Marin Home Sales Decline in January, But Prices Continue to Rise

Low inventory caused Marin's housing market to lose some of its holiday season robustness in January, but prices continued to outpace those from a year prior, a real estate information service reported.

The median home price rose by more than 20 percent in Marin County from January 2012 to January 2013, DataQuick reported. The median home price for the county last month was $640,000, up from $523,000 in January 2012.

It's expected the median home price in San Rafael will increase by 5 percent this year, a recent study predicted.

But the number of home sales in Marin County actually declined when comparing January 2012 to last month: 181 homes sold in Janary 2013, down slightly from 191 a year ago.

More than 55 homes were sold in San Rafael in January, according to the real estate website Zillow.com.

Throughout the nine-county Bay Area tracked by DataQuick, home prices and the volume of sales completed in January were the in six years and the tenth straight year-over-year increase in the median sale price.

The median price paid for a home in the Bay Area was $415,000 in January. That was down 6.3 percent from $442,750 in December, and up 27.3 percent from $326,000 in January a year ago, according to DataQuick.

DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement that underlying Bay Area market trends like a still-dysfunctional mortgage market indicate that the market is still far from normal.

"That said, the market imbalances are moving toward normalcy, with baby steps,” he said.

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