April in Marin: Housing Market Stays Consistent With Low Inventory and High Demand

It looks to be a glorious sunny April in Marin, assuming the long range forecasts are accurate. While that means warm days, spring flowers and excellent hiking weather, the real talk in the checkout line is: when are more homes going to come up for sale? If history is any guide, the answer to that is, hopefully this month.

The strongest months for listings in this county are March – June. By July, everybody is sometimes off doing other stuff, so we see most sellers get it together in late winter and launch their homes for sale in any of those four go-months. They then have the summer to unpack in their new house, travel, whatever. But effectively half our home sales happen in less than half the year. That doesn’t mean nobody puts their house on the market in August, but savvy agents often advise their sellers to wait and put up the For Sale sign just after Labor Day if they’re getting close. We then have a fairly active fall market, which slows to a crawl by Thanksgiving.

So buyers, it’s pretty clear: prices aren’t dropping, given everything we are all reading and as you are too, so if you see something that’s remotely close, go for it.

Sellers? Well if you want to sell, now’s the time. The buyers are out there in droves, motivated mainly by my paragraph above. Kidding. Smart buyers know that under $1 mil, it’s usually cheaper to pay a mortgage than it is to pay rent. With our supply basically fixed and our demand to live here only increasing, you’d be wise to lock in a low mortgage rate now. Long term you’ll always do better paying a little more for your house, but a little less for your mortgage.

More to follow, let me know of any questions. Thanks and enjoy April wherever you are!

TS

Text or call 415.377.5222 or ted@gomarin.com

Filed under: Marin Real Estate Blog by Ted Strodder