Real estate in Marin has faired a little better the first 6 months of 2010 than it did in the previous year. I would like to focus on the Mill Valley market as it is a market that most people from out of the area think of when they are looking for a home.  

The quaint nature of the town, along with the close proximity to the city and the great schools, are some of the factors that win over homeowners. For those reasons Mill Valley prices usually hold up well over a long period of time. We will see some fluctuations, but not as great as you will see in areas such as Novato and San Rafael.

In 2007, at the peak of the market, the average price of a home in Mill valley was $1,492,000. As of June 30, 2010 the average price was down to $1,270,000, a 21.5% decline. The median price declined a more moderate 10%.  

We are seeing homes in Mill Valley move slowly through the sales process. Currently there are 203 single family homes and 37 condominiums on the market in Mill Valley. I always look at the percentage of homes in contract at any point in time to gauge the health of the current market. The higher the percentage the higher the strength of the local market. For the single family homes, 37 are in contract representing 18.2% of the total. For the condominiums, we have 18.9. Anything under 25 is a buyers market, so we have a ways to go to get to a healthy balance between buyers and sellers.

If the general economic conditions improve, I expect to see improvement in these statistics. If not, we could have a rough few years ahead of us.