Lots of Fresh Water Brings a Fresh Beginning for a Great New Year in 2022

Wow. What a difference a month makes. Just thirty days ago I wrote a blog about the importance of rain and water for our county. It’s like somebody above was reading that as the skies opened up and boom! Rain for days, with over 40″ falling in December. That’s 220% of normal for that month and a start to filling our dry reservoirs here and throughout the state. We aren’t out of trouble just yet, but with more storms forecast even this week, we’re at least well on our way to a good, healthy winter of rain and Sierra snowpack. 

That’s looking ahead. Looking back and water woes aside, what a year it was for Marin real estate, along with much of the nation for that matter. For the year in 2021:

•      2075 single family homes were sold, down from 2312 in 2020
•      The average sale price was $2,151,000, up 15% from $1,814,000
•      Sale prices averaged 99% of asking price, though whopping over asking sales were frequent
•      The average price per sq ft was $912 adjusted heavily for level land and condition, among others
•      Average Days on Market was 28, but the median was only 14

That’s where we’ve been. Now let’s see where we’re going. The answer is two simple words: Who knows. It used to be much easier to predict, looking at historical charts and economic headlines. That’s all different now, thanks to Covid. Home sales skyrocketed when we all were certain they would fall. Buyers moved when we all thought they would stay. Sellers relocated to new climates, whatever that looked like to them, but often out of their city, their neighborhood, or even out of California. Our population likely will remain flat at just under 40 million people, but the figures aren’t officially in yet. Still, considering how many residents we lost due to illness or old age, it’s a wonder we aren’t down significantly. 

If it matters, I for one see a continued “up” market for 2022, though perhaps not as robust as 2021 or the last half of 2020 even. The desire to live here is still astronomical and likely still exceeds what you think it is, but you aren’t able to see what we agents are. That would be the MLS field under “Sold” that indicates if there were Multiple Offers (Y/N) and if so how Many Offers there were. We saw some big numbers here throughout the year, as mentioned above, but we also saw it right through December, which is normally one of our two slowest months. The other being January. So go figure. We’ll see, but for now, who really knows. 

For now, that pretty much does it. Enjoy January and this entire new year, wherever you are and please stay safe. As always, thanks for reading.

Ted

415.377.5222

ted@gomarin.com

Filed under: Marin Real Estate Blog by Ted Strodder