The Marin County, Calif., median home price jumped to $1.165 million in June, up 8.4% over the $1.075 million median price in June 2017, a real estate data tracking firm reported.
Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic said that the number of homes sold in Marin dipped 3% in June to 355, down from the 366 new and resale single-family homes and condos sold a year earlier.
While home prices continued to rise year-over-year in all nine Bay Area counties, sales were down in every Bay Area county except for San Francisco, said Andrew LePage, a CoreLogic analyst.
"Last month's home sales were the lowest for June in four years, and the year-over-year drop in the total number of transactions was the largest in 14 months," LePage said in Wednesday's written report.
He said although some sales drop may have come because there was one less business day in June this year for recording deals, "affordability and inventory constraints are likely the main culprits in last month's sales slowdown, which applied to eight of the nine Bay Area counties."
Marin real estate agents said they are seeing some normal and natural summer slowdown now, due to summer vacations. For that reason, buyers might want to get in the market now, when there is less competition and more inventory, said Kathy Schlegel, of Golden Gate Sotheby's International Realty in San Rafael.
"June statistics represent properties going into escrow in April and May," she said in an email. "The real estate market was still very active and competitive at that time.
"In June and July, inventory has increased and sales have stalled," Schlegel said. "Buyers are on vacation and many are taking a break due to 'buyer fatigue' from the heavy competition of the spring market.
"It is a perfect time right now for buyers to come back into the market, with more choices to choose from and to not have the stress of multiple offers, which was typical of the spring buying frenzy."
Patti Cohn, of Pacific Union in Larkspur, said the 8.4% jump in median prices for June was a sign that the Marin market was still going strong and had not yet topped out.
"If you think about it, 8.4% is a really healthy increase," she said. "The number of sales in the (Marin) table is not a big difference — that's mostly due to lack of inventory."
In Kentfield, meanwhile, two neighboring homes are on the market — under different circumstances.
At 5 Hillside Ave., a 100-year-old modernized and updated craftsman-style home with five bedrooms and three bathrooms and a detached in-law unit was just put on the market with an asking price of $1.595 million. Right next to it, at 3 Hillside Ave., a creekside cottage built in 1914 with two bedrooms and two baths and 1,000 square feet is on the market at the asking price of $729,000. Listing agent Carla Giustino of Coldwell Banker said the cottage is a "fixer-upper" and has some expansion restrictions due to being located creekside -- but is otherwise one of the lowest-priced homes available in Central Marin.
"You can't make it bigger, so you would need some patience," Giustino said.
Recent reports about people leaving the Bay Area because of the high cost of housing haven't appeared to directly influence the June numbers, but they could gradually have an impact on the Marin market.
"Lower-priced homes are still selling briskly," Schlegel said. "However, the upper end homes in various areas of Marin are presently sitting on the market longer.
"An example is the $1.5 million to $2.5 million home market in Novato," she said. "As of July 4, there were 27 homes listed as active in this category.
"As of July 24, three of these homes went into escrow, while five new listings came on the market."
Rising mortgage interest rates may also be daunting, LePage said.
"Price growth is only part of the problem that home shoppers have faced," he said. "The median price paid for a Bay Area home this June was up almost 13% year over year, but the principal-and-interest mortgage payment on that median-priced home was up about 22% because of the rise in mortgage rates — more than half a percentage point — over the past year."
