good price. Demand in the entry-level market has fallen, which will impact the move-up market. The million dollar plus market is pretty much immune to the sub-prime mortgage tightening.

 

The real estate market is very hard to generalize. It is a market made up of many micro markets. For complete information on a particular neighborhood or for an evaluation of your home's worth, call me. If I can help you devise a strategy, call or click the buying or selling link in the menu above.

 

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

 

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BAY AREA HOME SALES SLOW, PRICES STILL UP

 

La Jolla, CA; July 17, 2007----Bay Area homes continued to sell at their slowest pace in 12 years last month, led by sharp declines in many lower-cost neighborhoods. At the same time, sales tended to fare much better in higher-priced areas, which helped push the region's overall median sale price to a new peak, a real estate information service reported.

 

A total of 7,964 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the nine-county Bay Area in June. That was down 1.4 percent from 8,080 in May, and down 26.5 percent from 10,830 for June a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

 

Sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis the last 29 months. Last month's sales count was the lowest for any June since 7,780 homes were sold in 1995. The strongest June in DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988, was in 2004 when 15,735 homes were sold. The June average is 10,546.

 

"Obviously there's still a bit of a standoff between buyers and sellers. It looks like unsuccessful sellers would rather take the home off the market than bring the price down, which is remarkable after almost two-and-a-half years of sales declines. Mainly, the price adjustments we're seeing are in more affordable outlying parts of the Bay Area, and those adjustments aren't all that significant except for Solano County," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

 

The median price paid for a Bay Area home increased last month to $665,000, a new peak. That was up 0.8 percent from $660,000 for the month before, and up 2.6 percent from $648,000 for June last year.

 

The median declined in Solano, Sonoma and Napa, the three most affordable Bay Area counties, while it increased in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, the three most expensive.

 

DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Due to late data availability, the June statistics for Alameda are extrapolated from the first three weeks of the month.

The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $3,219 last month, up from $3,090 the previous month, and up from $3,203 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 24.0 percent above typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 2.3 percent below the current cycle's peak one year ago.

 

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Financing with adjustable-rate mortgages has declined significantly. Foreclosure activity is rising, although foreclosure properties are not yet a drag home on home values in most markets. Down payment sizes are stable, flipping rates and non-owner occupied buying activity is down, DataQuick reported.

 

 

Source: DQnews.com

 

WHAT DID YOUR NEIGHBORS' HOUSE SELL FOR?

 

Are you Curious to know what the Median home price is in your neighborhood?

 

The Neighborhood Homes Sold listing is a weekly reader feature of the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. The data posted here is typically recorded a few 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.
Previous editions of Neighborhood Homes Sold

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

 

07/15/07 Jyly 15 Marin Home Sales

07/08/07 July 8 Marin Home Sales

07/01/07 JUly 1 Marin Home Sales

 

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

 

MARIN'S SINGLE-FAMILY HOME MEDIAN HITS RECORD $1.125M

Marin IJ 7/18/07

 

The median price for a detached home in Marin County hit a record $1,125,000 last month, up 16 percent from June 2006, according to figures released Wednesday by DataQuick Information Systems, an industry research firm. The median is the point at which half the homes cost more and half cost less.

 

It was the second time Marin crossed the $1 million threshold. In April, the county's median single-family home price hit $1,010,000 - the first time any California county broke the seven-figure barrier - before slipping back to $925,000 in May.

The number of sales of detached homes continued to lag, falling 14 percent from June 2006 to June 2007. But compared with other counties in the Bay Area, Marin sales figures are falling less dramatically, said DataQuick analyst John Karevoll.

"The expensive markets are actually doing pretty well right now," Karevoll said. "The rich are getting richer, and the rest of us aren't."   The median price for condos and townhomes in Marin was $555,000 last month, up 1.6 percent from June 1006. Sales fell 13 percent, from 92 in June 2006 to 80 last month.

 

Sellers are taking their homes off the marekt rather than discounting deeply. Data provided by the county assessor's office support that view. In Tiburon, 13 detached homes were sold last month for an average price of $2.3 million. In Mill Valley, the average price on 24 detached homes was $1.8 million. The average price of the three homes sold in Belvedere was $2.1 million.

 

Farther north, 25 detached homes sold for an average of $1.1 million in San Rafael, 13 homes fetched an average of $1.2 million in Corte Madera, and 11 homes cost an average of nearly $1.5 million in Larkspur. In Ross, the average price of the four homes sold was nearly $3.3 million. In Novato, 39 detached homes were sold last month at an average price of $969,000.

 

Across the nine-county Bay Area, the median price paid for a home, condos included, was a new high of $665,000, up 2.6 percent from June 2006, DataQuick reported.

 

"There is no place to build in Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin (counties), and that is keeping prices higher," said Larry Klapow, president of San Ramon-based Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the Bay Area.

 

The number of sales was down nearly 27 percent year-over-year. Bay Area sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis the last 29 months.   "Obviously there's still a bit of a standoff between buyers and sellers," said Marshall Prentice, president of DataQuick. "It looks like unsuccessful sellers would rather take the home off the market than bring the price down, which is remarkable after almost two-and-a-half years of sales declines."

 

FREE ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS

 

The California Youth Energy Services (CYES), is a non-profit group that exchanges light bulbs and faucets in your house for energy efficient ones free of charge.  All you have to do to take advantage of this service is call CYES at (415)559-8302 and ask for Rachel - She will make an appointment for you. 

 

When calling you must have your water account number and a copy of your most recent PG&E bill available.

 

Apparently all PG&E customers pay a fee on their bills, which funds non-profits (like CYES) that do this work.

 

THE SECRET TO PRICING YOUR HOME TO SELL

by: Jim Remley

 

Contrary to popular belief, when selling your home its value is determined by one thing and one thing only - what a qualified buyer is willing to pay for it. No more and no less. Sure, many sellers will argue that their home has an insurance replacement value, or an appraised value, or a tax assessed value, but unless your insurance agent, your banker, or your tax assessor is willing to write you a check for the home - guess what? None of that matters. A home without a buyer has no value in the market place. Sure it might have a value to you the seller, and it might have a value to your banker, and to your insurance agent, and to your appraiser. But none of these people are buyers.

 

So here is the secret to pricing your home to sell - It's not what you think the home is worth that matters, it's what a reasonable buyer will think your home is worth that will ultimately determine if your home will sell.

 

Now you maybe thinking - Hey wait, if I left it up to a buyer, they would pay me as little as possible for my home. True, they would. But in the real world every buyer knows that you, the seller, have no obligation to sell your home at any price. To purchase your home the buyer will have to make you an offer you can't or won't refuse.

 

But here-in lies the trap that many sellers fall into (myself included), which is the mistaken idea that we can hold out for an inflated price and eventually the market will come to us. Wrong! Buyers are under no obligation to buy any particular home, and no amount of marketing, open houses, websites, or signage will motivate a buyer to purchase an overpriced home.

 

Understanding Price VS Time

 

The age old dilemma that has faced buyers and sellers since the dawn of private property rights is a simple question: What is more important price or time? Believe it or not this conundrum underlies and controls every sellers decision to sell, and every buyers need to complete a purchase.

 

A seller who would like to sell for top dollar should be prepared to potentially wait longer for a buyer willing to pay a premium price. On the flip side, a seller who needs to sell quickly, and doesn't have time to wait, should expect to discount their price somewhat because of the limited time they have to expose their home to the market.

 

What's the difference? Timing!

 

Buyers are in the same boat. A buyer who has the luxury of shopping for a home over a long period of time can probably wait to find a bargain, while another buyer who must buy a home in the next few weeks will probably be willing to pay a premium. Again it boils down to price vs time. So you might ask yourself what is your highest priority - Selling quickly or selling for a higher price?

 

To be honest when I pose this question to my own clients they often smile coyly and then answer - I want both! The funny thing is that they aren't kidding!

 

Because of this, many homeowners will attempt to put the responsibility of getting both top dollar and fast sale on the back of their hired gun, the real estate agent. The result can be summed up in one word - frustration. Why? Because no matter how much a seller yells, screams, and kicks a real estate agent, they don't do miracles. This is why successful sellers understand that while a real estate agents job is to provide marketing, expert advice, and negotiating services, in the end they don't own the property. They don't make the final decisions on pricing. The seller does, and ultimately the seller's asking price will in large part determine how slowly or quickly the home will sell.

 

Successful sellers have learned that to price their home accurately means they need to think like a buyer, they need to get inside a buyers skin and look at the world through a buyers eyes. For instance, imagine for a minute that you are moving to another area of the country, to a city that you are completely unfamiliar with. If you were faced with buying a home in strange city what would be your first step?

 

If you're like most buyers you would probably start online by viewing listings online. Feeling good about your findings you might then venture out into the real world to begin viewing homes in person.

 

As a typical internet empowered real estate buyer you will look at an average of nine homes over eight weeks with the assistance of a real estate professional. By the end of your journey, like many buyers, you become so knowledgeable about the market that by the last showing you are able to guess, with reasonable accuracy, each homes listing price before your agent can even tell you.

 

So what happened here? As a buyer you went from a blank slate, with no impression of the market to having the ability to predict listing prices. A big leap sure, but this description is exactly what most buyers' experience. But this is only the build up, the next step In continuing to think like a buyer is to review a Comparative Market Analysis.

 

A Comparative Market Analysis is a report that compares a specific home, often called the "subject home" with other homes in a specific neighborhood. This analysis is then used to provide an anticipated sales price or price range for the subject property. Although not formally called an appraisal, the report provides a similar function by giving home buyers and home sellers a clear understanding of the market data that might affect their opinion of value. To learn more about using a CMA to help price your home talk to your local REALTOR®.

 

 

WHAT DO LIZ'S CLIENTS SAY?

 

"I feel compelled to share our experience in home buying with Liz McCarthy as our real estate agent. Being a first-time homebuyer, I was new to the process, although my fiancé was not, and we both learned much from Liz along the way. First and foremost, Liz was in constant contact with us for the many weeks we were looking at homes. Her patience in explaining the intricacies of the process made all the difference. Liz clearly had our best interests at heart from the start and was able to gently and insightfully guide us to the homes on the market that not only fit our criteria but also possessed the attributes we weren't necessarily attuned to, such as attractive school districts, good neighborhoods, strong resale value, clean inspection reports and comparative value.

 

We presented a significant challenge as buyers because we had not targeted a particular town or area to live. Therefore, we really relied upon Liz's knowledge of the entire county when we were looking at homes. I said many times that it felt as if we were Liz's only clients. The responsiveness and willingness to discuss our situation at all hours of the day and night was nothing short of amazing. Having her actively enthusiastic about our search helped us through the frustrations of home buying in a challenging market. In the end, Liz spotted our "dream home" that combined the best of all of the elements that we desired and communicated to her. When Liz first saw what was to be our home, she sent me a picture of the view from the kitchen into the amazing landscaped back yard from her cell phone, with an audio file describing what a great place it was. Then, she arranged for my fiancé and I to be the first to see the house a day prior to the official open house. When we walked inside, we knew that it was "it!" Liz then guided us through a multiple bid situation and within a week, we were in escrow and on Cloud 9!

 

In summary, I would highly recommend Liz McCarthy to anyone, whether you are buying or selling for the first time or you own more property than Donald Trump. You'll benefit from her level of service and expertise and become yet one more happy client!"

-Anne Hastings, VP Client Relations, SF Giants & Mike Aguilar, Fireman, SFFD

 

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- Jun 07: $985,000 2006: $864,000 [Source: BAREIS]

Marin average SFR + condo price-: Jun 07: $1,239,000; 2006: $1,089,129 [Source: BAREIS]

Marin median SFR home price - Jun 07: $1,160 ,000; 2006: $956,000 [Source: BAREIS]

Marin median condo price - Jun 07: $595,000; 2006: $548,000 [Source: BAREIS]

 

Calif. median home price -May 07: $591,180 [Source: C.A.R.]

Calif. highest median home price May 07: Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,325,000 [Source: C.A.R.]

Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region May 07: High Desert $313,550 [Source: C.A.R.]

Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - 1st Quarter 07: 25 percent [Source: C.A.R.]

 

Mortgage rates - week ending 7/12/07: (Source: Freddie Mac)

·          30-yr. fixed: 6.63%; Fees/points: 0.4%

·          15-yr. fixed: 6.3%; Fees/points: 0.4%

·          1-yr. adjustable: 5.71%; Fees/points: 0.4% (as of 6/14/07)

 

Some interesting links:

Free on-line audio books: www.librivox.org

Virtual Garden Planning: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/virtualgarden_index.shtml

 

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

 

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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