Marin's Median House Prices Down for July

Some one in the comments section of this blog posted a link to this article in the Marin IJ (thanks!) indicating that Marin's median single-family house prices are down for July, 2005. This comes in combination with the over 20% year-over-year drop in sales volume. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Some choice quotes:

"Marin's median single-family home price in July was $910,000, a 1.6 percent decline from June and up 13.6 percent from $801,000 a year ago, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems, a real estate data information service."

"The percentage gain was the lowest year-over-year price appreciation in Marin since July 2004."

""It's evidence that the extraordinary period of higher-than-sustainable price increases is over," said John Quigley, a University of California at Berkeley economist who specializes in housing markets. "The rate of appreciation will be reduced and in some metropolitan areas, they will level off.""

"The volume of Marin home sales dropped for the sixth consecutive month in July, DataQuick reported. There were 408 homes sold in July, a 15.4 percent drop from 482 homes sold in July 2004, and a 10.1 percent decrease from 454 homes sold in June."

"Single-family home sales plunged 20.3 percent from July 2004, while condo and townhouse sales dropped 9.2 percent."

"That trend - and homes for sale spending more time on the market - could continue, Quigley said."

"...51 percent of agents responded that the market favored sellers in July, a dramatic drop from 96 percent who said the same thing during the first quarter of this year."