Marin Market Stats 4.24.2007. The Anlyan Report

Hello Everyone,

We speak of The Marin Real Estate Market as if it were a single, discrete entity going in one direction or another, and sometimes that is the case. At the current moment though, this market consists of a number of smaller subsets. We have the Single Family Residence market, The Condo market, and all the different price points of those markets, as well as the local markets in each Marin city and town and the sub-markets of the different neighborhoods.

The SFR market is still a sellers' market overall, but has softened a bit, with price points over $1million either balanced or buyers' markets. Homes under $1million continue to be the hottest segment of the market with over 34% of listings in contract, just below "strong sellers' market" territory. Unit YTD sales of SFR's are still ahead of the same time period in 2006 at 588 vs. 540 last year (about an 8.8% difference), but the gap has been narrowing in recent weeks. Does this mean that the market is headed South? Probably not! Mortgage rates are still excellent, though some of the low doc or no doc loan criteria have been tightened considerably. In addition the ratio of accepted offers to new listings is quite high at the moment. MarketQuest shows that ratio for the month of April, so far, to be 104.5% for the combined Marin market. Marin MLS has a figure that is not directly comparable, but parallel,which is also quite high. Average Days on Market are down a bit but still slightly higher than last year at 79 vs. 72. Anecdotal evidence from agents and from offices I visit shows a lot of newly opened escrows and heavy activity.

My opinion is that buyers and sellers are all trying to deal with uncertainty and make a determination about where the market is headed--- so everyone is cautious. Buyers are not throwing away money, and sellers are not giving away the store. Advice for all parties is to do the necessary homework and then go ahead. There is a healthy market out there. It requires some investigation and some negotiation, but a lot of deals are closing.

The Condo market in Marin presents a few more questions. YTD units sold continue to slip, and currently sit at 157 vs. 193 at the same time last year, a drop of 18-plus percent. This gap widened again in the last seven days. The interesting thing is that unit prices are still ahead of 2006. Average YTD sold price so far is $621,575 vs. last year at the same time $609,815. Days on market a bit longer now at 80 vs. 67 this time last year. Condo's a fantastic buyers' opportunity in many locations right now. Sellers don't despair though. A lot of impact can be made through careful preparation, pricing, presentation (staging), and marketing. Condo's are selling every day, and yours can too if it is well-marketed.

Numbers for the past 7 days:

SFR
New Listings 97
Contingent 59
Pending 47
Sold 58
Expired 3
Withdrawn/
Temp Off Mkt. 13
Price Reduction 34


CONDO
New Listings 21
Contingent 15
Pending 9
Sold 10
Expired 5
Withdrawn/
Temp Off Mkt. 1
Price Reduction 25

The City-by-City report will be out next week, with an update on what's hot and what's not!
Until then------

Best wishes,
Fred

Quote for the week: "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
Epictetus