Water and Homes For Sale Both in Short Supply

December is here in Marin and pretty much just one word on everyone’s mind these days. No, not Santa, not presents, but “water”. I agree we don’t have enough Santa and you can never have enough presents, but the common concern throughout Marin and the rest of the state is whether we’ll have enough water for our taps to flow well into 2022. Read any Bay Area or California newspaper and you’ll soon see an article about the lack of reservoir, lake or river water, no matter where you are. 

California is in our third year of drought, following years of light rain prior to that. So concerns about lack of water are everywhere and despite one whopper of a storm in late October, it’s been dry since, warm even. Marin has a reservoir system for our drinking water that’s 100% dependent on rainfall. So far those reservoirs are down 67% for this time last year and unless we get a lot of rain this winter, they’ll stay down well below capacity, resulting in even more water restrictions than we have now. But there are options.

The current plan is to invest $80m in a pipeline that runs under the Richmond/San Rafael bridge, bringing water from the Central Valley. That could work and in fact did work back in the early 80’s during the last major drought, only that time, the pipeline ran in the emergency lane of the bridge, next to the guardrail. Problem is, the Central Valley has its own drought problems to contend with and it’s unclear if there will be enough water to go around. 

A desalination plant was proposed, next to that same bridge on the Marin side with the cost of being only $35m, or less than half. A plant could also be leased, apparently, but of course the whole thing is stuck in political red tape. Meanwhile we hope and wait for more rain, much as homebuyers hope and wait for more inventory. 

Yes this is still a real estate blog, but the mantra remains the same here and in most parts of the state, much like the drought: not enough water or homes for sale and too many water users or homebuyers. Will that change this winter? We’ll see. Meanwhile I’ll stay in touch on my end with the drought and with housing. 

For now, that pretty much does it. Enjoy December and the rest of this 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