About Mendocino County, CA

When my son, Randy, was born and began talking at about 11 months of age, it wasn't mere single words that first came out of his mouth, it was whole sentences; or actually it was whole questions. He would point at certain things and say, "What is that - huh?" Or he'd ask, "Where's the garbage?"

On Thursday and Friday I took a little drive up to Fort Bragg and the Northern California Coast. When I came across this contraption I had my own, "What is it - huh?" moment.

How many of you know what it is, or what it does by looking at the picture? It is located it in the Jackson Demonstration Grove - along Highway 20, seven miles southeast of Fort Bragg. The little area is part of the California State Park System.

You can Click Here for a definition of a Steam Donkey. This area has some hiking trails, and is an interesting stopping off place in the Willets/Mendocino/Fort Bragg vicinity.

The Bay Areas Real Estate Information Systems (BAREIS) Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for Marin County, CA, just released 2008 Year-End Statistics in comparison to those of 2005, 2006 and 2007.

A Reminder and/or Refresher - 2005 and 2006 were full blown Sellers Market in Marin County where houses wentin a blink of eye and multiple offers abound, while 2007 saw the tail end of the frenzy sellers market, and the start of slight downturn.

By 2008, everything changed. 2008 was a very difficult year for sellers - starting with the bubble deflating, and lending industry collasping where there was virtually no money to lend for a while and interest rate, oil price increased in response, stock market crashing, etc, etc.......

We started to see Distressed Homes for Sale - starting with Loan Modification, Short Sales with Notice of Default filed, Notice of Trustee Sale sent and finally, Foreclosures (Bank Owned, REO) These events all push prices down and making buyers wait - for the lowest (bottom) of the market- BTW, is there such a thing call the Bottom of the Market while you are in the thick of it? (Good thing is things started to stabilized some)

So, with that introduction.. here are the charts released by BAREIS MLS just today (01/30/09).

Marin County 2008 Year-End

In Comparison to 2007, 2006, and 2005

The numbers provided are based on the number of Single Family Residential, Condo/Co-Op, Farms and Ranches sold in Marin County, CA (BAREIS)

NUMBER OF HOME UNITS SOLD in MARIN COUNTY - number of homes sold saw a stead decline from 2005 to 2008.

3407 in 2005

2844 in 2006 83.5% of 2005

2507 in 2007 88.2% of 2006

2081 in 2008 83% of 2007

2008 figures is 61.1% of 2005 - Sales volume is definely down

AVERAGE SELLING PRICE for MARIN COUNTY HOMES (Average Selling Price means adding up all Marin Real Estate sales and divide that by number of units for that year) At the end of 2008, we are back to 2005 figure

$1,078,819 in 2005

$1,091,526 in 2006 101.18% of 2005

$1,223,678 in 2007 112.11% of 2006

$1,075,,500 in 2008 87.89% of 2007

2008 figure is 99.69% of 2005 - back to 2005 level

MEDIAN PRICE FOR ALL HOMES SOLD IN MARIN COUNTY (Median Price is the middle price for all Marin Homes Sales)

$850,000 in 2005

$864,500 in 2006 101.71% of 2005

$900,000 in 2007 104.11% of 2006

$790,000 in 2008 87.78% of 2007

Median Price stayed stable over thru 2007, with a big dip in 2008 - many homes sold are Short Sales, REOs (Bank Owned/Foreclosures).

2008 is 92.94% of 2005 - not that bad!

AVERAGE DAYS ON MARKET FOR MARIN COUNTY HOMES SOLD

Number of Days on Market saw steady climb.

47 in 2005

67 in 2006 142.55% over 2005

73 in 2007 108.96% over 2006

83 IN 2008 1.137% over 2007

2008 is 176.60% (Almost 3/4 additional) DOM compare to 2005

Sylvia Barry, Realtor, ePRO
Marin Realtor for Marin Real Estate
Marin, San Francisco North Bay
Frankk Howard Allen Realtors
website: www.SylviaSellsMarin.com
Blog: www.AllAboutMarinHomes.com

MARIN, SONOMA, S.F. BAY AREA REAL ESTATE - Beveldere, Corte Madera, Greenbrae, Kentfield, Larkspur, Marinwood, Mill Valley, Novato, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon; Cotati, Penngrove, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa. Starter Home to Luxury Property. REO (Bank Owned), Short Sale, View Homes, Architecural Distictive Homes. Investment, 1031 Exchange. Chinese Realtor.

Make Dreams Real - Rotary Club of Novato Sunrise Youth Services

The following was passed along to me by my favorite loan agent, Debbie Owsley, who found it written by Ann McGinley:

The Borrower's 10 Commandments

1. Thou shalt follow ALL commandments while in escrow.
2. Thou shalt NOT buy or lease a car.
3. Thou shalt NOT incur ANY late payments.
4. Thou shalt NOT quit or change jobs.
5. Thou shalt NOT make any large purchases such as furniture or major appliances.
6. Thou shalt NOT file bankruptcy while in escrow.
7. Thou shalt NOT get married or divorced without notifying your loan agent.
8. Thou shalt NOT transfer, deposit, or withdrawl large sums of money without notifying your loan agent.
9. Thou shalt NOT fo on vacation without confirming dates with your loan agent.
10. Though SHALT dwell in the house of the mortgage in peace & prosperity.

Follow commandments 1-9 until your escrow has closed.

This is invaluable help for the well-intentioned clients who have already been prequalified for a mortgage and may think they are "in the clear". It is important for our clients to remember how many things can go sour during underwriting that may affect their current or future ability to obtain financing. Given the nature of the current market, the playing field seems to change daily!

I encourage any of you reading this to share your last-minute underwriting horror stories - what would you like other clients & their agents to avoid that you have experienced? I remember the last 100% stated-income loan I closed in 2007....we were told the loan funded (got the call from escrow) and actually got a call 2 hours later saying the funding had been rescinded by the lender due to a last minute condition (it had to do with a job change)....let's share our experiences so we can learn from them, be better agents & better serve our clients!

- CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Everyone that knows me figured it would just be a matter of time before I formed a group about California. I have bloged so many photos and stories about the West Coast State, I had to go beyond the realms of duty.

My first visit to the wonderful State of CALIFORNIA was back it 1974 when I was only 16 years of age.

I moved to the West Coast from Minnesota when I was 16 years old with a friend from school and lived in Portland Oregon. At this time I would hitch-hike down the whole West Coast through CALIFORNIA.

With a back-pack, harmonica in one hand & a Bible in the other I would travel up and down Hwy 1 and 101 taking in the wonders of the West Coast.

When I lived back home in Minnesota in the winters I started listening to a song on my record player, I would listen to it over and over. Here is the song!

So my CALIFORNIA DREAMING had come true, I spent over 5 years traveling from Oregon to California getting to know the West Coast like the back of my hand.

Mammoth Lakes California - CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Some may ask, did you work? Well of course I worked but only 5 months out of the year, the rest of the year I traveled up and down the State of Oregon & California.

If you have never been to California, you must plan a vacation and see what all the fuss is about. Try to visit the Northern part of California. I was most so impressed with the northern part of the state because it is more laid back and relaxing.

California has the tallest trees in the world, (Redwoods) it has the oldest tree in the world, (Bristle Cone Pine), the most beautiful coast line in the world and some very fun cities, like Redding, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles & Dan Diego, just to name a few.

So if you are a Active Rain Member and live in California, have traveled in California, of love California, please join my new group and post blogs with stories and photos attached. Here in the URL for the group and we look forward to reading and viewing you photos.

- CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Have a wonderful day and I will see you in The Rain

all photographs by Robert Swetz

All photographs by: Robert Swetz and copyrighted/ trademarked by Robert Swetz - Any duplication in any form with out the permission of Robert Swetz will be in violation of a minimum of $1,000 to a maximum of $5,000 dollars - For permission please call Robert direct at: 702-443-7156 or email him at: swetz444@yahoo.com

When you think of the maintenance of your clothes dryer, there is a lot to keep in mind. Though it is likely something you think about the least, it could be the one cause you the biggest problem. Failure to maintain the dryer vent is the number one cause of clothes dryer related fires.

To understand the importance of dryer vent maintenance, you have to understand how the whole system works.

As clothes dry, lint is removed and blown out of the dryer through the duct and vent. The lint trap in your clothes dryer will capture about 60 percent of that lint. That's the part of the dryer that you should be pulling out before you dry each load and removing the lint from. But that's only 60 percent. What happens to the other 40 percent?

The rest of the lint that made it past the trap is on its way through the duct system leading from your dryer to the outdoors. The duct work is that crinkled-looking hose that comes out of the back of your dryer and leads to a hole in the floor or on the wall. While you may not see the rest of the path, it leads to the outside of your house, and to the dryer vent. Some of the lint is going to be too heavy or sticky to make it all the way through the line and will get stuck up on the walls along the way. This is something that should be taken care of in an annual cleaning.

The final stop for lint, on the way out of your dryer, is the dryer vent. This is a flapper vent top that is at the end of the line outside. This is where all that hot air is finally set free. Unfortunately, some of the lint that went with it is not freed from the vent. The lint can catch at the edge of the vent and the duct. Let it rain once or twice or even have a very thick morning dew and you can have lint that is almost glued to the inside of the vent. As it continues to build up, this could be a major fire hazard, not to mention it will make things much harder for your clothes dryer to do its job.

This article was written by Rhonda Nole, owner of Dryer Vent Wizard of the Greater North Bay area. DVW provides dryer vent cleaning, maintenance, repairs and alterations while educating consumers on dryer fire prevention. http://www.dryerventwizard.com services Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Lake and Mendocino Counties and the following cities in California: San Francisco, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Cotati, Windsor, Napa, Ross, Kentfield, Bodega Bay, Healdsburg, American Canyon, Corte Madera, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, Guerneville, Greenbrae, Sausalito, Marin City, Larkspur, San Anselmo, Sonoma, Glen Ellen, Cloverdale, Mill Valley, Woodacre, Novato, Tiburon, Belvedere, Stinson Beach and other near by areas.

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