3/29/08

Marina (District 7A) price appreciation

A question on Trulia about how San Francisco's Marina District has changed, or not, over the past few months. To that end I did a couple of searches and will include the results here:

2 Bedroom Condo Sales from Sept 1st '07 to Dec 31st '07:
7 sales, four with posted SqFt info, price range from $875,000 to $1.48 million. Average price $1.26 million, Median price $1.4 million (4 of the 7 sold btwn $1.4 and $1.48 million). Average price per SqFt (of just the 4 with listed SqFt info) was $875.97

Here's the link to the above report (click "yes" to allow it to open)

2008 Sales, as well as all 2 Bedroom Condos that are currently For Sale, and in contract:
Only 4 sales (only 3 months vs. 4 above), 2 in contract, and 5 listed for Sale. So about 1.5 are selling per month in both reports, so with 5 on the market now, the "supply" of homes should last a little over 3 months. That's a tad slow for San Francisco, but blazingly hot compared to the rest of the country.

The price range of the 4 sales was $1,070,000 to $1.55 million with the average at $1.286 million and the Median at $1.262 million. Here's the link to this report.

Unfortunately the above two reports don't paint a clear picture. You could argue that the market has gone down because there were so many $1.4 million sales in late 2007. But you could argue the market has gone up because there was a recent $1.55 million sale, and the average price is slightly higher than 2007's.

So what's a Buyer to do? First off, as a "feet on the street" Realtor who looks at properties in the Marina every week, I'll share my thoughts... and that is that "special" properties are selling very fast, and going for the upper most of their "fair market value". Properties that Buyers aren't clamoring over are sitting on the market until they are reduced in price. Several of these are clearly over priced, and I can tell almost the moment I walk in the door. But either the Seller won't listen to their agent, or on occasion the Realtor mis-judged the property's worth, and how Buyers would receive it. In the hot 2004 market, they too would have sold immediately and for crazy prices, but today, Buyers are being very picky.

So my answer is.... "special" properties are up modestly in price, and non-special properties are down modestly in price.

By the way... the above is a Condo only report, and only for 2 Bedroom Condos. I'll run a Single Family Home report shortly and post in below.

For a specific property's current "fair market value" visit www.Evaluate-My-Home.com and enter the address and your email to get a similar report to the above two, but specific to that property.

Single Family Homes in the Marina

Here's the 2008 report.... all Single Family Homes on the market now, in contract now, or Sold since Jan 1st 2008.

Here's the report for Sept 1st thru Dec 31st 2007 Sales of Marina District Single Family Homes.

Price per SqFt is higher now $1,065 vs. $916. But the Average and the Median prices are both lower now vs. the latter part of 2007... Average was $3.3 million and is now$2.97 million. The Median was $3.07 million and is now $2.38 million.

But back to my "feet on the street" opinion... and that is that Buyers in this price range are snapping up the "special" properties in competitive bid situations. So if you're a bargain hunter, look for the properties that have some issues (small or no yard, odd layout, not the best block, poor condition, or even something that hasn't been painted and staged). Whereas, if you're interested in a property that everyone would want to live in, be prepared to compete.

For an analysis of a specific property visit www.Automated-HomeFinder.com