Marin Real Estate

Selling your house

Bay Area Real Estate Sales.com Newsletter

December 2009

In This Month’s Issue:

Marin Real Estate Market Update

Trying To Evaluate the Marin Real Estate Market?

Foreclosures/Bank Owned and Auction Properties

Marin County Spring Real Estate Forecast

Search the Marin Multiple Listing Service

What Do Clients Say About Working With Liz McCarthy?

MARIN REAL ESTATE MARKET UPDATE

How is the Marin Real Estate Market Performing?

November 2009 Closed Sales Single Family Residences
	Days on Market	List Price	Selling Price
Average	100	$1,020,173	$967,897
Median	73	$725,000	$700,000

November 2009 Closed Sales Condos
	Days on Market	List Price	Selling Price
Average	133	$442,394	$432,379
Median	83	$368,725	$350,000

November 2009 was a blockbuster month for Marin real estate compared to the same time period in 2008. In 2008, the Marin real estate market came to a virtual stand still and remained stagnant until small movements in the market began in March.

October was the best month for home sales in Marin this year. We saw a 6% decline in November sales over October. This appears to be a normal seasonal slow down, with numbers very strong over November of 2008.

Marin Countywide Real Estate Statistics for November 2009

Marin Homes For sale
631 compared to 719 in 2008
-12.2% change

Marin Homes Sold
160 compared to 87 in 2008
+83.9%

Marin Homes Pending
177 compared to 86 in 2008
+105.8%

New Listings In Marin: 142
Months of Inventory based on closed sales: 3.9
Average days on market: 92
Median price: 714

Pending/Contingent homes/condos in Marin

Below you will find a break down by city and price range of how many homes are in contract compared to how many homes are listed.

Analysis by Price Range: Surprise, surprise, the overall Marin is in a “Sellers Market” category, but this is due to the current lack of inventory due to the holiday season, which makes the overall stats a bit misleading. There are a lot of buyers out there, especially for homes priced under $1,000,000 and there is extreme competition for homes priced under $749,000. I recently helped some buyers get into contract last week, after writing multiple offers.

Analysis by City: The most surprising town is Fairfax! With 65% of the available homes in contract, Fairfax is an “Extreme Sellers” market . In Novato 45% of the available homes are in contract, 45% in San Anselmo and 43% in Kentfield. Kentfield is interesting, of the 10 homes that are currently in contract, prices range from: $1,249,000 to $2,950,000.

It is interesting to note that the number of expired listings have increased. Home sellers who are not seeing offers or who are seeing offers below expectations are taking their homes off the market.

If you are looking to sell your home, know that it MUST be well-priced and show in pristine condition! That’s where a good Sellers agent comes in, you need advice to help you get the house ready as well as stage/prepare it for showing. Let me know if I can help you devise a strategy to sell your home.

MARIN HOME (CONDO + SFR) SALES STATISTICS - BY CITY AS OF 12/17/09
City	Total	Active	Number in Contract***	Percent in Contract*	Type of Market* (See Key)
Belvedere	25	21	4	16%	Strong Buyers
Corte Madera	22	14	8	36%	Sellers
Fairfax	26	9	17	65%	Extreme Sellers
Greenbrae	33	21	12	36%	Sellers
Kentfield	23	13	10	43%	Sellers
Larkspur	27	19	8	30%	Buyers
Mill Valley	118	79	39	33%	Balanced
Novato	266	122	144	54%	Strong Sellers
Ross	21	14	7	33%	Balanced
San Anselmo	71	39	32	45%	Sellers
San Rafael	238	147	91	38%	Sellers
Sausalito	57	47	10	18%	Strong Buyers
Tiburon	81	67	14	17%	Strong Buyers
Others	82	64	18	22%	Buyers
Total Marin 12/17/09	1090	676	414	37.98%	Sellers
Total Marin 10/14/09	1529	1038	491	32.11%	Balanced
Total Marin 8/19/09	1533	1070	463	30.2%	Buyers
Total Marin 7/23/09	1533	1097	436	28.44%	Buyers

MARIN HOME SALES STATISTICS - BY PRICE RANGE AS OF 12/17/09
Price	Total	Active	Number in Contract***	Percent in Contract*	Type of Market* (See Key)
$100,000-$499,999	270	111	159	59%	Extreme Sellers
$500,000-$749,999	241	130	111	46%	Strong Sellers
$750,000-$999,999	189	123	66	35%	Balanced
$1,000,000-$1,499,999	162	119	43	27%	Buyers
$1,500,000-$1,999,999	77	64	13	17%	Strong Buyers
$2,000,000-$2,499,999	42	34	8	19%	Strong Buyers
$2,500,000-$2,999,999	27	22	5	19%	Strong Buyers
$3,000,000-$3,999,999	32	28	4	13%	Strong Buyers
Over $4,000,000	49	45	4	8%	Extreme Buyers
Total	1089	676	413	38%	Sellers

Key to market type:*
0% - 10% of Homes in Escrow: Extreme Buyers	36% - 45% of Homes in Escrow: Sellers
11% - 20% of Homes in Escrow: Strong Buyers	46% - 55% of Homes in Escrow: Strong Sellers
21% - 30% of Homes in Escrow: Buyers	56% - 100% of Homes in Escrow: Extreme Sellers
31% - 35% of Homes in Escrow: Balanced Market

**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

Charts here

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 to the top.

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!

TRYING TO EVALUATE THE MARIN REAL ESTATE MARKET?

I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m constantly on the look out for information to better prepare my clients to understand the local real estate market. I’ve got 2 great new stat evaluation programs that I’m providing FREE of charge to my clients and viewers of my newsletter!

1. FREE HOME EVALUATION REPORT:

If you would like a personalized Market evaluation of YOUR home, within 30 minutes of submitting your request, or if you are a home Buyer and want to do a Market Snapshot of a particular zip code, that works too! Check it out, I PROMISE you you’ll love what you see! These reports will include recent comp data. just click here:

http://www.homeinsight.com/Widget/default.asp?63JKTSX3ZUFH

2. DETAILED MARKET EVALUATION REPORT BY CITY:

Additionally, you can sign up to receive a detailed weekly market update of your interested city.

To see a sample Market Analysis report, here is the Mill Valley Report from last week. REMEMBER that you can get this report updated weekly by signing up here: To do so, click here and choose your market location. http://www.bayarearealestatesales.com/stats.html

3. FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY

Foreclosure activity, in the article/chart below: you’ll see that the number of Pre-foreclosures, Auction and Bank-owned property was about the same as in May overall. The number in pre-foreclosure did decrease. If you’d like to see the bank owned homes on a map, you can do a search here: Search the Map Based REO (Bank Owned) Homes in Marin Click Here

Of course, if you have any questions please call me at 415-250-4929 or drop me an email at Liz@BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

FORECLOSURES/BANK OWNED AND AUCTION PROPERTIES

Type	Number as of 10/14/09
Pre-foreclosure	544
Auction Sale	454
Bank Owned	352
TOTAL	1350

I can provide you a list of all of the current properties in any of the above types anywhere in Marin.

Since October the number of Auction Sales of homes has increased dramatically, up to 454 homes. The Number of Pre-foreclosure (Notice of Defaults) that were sent has also increased. My guess is that these homes will continue to be released into the market next year. I received a call today from an asset manager who wanted help pricing a Mill valley home that they recently purchased a as a bundle of homes.

If you would like to see the public Bank Owned properties in Marin, here they are on a map:

Search the Map Based REO (Bank Owned) Homes in Marin Click Here

I have access to all of these homes!! If you would like me to pull a more customized list for any town in Marin that will show: Pre-foreclosure, Auction and/or Bank owned properties, just email me: Liz@BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

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

MARIN COUNTY SPRING REAL ESTATE FORECAST

By Ginger Wilcox

Is the picture rosy for spring real estate in Marin? Nationally, economists seem to think so. Inventory nationwide is much lower than last year at this time. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors, notes:

“After a possible activity decline this winter, we expect another surge in spring and early summer.”
“There is still a pent-up demand from buyers who can benefit from the tax credits being offered on a federal level.”
“Mortgage rates last month were the third lowest on record dating back to 1971.”

Yun's predictions are appropriate for the lower tier of the Marin market, but are unlikely to hold true in the high end luxury real estate market. In the last few months, the lower end market in Marin County has seen a tremendous comeback. The tax credits and mortgage rates have given confidence to buyers in the lower end but we have not seen a sizzling comeback is the high end luxury market in Marin County.

Housing inventory is at extremely low levels in Marin right now. In 2009, the months of home inventory dropped from a high of 7.9 months in February to 4.9 in September (normal), to a very low 3.6 months of inventory in November. Fairfax, Novato and Greenbrae have been extremely active markets while sales in upper end towns like Belvedere and Ross remain sluggish. I expect to see a substantial increase in months of inventory in the spring in all price points with strong sales activity in the lower price points continuing while the upper end market will remain slow with plenty of options for buyers.

The properties that will sell in all price points have realistic sellers who understand that this is no longer the market we had in 2005. Sounds like a simple concept except we continue to see unrealistic sellers have their homes sit on the market. Prices have declined substantially in some areas. Sellers who pay close attention to current (not past) values in their neighborhood will benefit.

SEARCH THE MARIN MULTIPLE LISTING SERVICE

The following links will take you to home searches for different cities in Marin.
All search results are displayed from the highest price to the lowest price. You can scroll through pages at a time.

Belvedere homes for sale: Belvedere Homes For Sale
Corte Madera homes for sale: Corte Madera Homes For Sale
Fairfax homes for Sale: Fairfax Homes For Sale
Greenbrae homes for sale: Greenbrae Homes For Sale
Kentfield homes for sale: Kentfield Homes For Sale
Larkspur homes for sale: Larkspur Homes For Sale
Mill Valley homes for sale: Mill Valley Homes For Sale

Mill Valley condos for sale: Mill Valley Condos For Sale
Novato homes for Sale: Novato Homes For Sale

Novato Condos for Sale: Novato Condos
Ross homes for sale: Ross Homes For Sale
San Anselmo homes for sale: San Anselmo Homes For Sale
San Rafael HOMES for sale: San Rafael Homes For Sale
San Rafael CONDOS for sale: San Rafael Condos For Sale
Sausalito homes for sale: Sausalito Homes For Sale
Tiburon homes for sale: Tiburon Homes For Sale

WHAT DO CLIENTS SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH LIZ MCCARTHY?

"We contacted Liz McCarthy after doing much research on the agencies in the area. We were attracted by the small, boutique nature of her agency as well as the fact that she is e-Pro certified. We were gifted a home through the estate of an alumnus and needed someone who could work efficiently through electronic means. She did a superb job coordinating clean-up, advertising and negotiating in very unusual circumstances.

Liz provided timely advice, support, and communication that kept the selling process going forward. Every phone call was returned and feedback given after every showing. We were in contract within weeks of the listing and her negotiations got us top dollar. We appreciate all she has done for us and would not hesitate to refer her to anyone looking to sell their home in the Mill Valley area."

-The Ohio State University Foundation, Columbus, Ohio

THE BAY AREA REAL ESTATE NEWSLETTER IS PROVIDED TO YOU BY:

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

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

www.BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

Liz McCarthy, PMN

Real Estate Broker, e-PRO certified

McGuire Real Estate

415-250-4929

Liz@BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

www.BayAreaRealEstateSales.com

BLOG: http://bayarearealestatesales.blogspot.com/

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