Hope Springs Temporarily on a 4-Lane Thoroughfare

JUST when you start to lose all faith in humanity, something like this happens:

Getting off northbound 101 at Corte Madera, and following the flow making a right on Paradise Drive, suddenly traffic comes to a screeching halt.  A young man had stopped his truck to block traffic and hopped out.  What happened?  A downed biker?  An accident?  No it was a mommy duck with her babies much like the photo to the right being sheparded across a 4 lane road by a Good Samaritan.   He then stopped the 2 lanes of traffic coming in the other direction, helped a couple of the little ducklings over the median strip, and the feathered family gratefully hopped into the canal on the other side.

Awwwwwww!   My faith in humanity is restored…

San Francisco Market update

I ran into one of my favorite San Francisco real estate agents at Rulli’s in Larkspur this morning.  He said the homes that came on the market in the early spring that were ‘show ready’, priced right and had few, if any downsides flew out the door to buyers who had been waiting for more inventory.   Sounds familiar….

After the Price Drop, We’re Seeing a Tick Up

Take a look at the GREEN line that rises over the 40 year time span.  That is Marin average home price.  Takes a dive for a couple of years…and what do you know?  A slight tick up now!   No one knows whether that’s the beginning of a trend, or whether Marin Housing prices are going to bounce around on the ‘bottom’ for awhile…but we like to see that upward movement.

Market Update: Low End is HOT, $1 – $2 million moves up

As has been the case for quite a while, homes, condos and townhomes in the $500K and under price range are flying out the door–more than half in contract in most areas.

The interesting market movement for February is how much healthier the $1 to $2 million price range became.   I will post a chart for that range tomorrow.   In the meantime, I ran the numbers for the $1.1 to $1.4 price range in central Marin towns, and found that 38% of homes on the market are in contract.   It’s that early spring bump in activity.  Particularly when the weather clears up, the buyers who have been sitting on the fence are out now taking advantage of incredible interest rates!   It’s a great time to put a home on the market as inventory is still rather low and San Francisco families who were not assigned to the school of their choice are now looking.  Frankly, for those who are ‘waiting’ for the good old days to come back, the prices from the top of the fraud-generated bubble are probably going to be just a fond memory for quite a while.