Hello Everyone,
(for access to spreadsheets, please see http://www.fredanlyan.com)
The writer continues to travel on the east coast, and will return to California on Monday. Beautiful spring weather here, and large, newer homes in good areas sell for $300-500K. Some of these homes would go for up to $3,000,000 in selected areas of Marin County.
Spring sellers of Single Family Residences and Condominiums in Marin County continue to drive normal seasonal increase in inventory again this week. Listings up in all price ranges again, and percentage in contract up in nearly all categories as well. The only exception is SFR's over $3million--- still a strong buyers' market. Everything else a buyers' market and steadily moving towards balanced. Condo's continue to narrow the gap between this year's ytd unit sales and last, now down 33.8% vs. last week's -37%. Days on market 94 now vs. 79 last year, average list price $601,897 vs 2007's $639,519, and average sold price currently $587,409 compared to $630,520 a year ago. SFR's still sluggish compared to last year, with ytd unit sales down 34.9%. There was a typo on last week's report showing -39%. The figure should have been -34.3%, so this week's number reprents a slight additional slippage. Average SFR list price is currently $1,396,228 vs $1,366,502 last year and average sold $ are $1,340,273 vs. $1,335,321 in 2007 so, although unit sales are down, prices are up slightly. Days on market are 85 vs 82 at this time last year. Marin housing market still active, but very sensitive to value and price, so pricing, preparation, and presentation are critical. Evidencing this is the fact there were 53 price reductions on SFR's and 23 on condo's in the April 2-8 period.
Lots of stories in the news about well qualified buyers having trouble getting loans, and how this impedes the real estate market. It is critical for buyers to establish a relationship with a reputable, experienced lender or broker very early on in the process of buying a home. Buyers should be pre-approved, meaning that their application has been approved by an underwriter and is subject only to specific items such as appraisal, etc., per the lender's specifications. Sellers and their agents should include a careful consideration of the potential buyer's financial/loan/lender status in their evaluation of offers on their properties. This will help transactions to proceed smoothly and speedily.
More next week.
Until then, best wishes to all,
Fred
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