Austin Klar, a real estate agent, walks through Strawberry, an unincorporated Marin neighborhood across the 101 from Mill Valley with a 10-minute commute to the Golden Gate Bridge. Single-family homes averaged $3.25 million in the last six months, with prices per square foot at $997, lower than nearby areas.
You don't need to pay Belvedere or Tiburon prices to live near the waterfront, or Larkspur or Mill Valley prices to live near the best dining and shopping in Marin with a quick commute to San Francisco. The unincorporated area of Strawberry is one of the most overlooked, underrated neighborhoods in Marin County, and in this video, I'm gonna give you the deep dive on all things Strawberry, including what it's like to live there and how much homes in Strawberry cost. What's up everyone? This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent and real estate developer in San Francisco and Marin County. I've been a Bay Area resident for over a decade, giving me in-depth firsthand knowledge of what it's like to live and work work there. If you're thinking about relocating or want more information about the Marin or San Francisco real estate markets, definitely reach out to me. My contact info is in the description below. I will personally answer every call, every email, every text, and I'd be more than happy to help you. And if you like videos just like this, please subscribe to my channel and don't forget to click the bell so you're alerted every single time I post a video. All right, so this video is all about the unincorporated area called Strawberry. Strawberry is situated in Southern Marin, occupying Strawberry Point, extending into Richardson Bay. It is right across the 101 from Mill Valley and directly west of Tiburon. It's a fairly small area. It's only a couple square miles large, and a portion of that couple square miles is water. It shares a zip code with Mill Valley, so homes there have Mill Valley addresses technically, but it is technically not part of Mill Valley proper. There are a ton of benefits to living in Strawberry, and I think first and foremost, easy commuting to San Francisco and access to, you know, some of Marin's best areas and amenities. It is super close to the 101 freeway, 10 minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge. And that stretch of freeway is, you know, typically low traffic compared to, you know, some parts of Marin as you get further north, like Corte Madera and San Anselmo, where you have to sort of deal with traffic on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. It's also really easy to get around Strawberry. So unlike a lot of other Marin neighborhoods. Most of the streets in Strawberry, they're not super narrow one-lane roads that are, you know, used as two-way roads. They're well paved, they're super open. A lot of them have sidewalks or bike lanes, which make it really easy to get around on foot or if you're, you know, on a walk or a jog. It's also a really short drive to Tiburon, Belvedere, Mill Valley, Larkspur, Corda Madera, these, all these great neighborhoods in Marin with great amenities themselves. So you have access to a ton of things to do, you know, in and around Strawberry, all the shops and restaurants of these neighborhoods, all the outdoor trails and parks of these other neighborhoods. So really easy to access all the great parts of Marin. Weather is also a big perk. Strawberry is lovely all year round. It's less foggy than Mill Valley proper, which makes it great for sitting outside. There are small open spaces and green spaces in Strawberry for, you know, sitting outside, enjoying water views, enjoying views of San Francisco and other parts of Marin. Like Mount Tam and Mill Valley. Strawberry Point Village is the main local shopping center. It's a strip mall type shopping center with grocery stores, home goods stores, some restaurants. You know, not a ton to do in Strawberry Village, but it has the essentials. The Club at Harbor Point is located in Strawberry as well. It's a members-only club with pretty awesome amenities. There's a fitness center, pool, tennis courts, and it overlooks the water. So it's a really, you know, picturesque club. What are homes like in Strawberry? There's a pretty wide-ranging mix of homes and home styles in Strawberry. There are smaller, you know, mid-century ranch-style homes that haven't been renovated in decades, all the way to like insanely large mansions, you know, built in the '90s and early 2000s. I wouldn't say there's a ton of like super modern homes in Strawberry. Most of them are, you know, contemporary or a little bit more traditional style homes, at least of the larger mansions. Not a ton of like super new construction, hyper-modern mansions. There are some, but for the most part, it's much more contemporary traditional, you know, '90s, 2000s builds. There are also several multifamily developments in Strawberry, both condo developments and apartments, um, and plenty of homes there are either waterfront or at least have water views or like views of Mount Tam. So very desirable, you know, view profiles from a lot of different parts of Strawberry. And not every neighborhood in Strawberry has been overhauled since inception. There are some areas that have pretty old buildings there, especially on the northeast side. So not as desirable, I would say, to live in those specific areas, but there are a lot of really awesome, beautiful streets throughout Strawberry, and frankly, there are a lot of fixer opportunities in Strawberry as well. How much do homes cost in Strawberry? I'd say for all of its amenities, Strawberry is actually relatively affordable compared to the areas immediately surrounding it that have a lot of similar amenities, like nice park spaces, access to good dining and shopping, water views, places like Mill Valley and Larkspur and Belvedere and Tiburon, Strawberry is going to be on average a lot less expensive, especially on a per-foot basis than those areas. 18 single-family homes have sold in Strawberry in the 6 months leading up to when I'm filming this video, which is in October of 2023, and they've sold for an average of about $3.25 million in a little bit less than 30 days on the market. Now, that's obviously a lot of money. By no means am I saying these are affordable homes, But when you remember that a lot of these homes are over 5,000 square feet, it starts to put into perspective how relatively more affordable these homes are. You know, the average price per square foot of homes in Strawberry is under $1,000 a foot, $997 a foot. And that's a lot less than you're going to get in the areas immediately surrounding Strawberry in Marin. It's actually a lot more in line with the average price per foot in Marin over that time frame. The average home in Marin over that same time frame, which has sold for about $2.17 million in a similar amount of time on the market, but the price per foot is actually only $963 a foot. You can see from a price per foot standpoint, even though the cost of the Strawberry home is a lot larger on a per-foot basis, it's actually relatively in line with just your average Marin home. There you have it. That's the scoop on Strawberry. If you're thinking about relocating or want more information about the market, definitely reach out to me. My contact information is in the description below. I will personally answer every call, every email, every text, and I'd be more than happy to help you. Thank you. And if you like videos just like this, please subscribe to my channel and don't forget to click the bell so you're alerted every single time I post a video.
