If Marinite Were Here...

...He would be reporting on this and have something insightful to say about it.

Since my friend has some stalker loser threatening him you are stuck with me reporting in his honor. I left out the typical cheerleading "it's different here" garbage and included the pertinent facts rather than wishful thinking quotes below. If you want the rest of the crap on paper, you can click the link to the Marin IJ.



"Last year, 2,400 detached homes were sold in Marin, down 21 percent from the previous year. In the condo market, 945 units were sold last year, down 25 percent from 2005."

"Corina Rollins, a Greenbrae appraiser and real-estate instructor at College of Marin, is, if not quite bearish, then certainly concerned about current market conditions. Rollins analyzes the number of listings versus the number of closed sales, and she now sees "a significant and growing backlog of inventory."'

"According to Rollins' analysis of the Marin market, which she derives from the BAREIS database, there was 20 months of available detached-home inventory in the year ending Feb. 1, versus 15 months the previous year. For condos and townhomes, there were 21 months of potential sales on the market in the year ending Feb. 1, versus 14 months the previousÊyear.
The market is absorbing properties faster than it can sell them off."

'"Your absorption rate goes down - the speed with which you can absorb the valuable inventory," she said. "It's supply and demand, is what it is."'

"And as inventory increases, buyers feel empowered to negotiate, homes can sit on the market longer and prices can be depressed."

'"There have to be market corrections that allow wages to increase sufficiently to absorb some of the increased costs," Rollins said. "We haven't had that kind of a correction for a while."

Those in related industries are feeling the pain

"Scott Hunt, of NorCal Property Inspections in San Rafael, said business has dried up recently for him and other inspectors. Hunt said he usually gets six or seven jobs a week, but lately he has gone for more than a week at a time without an assignment."

'"I just lost a huge chunk of the market, so I don't know what's going on - the war, the stock market," he said. "I called myself yesterday to see if my phone was still working. My phone hasn't rung in two weeks."

'"It seems like the whole world's for sale, and there's no buyers. It's been dead as a mackerel."'

"Bill Powell, a flooring and carpet specialist who works closely with real estate agents, said business was slow in the latter half of 2006, but it began to show life at the end of January and in early February. Powell said the existing inventory is growing, so sellers are starting to realize their homes must be in top condition to be competitive."

'"It's not a time to put a fixer-upper on the market," said Powell, proprietor of 123-Floor Inc. in San Rafael. "You're going to have to discount deeply or let it sit on the market for a while."'