Your Real Estate Expert for Berkeley and Beyond
“Marilyn is exceptional. Her knowledge base, enthusiasm for her job, professional ethics, organization, sensitivity to our aesthetic requirements, loyalty and gentle perseverance set her apart.”
-- Bill and Carol Seidel
Marilyn Garcia, PhD Broker Associate, Realtor® CA DRE LICENSE #01355514
The Grubb Company 1656 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709
Direct: (510) 390-5406
THE OUTLOOK: North Berkeley & the Berkeley Hills, Q4 and full-year 2023 results
THE OUTLOOK: North Berkeley & the Berkeley Hills, Q4 and full-year 2023 results 2023 was an interesting year in Berkeley real estate, where the driving factor was interest rates. Rates climbed to almost 8% during 2023, from around 3% at the start of 2022, with two main effects. On the demand side, higher interest rates reduced demand by increasing costs for any buyer needing to get a loan. To give you a sense of the impact, a loan of $1M at an interest rate of 3% costs $4216/month; at 8%, the monthly payment on that same loan is $3122 more [...]
Color of the Year
Color of the Year Design is an important aspect of my job, so I am always interested in color trends. These days, various companies, especially paint companies, annually announce one or more color(s) of the year. You can see a selection of these for 2024 here. (There are lots of interesting blues among them.) The most impactful color of the year is chosen by the Pantone Color Institute, which forecasts global color trends. They have been designating a “color of the year” since 1999, and they were the first to do it. Pantone’s color of 2024 is Peach Fuzz, which [...]
COMPLETED SALES, North Berkeley, 4th Quarter 2023
Click HERE to see details and photos of properties SOLD in North Berkeley, 10/1/2023-12/31/2023. Note that, after you follow the link, you can click on each individual property to see photos and more details. Click "Close" near the top to return to the list. * For the purposes of this newsletter, “North Berkeley” is defined as the area bounded by University Avenue in the south, the line of Sacramento Street to the west, the Berkeley border to the north, and below Arlington Avenue, Los Angeles Avenue, and Spruce Street (south of Los Angeles) to the west.
COMPLETED SALES, Berkeley Hills, 4th Quarter, 2023
Click HERE to see details and photos of properties SOLD in the Berkeley Hills, 10/1/2023 - 12/31/2023. Note that, after you follow the link, you can click on each individual property to see photos and more details. Click "Close" near the top to return to the list. * For the purposes of this newsletter, “Berkeley Hills” refers to the area bounded as follows: north of campus, east of a line heading north on Spruce from campus, cutting over on Los Angeles to Arlington, and then north along Arlington to the Kensington border.
Changes Afoot!
Changes Afoot! My 20-year anniversary in real estate has inspired me to look over my work systems and find ways to improve going forward. One area that I have re-vamped is the way I collect and analyze local market data. My goal has been to reformat my ongoing database to make it easier to create charts and graphs. I’m also going to start saving data for Berkeley as a whole, in addition to data for North Berkeley and the Berkeley hills. Another change: In the past, I have looked at real estate “seasons” that correspond with the level of activity [...]
THE OUTLOOK: North Berkeley & the Berkeley Hills, Q4 and full-year 2023 results
THE OUTLOOK: North Berkeley & the Berkeley Hills, Q4 and full-year 2023 results
2023 was an interesting year in Berkeley real estate, where the driving factor was interest rates. Rates climbed to almost 8% during 2023, from around 3% at the start of 2022, with two main effects.
On the demand side, higher interest rates reduced demand by increasing costs for any buyer needing to get a loan. To give you a sense of the impact, a loan of $1M at an interest rate of 3% costs $4216/month; at 8%, the monthly payment on that same loan is $3122 more (or $7338/month).
Demand for homes fell, but, as discussed in previous newsletters, supply was down too, as potential sellers chose to stay put so they could keep their low-interest-rate loans. The number of homes listed for sale in 2023, in both Berkeley as a whole, and in the Berkeley hills specifically, was lower than in any year since before 2000 (which is how far back my personal database extends).
With low inventory offsetting the decrease in demand, the market was slow all year, but there wasn’t big downward pressure on prices. Looking at the data though, 2023 is not going to look as good in comparison to 2022, which had crazy high price results during the upward spike in the first part of that year.
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North Berkeley, 2023 (full-year) and also Q4 results:
The median sold price in North Berkeley was $1,600,000 for 2023, and the average sold price per square foot was $989. Both figures are down from 2022 (by 3% and 5% respectively). Among the 75 properties that sold in North Berkeley in 2023, only 8 had price changes (all were price reductions rather than increases), and properties sold on average after 23 days on the market. 81% of the sales were above list price.
The market was especially quiet in the 4th quarter (Q4) of 2023. There were only 13 North Berkeley sales, and 9 of those went over list price. The median sold price was $1,420,000 (up 1% from Q4 in 2023), and average sold price per square foot in the 4th quarter was $937 (down 6% from Q4 last year).
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Berkeley Hills, 2023 (full-year) and also Q4 results:
In the Berkeley hills, the median sold price for 2023 was $1,725,000, with an average sold price per square foot of $867. Both are down from 2022 (by 8% and 9% respectively), but both are a bit higher than in 2021. 113 properties sold in the hills over 2023, and there were only 17 price changes (14 price reductions, and 3 price increases). Properties in the hills sold on average after 23 days on the market, and 80% of the sales were above list price.
Looking at just the 4th quarter (Q4) of 2023, there were only 28 sales in the hills. 21 of those sold for more than their list price. The median sold price for the hills in Q4 was $1,545,000 (up 4% from the 4th quarter of 2022), and average sold price per square foot was $824 (which up 1%).
***
The good news going forward is that interest rates have come down, and might continue to head down over the coming year. Since late October when interest rates peaked at a bit below 8%, they’ve drifted downward into the mid-to-high 6% range. This is still double what rates were in early 2022, but hopefully we are heading in the right direction.
Color of the Year
Color of the Year
Design is an important aspect of my job, so I am always interested in color trends. These days, various companies, especially paint companies, annually announce one or more color(s) of the year. You can see a selection of these for 2024 here. (There are lots of interesting blues among them.)
The most impactful color of the year is chosen by the Pantone Color Institute, which forecasts global color trends. They have been designating a “color of the year” since 1999, and they were the first to do it. Pantone’s color of 2024 is Peach Fuzz, which they say “captures our desire to nurture ourselves and others. It’s a velvety gentle peach tone whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body and soul.” You can see it here.
Why do we care? These color selections definitely impact the retail and design world. You’ll see clothing, housewares, packaging, and lots more, in some form of Peach Fuzz this year. For real estate, you might see stagers adding accents to their inventories in similar colors, and there might be a shift towards compatible colors. It can be fun to update some home accents to follow a current trend, but always keep in mind that there will be a new “it” color next year, so I recommend sticking to something more classic for big, long-lasting items (exterior house color, major appliances, etc.).
COMPLETED SALES, North Berkeley, 4th Quarter 2023
Click HERE to see details and photos of properties SOLD in North Berkeley, 10/1/2023-12/31/2023.
Note that, after you follow the link, you can click on each individual property to see photos and more details. Click “Close” near the top to return to the list.
* For the purposes of this newsletter, “North Berkeley” is defined as the area bounded by University Avenue in the south, the line of Sacramento Street to the west, the Berkeley border to the north, and below Arlington Avenue, Los Angeles Avenue, and Spruce Street (south of Los Angeles) to the west.
COMPLETED SALES, Berkeley Hills, 4th Quarter, 2023
Note that, after you follow the link, you can click on each individual property to see photos and more details. Click “Close” near the top to return to the list.
* For the purposes of this newsletter, “Berkeley Hills” refers to the area bounded as follows: north of campus, east of a line heading north on Spruce from campus, cutting over on Los Angeles to Arlington, and then north along Arlington to the Kensington border.
Changes Afoot!
Changes Afoot!
My 20-year anniversary in real estate has inspired me to look over my work systems and find ways to improve going forward. One area that I have re-vamped is the way I collect and analyze local market data. My goal has been to reformat my ongoing database to make it easier to create charts and graphs. I’m also going to start saving data for Berkeley as a whole, in addition to data for North Berkeley and the Berkeley hills.
Another change: In the past, I have looked at real estate “seasons” that correspond with the level of activity we see in the local market. The winter season was defined as December through February, corresponding to the slowest time of the year in our market, and spring (March through May) corresponds with the busiest. Going forward, I am going to instead focus on quarters as traditionally defined. So instead of winter (December, January, February), I’ll track and discuss Quarter 1 (January, February, March), and so on. Since real estate transactions take weeks to close, roughly half the properties that go into escrow in one month close (and show up in the sale data) the following month. This means that switching to quarters won’t make a big difference conceptually, and there are benefits to using quarters in terms of chartmaking and recordkeeping.
Your Real Estate Expert for Berkeley and Beyond
“Marilyn is exceptional. Her knowledge base, enthusiasm for her job, professional ethics, organization, sensitivity to our aesthetic requirements, loyalty and gentle perseverance set her apart.”
-- Bill and Carol Seidel
Marilyn Garcia, PhD Broker Associate, Realtor® CA DRE LICENSE #01355514
The Grubb Company 1656 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709
Direct: (510) 390-5406