Price Reduced in Marin

Ever since ZipRealty began keeping track of properties listed as "Price reduced" I've been recording this data for Marin almost daily. I search for all Marin SFRs falling within the asking price range of $10,000 to $10,000,000.

In the graph below you can see the data that I've collected so far. From February to April, 2006 the percentage of SFRs sporting "Price Reduced" hovered around 17% and then took off. We just broke through the 26% mark -- that is, 26% of all houses currently listed in Marin are listed as being "Price Reduced".

How high will it go? If 'everyone wants to live here', and if 'Marin residents are financially savvy', then why are sellers in Marin being forced to reduce their asking prices?

It seems to me that anyone thinking of buying a house in Marin now would be far better off just waiting. The lower the selling price, the lower the property tax you have to pay year after year after year after year...

“But to every thing there is a time and a season, and that’s as true for home buying as it is for everything else,” Fletcher says. “The people who win big in the real estate game are the ones with the courage to sit out the manias as the markets reach their peaks and buy during the busts.”

-- June Fletcher, "House Poor: Pumped-Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids"

It seems to me that price is a matter of opinion; debt is real. In this buyer's market, show no pity as sellers have shown none in the recent past.