The median price of a Marin home rose to $885,750 in February, an 8.7 percent increase over the $815,000 median a year earlier, a real estate data-tracking firm said.
Irvine, Calif.-based CoreLogic said the number of new, resale and condo homes sold also rose slightly to 167, a 1.8% blip over the 164 homes sold in February 2017.
CoreLogic research analyst Andrew LePage said the Marin sales and prices were mostly in line with the rest of the nine-county Bay Area real estate market.
"Bay Area home sales gained momentum in February, rising on a year-over-year basis for the first time in four months," LePage said. "Although last month's sales were well below average for a February, they were the second-highest for that month in the last five years."
Home prices in the Bay Area soared as well, LePage said.
"The median price paid for all homes sold in the San Francisco Bay Area in February 2018 was $750,000, up 12.5% year over year from $666,550 in February 2017," he said. "The February 2018 median sale price was 4.3% below the region's peak median of $784,000 reached in November 2017."
Marin real estate brokers say they are seeing the spring Marin market start to pick up — perhaps a week or so delayed by the rain.
"I'm seeing more inventory now — it seems like more and better homes are coming on the market," said Barry Crotty, a broker with Coldwell Banker in Greenbrae. "Prices are at historic highs — so while some homes seem to recycle every four to seven years, I'm also now seeing some homes that haven't been on the market for almost 50 years coming on now, because the owners think it's a good time to sell."
Patti Cohn, a broker with Pacific Union Real Estate in Larkspur, said she is finding the Marin and Bay Area markets "pretty amazing" in terms of intensity. Supply is still low, and employment growth is causing demand to rise, so that all the factors are headed for a superheated market — signaling a rise in bidding wars, fast sales and over-asking sale prices, she said.
"In the Bay Area, the days on the market are down, the list price to sales price — or over-asking — is up, year over year," Cohn said. "In the Bay Area, seven out of 10 properties went over asking."
Most startling was the uptick in Santa Clara in the heart of Silicon Valley, where sales were as much as 23% over asking, Cohn said. According to CoreLogic data released Thursday, Santa Clara's median price rose 27.8% in February to $1.08 million.
"It's a very tech-driven market," Cohn said.
In Marin, however, it's all about inventory — or lack thereof, she added.
"While Marin is very desirable, as baby boomers age, they don't have anywhere to go, so they just stay put," she said. "That leads to a really tight, super-hot market."
Crotty, meanwhile, said he was intrigued to see two homes in Terra Linda come on the market this week that had not been on the market for around 50 years. While they both might need some work, they appear to be priced about $200,000 below market average, he said.
"In this case, where buyers are looking for a place to live — not investors and not flippers — there are two different kinds of buyers (who react to such a home)," Crotty said. "One type of buyer might have the wherewithall to take a house that needs work and know how to invest to remodel and make it real special.
"Another type of buyer would look at the house, and can't see the vision and don't have the ability timewise or financially to purchase and then come with another $50,000 or $75,000 (for remodeling), and then have to get the permits and live through construction."
Across the Bay Area, a total of 4,929 new and existing houses and condominiums sold in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma counties in February 2018, up 1.9% year over year from 4,835 sales in February 2017, LePage said.
"The median price paid for a Bay Area home has been rising on a year-over-year basis every month for just under six years," LePage said. "The severe imbalance between the region's housing supply and demand suggests continued upward pressure on prices."
However, if mortgage rates continue to climb higher, some of that pressure would be relieved as more buyers are priced out of the market, he added.
"Last month, one of the region's nine counties — Santa Clara — logged a record median sale price for all homes combined, while the median paid for resale detached houses hit record levels in Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties."
