Marin March Market Madness

Now that I’ve got that four word alliteration out of the way, it’s March in Marin and truly feels a bit mad out there. I’m not mad, don’t get me wrong. I’m a happy guy and always in a great mood, but boy it sometimes feels like I’ve been doing this job for 37 days, not 37 years. Things used to be fairly predictable around here: prices are going up slow, going up medium, going up fast, going down slow (that’s about it), staying flat. People are buying the high end, low end, condos, rentals are on fire, rentals are slow. Rates are up, rates are down, rates are flat–who knows anymore. Everything has changed and to all your questions, my answer is “I’ll let you know a month from now”.   

Compounding many of your questions are the unending media blasts on the falling (crashing even) home sale markets in other parts of the country. If you’ve followed this monthly blog of mine, you know that real estate if extremely regional, varying not just state by state, but county by county, city by city, town by town, neighborhood by neighborhood AND the newest addition: high demand properties. 

We all continue to watch sales and value plummet in high growth areas, or any place where prices shot up, seemingly overnight. Not so here or other no growth, slow price appreciation like Marin. We have seen some softening of prices, no question, up to 15% but many of those properties were either priced too high to begin with, or there of a lesser-demand description. That would mean, having characteristics that only a few buyers want. Those properties have always taken longer to sell, simply because in a supply/demand economy, there’s less demand. Not so for those in high demand. 

Case in point, my colleague Dubie listed a small 2 br / 2 ba home for sale in Cape Marin a few weeks ago. It’s a nice community, built in the late 80’s (often called “newer construction” here) in a great little neighborhood that’s close to everything. She smartly priced it at $1.7 mil, which felt a little low to me and to the clients I showed it to. We all thought it would sell for much higher than this. She sent out over 30 disclosure packets and received 9 offers, most with no contingencies I’m told. Just a guess, but it should close soon, likely in the $1.9-$2m range but we’ll see. It was the only house for sale in the neighborhood, illustrating the limited supply/strong demand. Let’s see how March goes. 

That’s it for now. Until next time, enjoy March and all of 2023 wherever you are and please stay safe. As always, thanks for reading.

Ted

415.377.5222

ted@gomarin.com

Filed under: Uncategorized by Ted Strodder