Novato the mortage meltdown epicenter of Marin [Northern California]
Kids romping on lawns and workers trimming hedges belie the gloom that hovers over the sprawling Parkhaven complex bordering Miwok Park in northwestern Novato.
“For sale” signs are plastered in some windows as 10 residences in the 104-unit development are on the market as foreclosures or “short sales” in which property is offered for less than its mortgage. Five of eight Parkhaven sales this year were distressed properties at a median sales price of $332,000.
The complex, where median sales prices have dropped more than $125,000 in two years, is part of Marin’s foreclosure ground zero. On the other side of town at the Crossroads 2 townhome complex, also plagued by foreclosure trouble, median prices have plummeted more than $200,000 in two years.
Marin’s foreclosure rate has doubled in the past year. There’s no end in sight, with 706 properties in various stages of foreclosure in the past four months, according to ForeclosureRadar.com. Nearly half of those properties are in Novato. In the first six months of the year, about 656 Novato properties have courted foreclosure trouble.