Tiny coastal enclave becomes one of the hottest property markets in America – despite well-known problem with dozens of the homes there

A small coastal community in California has become one of America’s hottest real estate markets, even as rising sea levels threaten dozens of homes.

Prices for beach homes in Stinson Beach – a Marin County enclave along Bolinas Bay – have increased fivefold from $688,000 in 2000 to $3.7 million in May of this year, figures from Zillow show. In the past year alone, house prices have risen by 40 percent.

This is despite county officials repeatedly warning that rising sea levels could engulf the community’s beaches and damage property.

Because of the issue, lenders have already cut back on mortgage lending in areas like Stinson Beach. Zillow reported.

Zillow senior economist Orphe Divounguy told the San Francisco ChronicleOnly a small number of houses on the 5.5 kilometer long beach come up for sale every year, causing the value of the houses to skyrocket.

The seaside resort was founded in 1906 after the San Francisco earthquake. The natural disaster caused many refugees who started building Stinson Beach to leave Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty.

The beach area is known for its great views of the ocean and the Bay Area across the road, as well as the Dipsea Trail hike and Mount Tamalpais State Park.

Many buyers are looking to Stinson Beach for a second home to enjoy on the weekends, local real estate agent Ashley Bird told the newspaper San Francisco Chronicle.

“We had a lot of people from the Bay Area who discovered Stinson for the first time and just fell in love with it,” Bird said.

While many have come to the community to enjoy the outdoors, there has been a “huge increase” in people wanting to buy the expensive homes there since the pandemic, Bird explained.

A house on Buena Vista Avenue sold for $866,000 in 2006, but in 2023 that same house sold for almost $1.7 million.

Another home on Dipsea Road previously sold in 1999 for $740,000, according to a Zillow listing, but in 2022 that same two-bedroom home sold for $4.8 million.

In 2000, the assessed value of a home in Stinson Beach was $688,000, but 24 years later the value increased to $1.3 million.

Home values ​​in the beach area even surpassed posh California cities — including Cupertino and Sunnyvale — where homes appreciated about four and a half times their 2000 prices.

Coastal erosion has long been a problem for the beach town, but sea levels have risen dramatically over the years, threatening most of Stinson Beach.

In May 2023, Marin County planners predicted that as many as 600 homes in the area could be flooded before the end of the century. KTVU reported.

A study has found that Highway 1, the road that takes people to and from Stinson Beach, could experience more storm flooding by 2050 as sea levels rise two feet.

The same report stated that Bolinas Lagoon, an estuary in the community, could be flooded by 2099.

In an effort to prevent flooding from taking over the area, officials have implemented a series of measures, including building seawalls, raising homes above ground, expanding sand dunes and moving buildings out of hazardous areas.

Although rising sea levels have taken over the beach, homebuyers are still eager to take the risk, Bird said.

The real estate agent added that there are still some concerns about the brutal effects of climate change, but they believe in the province’s leaders to save their expensive properties.

‘Our customers are not in the dark about this. I don’t think anyone … thinks it’s going to go away,” Bird said.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who died on September 29, 2023, owned a home in Stinson Beach, among other properties across the country.

Her $7.5 million West Coast getaway in Marin County rivaled her San Francisco bay view with a view of the Bolinas Lagoon, and added to her $102 million fortune.

Feinstein’s daughter claimed the senator wanted to sell the Stinson Beach estate after her second husband, billionaire Richard Blum, died, saying she would never visit without him.

Katherine sued the marital trust in early 2023, claiming Blum’s daughters purposefully blocked the sale so they could continue using it.

According to a study by PoliticsIt appeared that the legal battle was waged almost entirely separately from Feinstein as she struggled with ill health in her final years.

Meanwhile, new figures show that first-time buyers faced with rising house prices are paying more to get less.

In the US, the price of an average home has risen by more than a third in the past five years to $442,500. But the average size of units sold has shrunk over the same period.

It means buyers now have to pay 52.7 percent more than in May 2019 for a home of the same size, with the increase in working from home partly to blame.

“Price per square foot is an important metric to pay attention to,” says Realtor.com senior economist Ralph McLaughlin.

“The change in that metric is a more solid measure of how much more a home is worth over time than looking at changes in the average list price.”

The trend is visible nationwide, but the hardest-hit city is New York, where growth has increased by 84.7 percent.

Boston, Massachusetts, has also seen its economy increase by 72.9 percent, while the economy in Nashville, Tennessee has increased by 68.9 percent.