Under $500K and Bank Owned in Novato

Novato is Marin’s current eye sore – in terms of bringing down the fairly good housing stats of Marin County.  Marin is generally an enclave of those with deep pockets to spare.  As you go further north, those without the deep pockets head to Novato where in general, everything is cheaper.

Novato looks more like the suburban California cities that are experiencing a nose diving housing market, brought on my marginal buyers who could borderline afford a house.  A large proportion of the rising foreclosure and default rate in Marin County could be attributed to Novato.  Search results for bank owned property on Redfin pointed to Novato.

With the slow fall of Novato comes price points of single family homes under $500K – almost impossible to find in the rest of Marin County.  So if this is your price range and you don’t mind the drive – check out these bank owned specials:

813 Juniper Pl - $450,000:  No pictures and no info on the number of beds and bads.  The house is listed to be over 1400SF, but the lot seems pretty squeezed at just over 1900SF.  Some more diligence needed on this one.

16 Arbor Cir  – 3 beds, 2 baths – $465,000:  This only has the front of the house picture but at least there is a picture.  The lot seems large at almost 8000SF.  The street view picture dipicts a house in pretty good shape and Zillow and eAppraisals both estimate this house to be worth more in the mid $500,000.

1710 Center Rd - 3 beds, 2 baths – $480,000: No pics on this one but the street view looks pretty decent.  A 1900+ SF home on almost a 7000SF lot.  The estimate is pretty much all over the place, but the good thing is that its all way over the ask.  Zillow prices it the lowest at $577,500 while eAppraisal tickets this over $800K.  Hmmm…

42 Rosewood Dr  – No listed price:  No price, no info on the number of beds, baths.  This one doesn’t seem to want to attract any buyers, which is not the direction I recommend given the circumstances.  However, the street view shows a newer, possibly attached home.  In 2005, the last probably buyer purchased for $600K.