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Most of California and the country have been severely affected by the housing crisis and Marin was not left out, however, we faired better than most.

I thought is would be interesting to look not only at Marin County as a whole but to break down the statistics between Northern, Central, and South Marin.  To accomplish this I used the cities with the most sales, Novato, San Rafael, and Mill Valley, feeling that most other cities are so small that a few low or high sales could skew the statistics.   The numbers are based on combined sales of single-family homes and condominiums.

Number of Homes Sold First Nine Months of Each Year

Average Sales Price of Homes Sold First Nine Months of Each Year

I find it interesting that Mill Valley had the largest decline in the number of sales yet the smallest decline in median price.  Mill Valley has a smaller percentage of condominiums and they have taken a bigger hit than single-family homes.  Another factor may be the low number of sales is a result of sellers holding out for unrealistic prices.

Novato, the furthermost northern town was hit harder than most towns and I think some of that had to do with the difficult commute to San Francisco.  People found that homes in San Rafael were not that much more expensive so why the long commute if you didn’t have to.

San Rafael seems to mirror Marin County both in sales and price variations, which makes sense, as it is Marin’s largest city and centrally located.  I feel prices are at or near the bottom for the low-end ($500,000 and less) single-family homes and that the high-end neighborhoods may have some sellers’ holding out for what may be an unrealistic price.

Warren Carreiro, Broker

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