2022 Round Up: Marin Market Review

It’s hard to believe 2022 has already come and gone…and what a year it’s been! In terms of real estate, this year has been a wild ride here in Marin. If you’ve been involved in or even keeping an eye on the market throughout the year, you would have witness how market conditions have changed over the last twelve months. While the beginning of the year was filled with intense buyer competition and some unbelievably fast DOM statistics, the latter half of the year has been entirely different. While home prices have been holding strong, competition has reduced as a lot of buyers have been impacted by increased interest rates. So where are we now? Currently, Marin is taking influence from the biggest factor of the moment: seasonality. We are at the typical end-of-year calm, where we are seeing a decrease in new listings, people enjoying the end of their year and taking time off for the holiday season! It’s the perfect time to pause, reflect on the year, and use those details to inform your real estate strategy for 2023. Here’s what happened in the real estate market of Marin in 2022:

In 2022 in Marin, 2062 single family homes were sold (both on and off the MLS)

If we include condos and townhomes, 2668 properties were sold. 

In the last 6 months in Marin, there were about 959 transactions on single family homes in Marin recorded on the MLS. If you include homes sold OFF the MLS, there were nearly 1020 transactions. This means only about 6% of all the sales during this time were pocket listings. 

Of the homes sold (on the MLS) in Marin in 2022, the average home had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and was built in the early 1960’s.  

The average square foot of homes sold was around 2,240 square feet. 

The average list price for these single family homes was just over $2M…as was the average sale price. 

The average days on market has fluctuated throughout the year, but the overall average about about 1 month. 

…so what does all of this mean for you? Well, this data can provide a lot of insight into where the market is for Marin specifically, and what that might mean for sales early in 2023. Of course, Marin is a large county and each hyperlocal area will have its own, more specific set of data. For example, average price, home size, and DOM in Tiburon will be very different from that of Novato. If you are planning on buying or selling, it’s very important to get the information from your agent on the more specific city or towns you are working with. They should include even more data points for you like average price per square foot of the area and average lot size, for example. Regardless, understanding this generalized information is still beneficial for anyone participating in the real estate market in the near future. 

If you are planning to sell your home, this information will give you a clear picture for the comparable sales to your home. It will help you and your agent not only create a fair listing price and marketing strategy, but also give you some context into a potential timeline for the sale, based on the most recent historical data. For example, if you haven’t been part of the market since spring and you still think most homes are selling within 48 hours of being listed, it’s would be VERY important for you to understand that most recent DOM data. 

If you’re planning to buy a home in 2023, this information should help you better understand the conditions of the market you are walking into. As a buyer, it’s important to have a realistic understanding of the completion, inventory, and influences pertinent to your search. These factors might impact the availability of houses in your desired area, price range, and even how to write a competitive offer. 

Now, if you just read all of that and you’re still saying to yourself, I still don’t understand how this data is going to help me buy or sell in the future- that’s okay. What’s important is that you are working with a real estate agent who WILL know how to use that data to your advantage. Real Estate in Marin is largely influenced by what’s happening hyper-locally, so the better we understand current sales and trends, the more equity we are to successfully navigate the market.

If you are thinking about buying or selling in Marin in 2023 and would like a strong, data driven strategy, I’d love to work with you. Please reach out to me directly via email (christa@bayareamodern.com) or call me at 224.715.7627. I’d love to set you up for success!

*This information is based on sales reported in Bay Area Real Estate Information Services. Inc. BAREIS and is subject to change*