Sausalito CA Real Estate is coming back! After a painful year of very slow sales and a price plunge, the health of the Sausalito CA home market is recovering. 23% of the homes in Sausalito are in contract focused mainly on the low end. If you remove condos—the picture is surprisingly even better: 25% are in contract. Condos in Sausalito have faired better than SFR homes over the course of the last year so it does look like the market for SFR homes is turning.

Families typically look farther north of Sausalito for a number of reasons—one of which has historically been the public school system. Willow Creek, a Sausalito public school, is now a very good reason for families to consider Sausalito in addition to towns further north. Please visit the Willow Creek website and schedule a tour of the school.

Pricing remains very important in Sausalito and due to the many different micro-markets in Sausalito.

Please reference the Marin Update for additional information.

 Updated 6/3/10

Sausalito Real Estate continues to struggle. The area has been hit severely by the real estate meltdown– worst in Southern Marin by several different metrics: Average & Median price declines, average $/sqft declines, and unit sale declines. There are currently 60 SFR homes (not condos) for sale and only 8 of them are in contract, or 13%. This representsd very difficult conditions and foreshadows additional price contraction ahead as value buyers strong arm sellers.

Every person, buyer, seller, bystander, & non-local Realtor asks the same thing: why is Sausalito down so much more than other areas in Southern Marin? The answer is as follows: Sausalito is as impacted by San Francisco real estate buyers trends as much as it is by Marin County buyer trends. The buyer trends in Marin are: the only real buyers in the marketplace are families with kids. All other buyers are really just kicking tires right now, even though they may think they are serious about buying.

The only people with any urgency to buy right now are families with kids looking for schools. In San Francisco– schools are a real problem: public schools are mediocre, and the good private schools are almost impossible to get your kids into. The same is true for public schools in Sausalito– so families with their offspring are staying on 101 for another exit or two to find a better public school district, larger back yards and warmer afternoons.

SO…. the are very few real buyers in the Sausalito market. Plenty of tire kickers, but almost no real buyers. This likely won’t change until there is clear indication of an improving economic situation.

The Sausalito SFR market is still in a Moderate active decline at -5% over the last 3 months

The condo market in Sausalito is doing better at +1$ over the last 3 months.

SFR & CONDO % in contract as off 6/3/10:

4/22/10- Things are definitely improving in Sausalito! 6 weeks ago there were over 50 homes on the market and none of them were in contract. 30 days ago there was 11% of the homes on the market were in contract and today there are 16% in contract. This is still representative of very weak real estate market– albeit MUCH better that it was.

This site works in conjuctuion with www.thedupontgroup.net our primary website and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me 415-867-6611.

The Spring 2010 market is off to a roaring start. The momentum started late in 2009 in the lower market segments (bottom 2 price quartiles of each town) and has continued in those market segments. The health of any real estate market originates in the lower market segments and slowly ripples up the price spectrum until at the end of the cycle the top of the market peaks when the lower end has already started contracting—as happened in the last cycle. While average, median & $/SQFT price trends are marginally improving, unit sales are seeing a greater bounce.

Please start by reading the Marin Update:  at right click “Marin Update”.

Additional information regarding Sausalito CA Real Estate can be found on www.TheDuPontGroup.net , our groups primary website.

Marin Real Estate
In the last 44 years, there have been only two years (excluding 2008 & 2009) when average home prices in Marin County have decreased from one year to the next: -1.2% in 1991 and -1.4% in 1992– after the S&L crisis.

Marin County average residential home prices fell -12.7% in 2008 and -21% in 2009.  

 A unit-sale weighted average of Southern, Central & Northern Marin show Southern Marin prices are down -17.4%, Central Marin down -13.1%, and Northern Marin down -18.4% from 2008 levels.

For much more more information from a mile high perspective please see right nav bar, click & read “Marin Update”.

Sausalito real estate is one of the hardest hit locations in Marin. In 2009, average SFR home prices in Sausalito were down -29%. The current picture is equally bleak. There are 27 SFR homes on the market and only one is in contract. Another interesting aspect of the below ‘inventory in contract’ charts is all of the properties clustered at the high end of the market in the top quartile. Sellers are not reacting fast enough to changing market conditions and hoping against hope that prices are going to come back.

There haven’t been any sales over $3mm since Oct 1^st 2008. Sausalito is going thru a once in life-time market reset– there aren’t that many wealthy execs with the propernsity to buy multi million dollar properties in Sausalito. Please see the Marin Update blog for larger trend data for Southern Marin.

Please see the below information and call Dave DuPont for further insight 415-867-6611.

Sausalito Quarterly data:

In the above graphs it is easy to see the seasonality of real estate in Marin. The spring is clearly our chance to get you the best prices of the year.

Statistical Info:

Home prices are driven by incomes:

Census data… the next census due out within the year will help clarify incomes in Sausalito.

I have much more data here in my files including condo data for Sausalito.

In 2008 and 2009, Dave and the DuPont Group are leading agents in Marin County Real Estate. Since the recession began in earnest in 2008, Dave personally closed over 36 sales and $47m in real estate sales, and his group has closed over $60m. For 2 years running Dave has sold more homes than any other agent at DB Sotheby’s Intl Realty. The data in these pages represents the extra mile we go for clients and is our competitive advantage over other agents in all parts of Marin. Now is not the time to select an agent to represent you because they are a friend or even because they may have represented you in the past. The work habits most realtors has evolved over the past 20 years are not translating well into selling homes in today’s real estate environment where home buyers make decisions because of financial considerations as opposed to emotional ones.

Dave is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Certified Financial Manager (CFM), received his MBA from Pepperdine University, a CA real estate broker and worked for approximately 10 years in the San Francisco financial district. This Blog works in conjunction with The DuPont Groups primary web site.

Please call me to discuss this information in more detail 415-867-6611 – Dave