Home Prices & Stats
An investment anywhere in Marin Real Estate by almost any measure has been vary successful. The average home in Marin County in 1970 cost about $38,000; by 2006 that figure had increased to almost $1,100,000.
Similarly, the average home in 1998 in Marin cost $500,000 and increased in 8 short years to $1,100,000 for a compounded 8 year rate of return of 10.5%-- significantly above the 36 year average Marin return of 9.8%.
Most importantly, in the last 41 years the average house price in Marin County has dipped only once-in 1991 &1992 see graph below:
Besides this barely perceptible dip, the average home price in Marin County has always gone up— through good years and bad years, recessions, dot-com meltdowns and national real estate slumps such as the current one. During the current national real estate slump, the Marin county average home price has increased 10% through the first half of 2007 . The primary reason for our stable housing prices is the supply of Marin homes is quite small and the demand
to live in Marin is very large. See average home prices below:| 30 Year Average Home Prices | |||
| Year | Marin | California | America |
| 2007 | 1,201,931 | 556,640 | 221,900 |
| 2006 | 1,090,916 | 556,640 | 221,900 |
| 2005 | 1,078,819 | 522,670 | 219,000 |
| 2004 | 929,103 | 450,770 | 195,200 |
| 2003 | 817,961 | 371,520 | 180,200 |
| 2002 | 782,829 | 316,130 | 167,600 |
| 2001 | 757,523 | 262,350 | 156,600 |
| 2000 | 722,780 | 241,350 | 147,300 |
| 1999 | 590,821 | 217,510 | 141,200 |
| 1998 | 495,093 | 200,100 | 136,000 |
| 1997 | 443,135 | 186,490 | 129,000 |
| 1996 | 417,324 | 177,270 | 122,600 |
| 1995 | 397,069 | 178,160 | 117,000 |
| 1990 | 379,581 | 197,770 | 97,300 |
| 1985 | 200,557 | 119,860 | 75,500 |
| 1980 | 168,508 | 99,550 | 62,200 |
| 1975 | 64,215 | 41,600 | 35,300 |
| 1970 | 37,845 | 24,640 | 23,000 |
Marin Real Estate has typically performed better than California and the USA as a whole in both annual percentage returns:
...and actual dollar returns:
Not all towns were created equal in Marin and their costs reflect this. Belvedere and Ross being the two areas in Marin consistently commanding stratospheric prices, followed by Tiburon, Kentfield and Mill Valley in that order, see below:
Historically, the rate of return for each town has varied as well:
In 2007, while the most of the country is in real estate correction mode with high inventory levels had decreased selling prices, Marin County is seeing very limited inventory and surprisingly strong selling prices (especially Kentfield where several very large transactions have skewed the year to date average home price figures) see below:
