What’s Hot in San Rafael Real Estate

With interest rates near all time lows it’s no surprise that some segments of the San Rafael market are performing well. 

Take for instance single family homes in the entry level $400,000 – $500,000 price range.  As of Sept 29, according to BAREIS MLS, there were 20 homes on the market in San Rafael and seven of those were in contract.  That means 35 percent of the inventory was in contract, which is a very healthy number.  The downside of buying in this price category in San Rafael is that many of the available properties need work, which is why they are priced so low.  Still there are many diamonds in the rough awaiting prospective home buyers.

Jumping into a totally different category even hotter are single-family homes in San Rafael from $800,000 - $900,000.  There are 19 such homes on the market currently and nine are in escrow.  That’s close to 50 percent, making this a strong seller’s market.  One reason this price level may be doing so well is the fact that at one time many of these homes were valued over $1 million and buyers are taking advantage of the great prices.

The $900,000 – $1 million range is also doing well with only 13 listings and five in escrow.  Moving into the fall months these are very encouraging numbers for sellers.  Typically as the days get shorter the inventory dwindles.  Things start to ramp up again and we see more buying and selling activity after the Super Bowl.

That being said the fall and winter months can be some of the best to sell.  With lower inventory there is less competition for the buyers in the market.  Only the most serious buyers are out looking at houses as the weather turns cool, rainy and the days shorten.  The flip side is the perception among sellers that their homes won’t show as well when the sun is lower.  Their homes get less natural light which many buyers find attractive.  This perception is more prevalent in the wooded areas of Marin such as Mill Valley, Larkspur and Woodacre.

Moving over to condominiums in the price range of $300,000 - $400,000 we are seeing performance similar to higher end homes.  There are 14 such condos on the market and seven are in escrow.  This is another strong seller’s market.  It seems that there isn’t a lot of available inventory and what is out there is getting snapped up. 

These are very encouraging signs for our local markets.  While prices in our San Rafael market have come down we are seeing strong buying activity in several different price levels, from top to bottom.