Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Anlyan Report. Marin Market Statistics 10.14.2008

For access to spreadsheets please see http://fredanlyan.com

Hello Everyone,

Probably no surprise to anyone that the Marin County housing market lost a little steam over the past week or two! Financial markets and people's emotions on a roller-coaster ride. But the Dow finished up for the week with the biggest weekly percentage gain (4.8%) in over five years.

Single Family Residences (SFR) overall now solidly in buyers' market territory at 17.43% in contract. Entry level market of under-$1million dollar homes still holding on to its value best overall at 24.1% in contract, or almost in balanced market territory. More expensive homes in general receiving less interest from buyers so currently a great opportunity. Buyers-- opportunities like this do not come around very often in Marin County. If you are interested in value, you will want to give this your attention now. 93 listings of homes over $3million, and only 5 of them in contract as of October 14. In the $2-3million dollar range, only 17 out of 118 listings in contract. Average list price of SFR listings $1,414,473 vs. $1,453,117 at this time last year. Average sold price $1,310,990 compared to $1,373,858 in '07 at the same time. During the 7 days from 10/8 to 10/14 there were 44 new SFR listings, 83 price reductions, 33 contingent, 24 pending, 30 sold, and15 expired. 28 listings were withdrawn or temporarily off the market. In spite of all the turmoil, 32 units sold during the week compared to the year-ago figure of 24, further closing the YTD units sold gap from -22% to -21.3%.

Condominiums off a bit but still holding up surprisingly well, with all under $1million still at above 30% in contract--sellers' market territory. True, they had been a "strong sellers" market in the week before, but we had mentioned that this was an oversimplification as buyers were still skittish and choosy. Still, 23 units sold during the week compared to 5 the previous year, enough more to close the YTD unit sales gap to within 8.9% of 2007's YTD figures. Average prices substantially lower than '07 though with average list price at $541,103 vs. 2007's $663,133, and average sold price just over $500,000 compared to the year-ago figure of $640,598. There were 19 new condo listings during the period from 10/8 to 10/14 as well as 17 price reductions, 10 contingent, 12 pending, 22 sold, 11 expired and 10 withdrawn or temporarily off the market.
With bank liquidity on the upswing due to recent actions by the Federal Reserve, I look for mortgage interest rates to come back down from their recent jump.

More next week---
Until then, best wishes to all,
Fred

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