Mill Valley home sales cool as prices keep climbing

What's happening: Mill Valley recorded 14 single-family home sales in May, down from 28 in April and close to the 16 sales recorded in May 2025, according to data from the Marin County Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. The median sale price rose to $3,575,000, up 8.3% from $3,300,000 a year earlier. Redfin's Mill Valley city page put the three-month median at $2,548,475 for the period ending in May, up 4% year over year, with homes selling in 10 days on average, down from 12 a year ago.

Why it matters: April's sales count more than doubled year over year. May's fell back below last year's pace. Price did not follow volume down. The median outpaced the mean in both months: up 22.9% versus down 6.9% in April, and up 8.3% versus up 3.1% in May, a pattern consistent with broad-based price strength rather than a few outlier sales skewing the number. "It is most likely due to a lack of inventory," said Susie Drysdale, a Marin real estate agent. Redfin's competitiveness data backs that up: the typical Mill Valley home sold for 109.6% of its asking price over the three months ending in May, up 4.2 percentage points from a year earlier, and 81.5% of homes sold above list, up nearly 20 points. Not every listing thrived. About 17% of homes needed a price cut, up slightly from a year ago. The market is tight, not uniformly frantic.

The context: Countywide, the median detached home price in Marin rose to $1,952,500 in May, up from $1,905,000 in April. Mill Valley's median ran 83% above that county figure, its widest gap over the county number so far this year. Tiburon's sales volume climbed sharply too, 19 sales compared to 11 a year earlier, even as its median price slipped slightly to $3,427,000. Marin County was the only Bay Area market to post a double-digit year-over-year price jump this summer, according to a report this month from The Real Deal, a real estate trade publication, citing Compass brokerage data.

Drysdale described a buyer pool wider than San Francisco transplants alone, including families returning to Marin to be closer to grandchildren. Renovated smaller homes continue to sell quickly, she told the Briefing.