Looking at the Marin County median home prices for August is pretty depressing. The percentage change for many cities is down. Tiburon is down 38.23% since August of 2006. Does this mean home prices have dropped almost 40%??
No, they haven’t. Many Marin County areas only have a handful of sales each month. (Tiburon had 12, Larkspur 2, Corte Madera 7).
The median isn’t a great gage of what is happening in the market when you look at this few of sales. For the past couple of years, August has been a slow month for Marin real estate. August 2007 was exceptionally slow as both buyers and sellers waited to see what would happen in the Marin real estate market.
Buyers are waiting in the wings for good homes to come on the market. The inventory that is on the market is either stale or over priced. Across the board, the number of homes on the market is down in Marin. (overall 16.04% from August 06).
# of Marin homes* for sale in August 2007 compared to August 2006
*single family
- Belvedere- down 9.09%
- Corte Madera- down 36.59%
- Fairfax- down 46.51%
- Greenbrae- down 52.17
- Larkspur- down 21.74%
- Mill Valley- down 35%
- Ross- down 15.38%
- San Anselmo- down 16.92%
- San Rafael- down 14.67
- Sausalito- down 41.51%
- Tiburon- down 22.89%,
What does this mean? No inventory. Sellers are not selling and buyers aren’t buying. It is time for some good listings – buyers are waiting for them.