Marin County, Calif., detached home sales in October were up 25% over last year as the coronavirus pandemic continued to shake up conventional market trends.
"All bets are off with the pandemic in terms of seasonality," said Patti Cohn, a Marin real estate broker with Compass.
Marin County's "shelter-in-place" restrictions put a damper on the normally busy spring home buying season, but sales shot up over the summer. The market tends to cool off in the fall, but Cohn said the demand for Marin County homes has held steady.
The county recorded 297 detached home sales in October, up from 238 last year. That was up about 2% from the 290 homes sold in September.
The median price for a detached home was $1.475 million last month, county data show. That was up 9% from the $1.35 million median in October 2019, but down about 5% from September, when the median price hit $1.55 million.
Low interest rates have been a major driver of the market, said Kelley Eling, a Marin Realtor with Fathom. San Francisco residents who are now working from home are also bringing a boost to Marin's home sales as they migrate out of the city, she said.
"People with good paying jobs don't have to be stuck next to their offices anymore," Eling said.
Across the Bay Area, the median single-family home price hit a record $1.1 million last month, up 17% over October 2019, according to the California Association of Realtors. Sales rose 19%.
Statewide, the $711,300 median price for a single-family home was up almost 18% over the prior year, the association said. But the price dipped on a month-to-month basis in October for the first time in five months, down 0.2% from September's record high of $712,430. Sales were up 20% over last year and down 1% from September.
"An extremely favorable lending environment and a renewed attitude towards homeownership is prolonging the homebuying season and extending the market's V-shaped recovery to the off season," said Leslie Appleton-Young, the association's chief economist.
"The question that remains to be answered, however, is whether the strong market is sustainable in the longer term as market fundamentals continue to be tested by tight supply, eroding housing affordability, and most of all, the rising number of Coronavirus cases," Appleton-Young said.
