Relocating to San Anselmo California? Here's Everything To Know!

One of the most popular neighborhoods in Marin County for families thanks to its incredible schools, open park spaces, and year-round sunny weather is the town of San Anselmo, and it's also one of Marin County's most affordable neighborhoods. And in this video, I'm gonna do a deep dive into all things San Anselmo, including what day-to-day life is like there and how much it costs to live there. 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 lived in the Bay Area for over a decade, giving me in-depth firsthand knowledge of what it's like to both live and work there. If you're thinking about relocating or want more information about the San Francisco or Marin County real estate markets, definitely reach out to me. My contact information's 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 San Anselmo. It's located about 14 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, west of the city of San Rafael, and north of the town of Ross in Marin County. The town sits at what's known as the hub, where 3 main streets in Marin County intersect. Sir Francis Drake, Center Boulevard and Miracle Mile, which is the direct route from San Anselmo through San Rafael to the 101 freeway. The city offers residents a very sprawling suburban feel, but also maintains a very tight-knit, you know, small town charm with a small downtown shopping area and dining scene. The town itself is pretty small. It's about 12,500 people who live there, and it's under 3 square miles large, so it's not a big town at all. When you're in San Anselmo, there's no doubt about it, nature is at front and center for residents and visitors there. You've got hillsides and mountainsides in the distance, you have creeks running through the area, and you're very close to the water. And given the topography of the area, a lot of homes are actually on larger flat lots, which is really great for raising kids, or, you know, if you have dogs, or if you just want like really good indoor-outdoor living that maximizes use of that year-round great Marin weather. My personal favorite neighborhood in San Anselmo is a part of the town called Sleepy Hollow. It's on the northern side of San Anselmo, so a bit far if you're coming from, you know, San Francisco, for example, but it's not totally unbearable to get to or from. The homes there tend to be on larger flat lots. It's a bit more private than other parts of San Anselmo. The homes are a little bit more spread apart, and the area is almost entirely flat, so they have the most incredible landscaping and yard spaces. Like I mentioned before, the weather in San Anselmo is incredible all year round, which makes it great for all the outdoor activities that are available to you if you're visiting or if you reside in San Anselmo. Creek Park is a great spot, you know, just like walking around. It hosts events during summer like film nights, music festivals, and other local events. Memorial Park and Millennium Playground are also super popular with residents there. Mount Tam and like all the trails and lakes that are available for residents to like hike, bike, fish, you know, kayak, picnic. So there really are a lot of activities available outdoors, you know, in the town of San Anselmo itself and close to it driving-wise. One of my favorite things to do immediately outside of San Anselmo, it's in the neighboring town of Ross, is the Marin Art and Garden Center. It is a beautiful landscaped kind of open green space with a bunch of picnic areas, great place to have lunch or just hang out in an afternoon on a sunny day. Aside from all the nature-related activities, San Anselmo also has a lot of entertainment-related activities as well. It's known as the antique capital of Northern California. Its downtown strip, it's super small, but it hosts like a bunch of antique shops, art galleries, you know, very boutique-y one-off stores and restaurants. The main business street is San Anselmo Avenue. And in addition to the shops, one of the best breakfast spots, M&H Bread and Butter, is in the downtown area, which is definitely can't miss if you're in town. Yeah. There's also the Red Hill Shopping Center and the shopping and restaurants located in San Rafael just a few minutes away. So you're not limited to just doing things in San Anselmo. There are a lot of things to do in the towns immediately neighboring San Anselmo as well. There are also a ton of events held in San Anselmo throughout the year. Holiday events like tree lighting, Easter egg hunts, music in the park, movies in the park, art and wine festivals. And there are a number of other free activities all year round as well. As I mentioned earlier, schools in San Anselmo are top notch. They are among the best in all of Marin. San Anselmo schools are part of the Ross Valley School District, which has great schools for children all the way through high school. Now, while San Anselmo is an incredible place to live and definitely has a lot of perks, there are some cons to living there as well. First one of those is traffic. Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in particular is one of the busiest streets in all of Marin. So chances are if you have to take it to get to or from your house on any given day, you might get stuck in some serious traffic. This is especially so when you have to commute to San Francisco for work or go to the city for a night out if you want to. Or somewhere in Southern Marin for a night out. While it's not far distance-wise to say San Francisco, it can take like 45 minutes up to an hour with traffic to get there. If there's no traffic, you can definitely be in the city in under 30 minutes. It's not that far distance-wise. If you don't want to drive to San Francisco, you can take the ferry from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. There's no ferry terminal in San Anselmo itself, but Larkspur is about 10 minutes drive away. The second major con of living in San Anselmo are narrow roads. Most of San Anselmo is relatively flat, but there are some homes built into hillsides, and even on some flat roads that, you know, get extremely narrow. And on the hillsides, they get extremely steep as well. There are some places, like, I can't even drive because my car bottoms out. I don't have a particularly, like, low-riding car, and it still bottoms out. So, you know, there are some places you have to inch your way past other cars coming in opposite directions, or, like, back up to find a place to pull over to, like, let oncoming traffic pass because the roads are so narrow. It can definitely get a little bit frustrating, and that's going to be the case everywhere in San Anselmo. Like Sleepy Hollow, for example, that's not an issue at all. But other parts of San Anselmo, a lot closer to downtown, and as you get into the hills, it's going to be a lot more common. So just something to look out for if you are thinking about relocating to San Anselmo. How much does it cost to live in San Anselmo? There have been 176 single-family homes sold since January of 2022 to when I'm filming this video in May of 2023, and they've sold for an average of about $2.1 million., which is actually a little bit less than the average single-family home in all of Marin, which is about $2.24 million. And those homes in San Anselmo sold a little bit faster than the average home in Marin in about 21 days on the market compared to about 24 days for all of Marin. There you have it. That's the scoop on San Anselmo. Whether you have kids or not, or dogs or not, family or not, it is a great place to live, great place to spend an afternoon. So definitely worth checking out. If you're thinking about relocating or want more information about the market, definitely reach out to me. My contact information's 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.