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[SemiBizz]

Marin's single-family home median hits record $1.125M

After falling back into the stratosphere in May, Marin's real estate market shot through the ozone layer in June.
The median price for a detached home in Marin County hit a record $1,125,000 last month, up 16 percent from June 2006, according to figures released Wednesday by DataQuick Information Systems, an industry research firm. The median is the point at which half the homes cost more and half cost less.

It was the second time Marin crossed the $1 million threshold. In April, the county's median single-family home price hit $1,010,000 - the first time any California county broke the seven-figure barrier - before slipping back to $925,000 in May.

The number of sales of detached homes continued to lag, falling 14 percent from June 2006 to June 2007. But compared with other counties in the Bay Area, Marin sales figures are falling less dramatically, said DataQuick analyst John Karevoll.

"The expensive markets are actually doing pretty well right now," Karevoll said. "The rich are getting richer, and the rest of us aren't."

The median price for condos and townhomes in Marin was $555,000 last month, up 1.6 percent from June 1006. Sales fell 13 percent, from 92 in June 2006 to 80 last month.
Frank Howard Allen in Greenbrae, said homes in the highest reaches of the Marin market are getting multiple bids, even as homes in other areas are languishing on the market.
"Marin sellers, rather than discounting deeply, they will take it off the market and not sell," Cohn said. "Multimillion dollar properties are in demand. I've heard of very high-end properties - $4 million or $5 million - getting multiple offers. The upper end is very, very strong."

Data provided by the county assessor's office support that view. In Tiburon, 13 detached homes were sold last month for an average price of $2.3 million. In Mill Valley, the average price on 24 detached homes was $1.8 million. The average price of the three homes sold in Belvedere was $2.1 million.

Farther north, 25 detached homes sold for an average of $1.1 million in San Rafael, 13 homes fetched an average of $1.2 million in Corte Madera, and 11 homes cost an average of nearly $1.5 million in Larkspur. In Ross, the average price of the four homes sold was nearly $3.3 million.

In Novato, 39 detached homes were sold last month at an average price of $969,000.

"No one predicted what is happening in Marin this year," Cohn said. "It isn't happening in other parts of the country. It boils down to the fact that we don't have a lot of new construction."

Across the nine-county Bay Area, the median price paid for a home, condos included, was a new high of $665,000, up 2.6 percent from June 2006, DataQuick reported.

"There is no place to build in Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin (counties), and that is keeping prices higher," said Larry Klapow, president of San Ramon-based Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate Brokerage in the Bay Area.

The number of sales was down nearly 27 percent year-over-year. Bay Area sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis the last 29 months.

"Obviously there's still a bit of a standoff between buyers and sellers," said Marshall Prentice, president of DataQuick. "It looks like unsuccessful sellers would rather take the home off the market than bring the price down, which is remarkable after almost two-and-a-half years of sales declines."