Where to Live in Marin County With Unlimited Budget

I've been living in San Francisco for over a decade now, and even though I love it there, a lot of the times I think about moving to Marin County, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Now, it would take a lot for me to move out of where I live in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. So a question I think about all the time is, okay, if I had an unlimited budget and I can move anywhere I want to in Marin County, where would that be? And I think I finally decided it's the town of Ross. So I wanted to make a video about why Ross is at the very top of my list, and in my opinion, the best place to live in Marin County. What's up everyone? This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco Marin County. I moved to the Bay Area over a decade ago to work as a lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world, where I represented C-suite executives in Fortune 500 companies in state and federal courts all across the country in multibillion-dollar cases. And now I represent buyers and sellers in one of the most important decisions of their lives, their homes. And there's perhaps no better place in the Bay Area to call home than the town of Ross in Marin County. So if you're thinking about moving to Marin, let me show you why Ross is the absolute best. Now, it's not going to be all roses. At the end of this video, I will explain some of the cons of living in Ross, but I think the pros vastly outweigh the cons and make it an incredible place to live. And before I show you the insane homes of Ross that look like they were ripped straight out of the Hamptons, let me tell you a little bit about just what the Ross lifestyle is like. All right. First up, where is even Ross located? Its location is one of its best features. It's a very small town, only a couple square miles large, about 25, 30 minutes north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's centrally located in Marin County next to some of the best shops and restaurants in the entire county. It's also very close to historic downtown Larkspur, downtown San Rafael, and Ross itself has a very charming, very cute kind of boutique-y old town feel downtown. And because it's so close to San Francisco, if Ross doesn't happen to have what you're looking for, or the nearby towns or cities like Larkspur and San Rafael don't have what you're looking for, very easy to get to San Francisco. Super easy access to the 101 and 580 freeway is not a super long commute by car. It'll definitely be quicker to drive to Larkspur to take the ferry across the bay to San Francisco than it might be to drive during rush hour. You also save a little bit of money by taking the ferry and not having to pay for parking. When you're in San Francisco. But either way, relatively easy to get to San Francisco. For me personally, like, one of my favorite things about living in SF is all the food and shopping that's available there. Just so much variety— high-end, low-end, street food, Michelin stars, you name it. So I wouldn't want to give that up if I moved to Marin County. So I wouldn't want to move too far north into Marin. I think Ross is a perfect balance. You know, you get the best amenities of living in Marin, but you're not too far from the city. So what is the Ross lifestyle like? Well, getting around is really easy compared to a lot of other places in Marin. A lot of Marin County is built in into hillsides, you got homes stacked up on top of each other, really windy narrow roads. Ross is not really like that at all. There are some parts that are like that, but most of Ross is very open, very flat, very peaceful, easy to navigate roads. And because they're relatively flat, very walkable. You see people, you know, with kids and dogs or on jogs or walks all the time, no matter what time of day in Ross. And by the way, if you want to learn more about what the differences are between different towns and cities, in Marin or Marin versus San Francisco, make sure to subscribe to my channel. I make videos all about that stuff, the different food and shopping and lifestyle scenes in both of those places. So if you're into that stuff or you're into architecture like I am, definitely subscribe to my channel for more videos. Downtown Ross is also incredibly charming and one of the best perks of living here. It's no frills at all. It is so quaint, very old town vibes, very peaceful, very clean, very safe. You got cute little cafes and boutiques walking distance to multiple different parks, including one of my favorite parks in Marin County, the Marin Art and Garden Center, which in my opinion is the best place to have a picnic in all of Marin. And like I said, just like, you know, the neighborhoods in Ross, the downtown itself is basically all flat, super walkable, pet and family friendly. And it's great to have all of this walkability and easy outdoor accessibility in Ross because the weather in Ross is pretty much flawless all year round. You get way more sun than, you know, you would in San Francisco and a lot more sun than in other parts of Marin. For example, Sausalito or Mill Valley, which are, you know, among the foggier and colder areas in Marin, but it's also not as warm as places farther north of Ross like Novato and San Anselmo, which, you know, sometimes can get over 100 degrees in the depth of summer. Ross is also very close to some of the best outdoor amenities in all of Marin County: Mount Tamalpais and all the hiking and biking trails available there. There's also Phoenix Lake, there's Baltimore Canyon, a ton of great outdoor amenities in and around Ross. So if you're into a very charming setting, peaceful setting with super easy walkability and great outdoor space, then definitely consider Ross. And now the main —reason why Ross would be my dream, it's the homes. The architecture is incredible, and you get some of the largest and most private lots in all of Marin. Historically, Ross has had very strict building limitations. You can only build on about 15% of your lot in Ross compared to other parts of Marin where you can build 20, 30, even up to 50% of your lot size. So the house-to-lot ratio in Ross, you have way more land on your property in Ross than you do in other parts of Marin. And the lots themselves are also gigantic, very secluded private spaces. You've got hedges, surrounding them, so they're very private. So great that you have that incredible weather so you can really take advantage of having all of that space. And a lot of the homes aren't really visible from the road. They're behind very tall hedges or very set back from the street. So it really is one of the most private, secluded places you could live in Marin. And the homes themselves are absolutely incredible. You don't get as much of like the super hyper modern homes. They exist, but very rarely. You get much more historic style architecture, old Spanish homes, Victorian homes, many of which have been modernized over time inside,, but the charm and appeal of them on the outside, the historic nature of them, has been very well preserved. You know, very much Hamptons vibes, a lot more than Hollywood Hills vibes. Ross and another city in Marin, Belvedere, routinely trade places for the most expensive places in Marin to live, you know, year in, year out. But I think in Ross you get a lot more bang for your buck because of those incredible lots that you have. In Belvedere, you do get some water views, but in Ross you have these gorgeous nature views, mountain views. It's incredible. Now with great weather and all the privacy and the huge lots it shouldn't be a surprise that Ross is incredibly expensive. The average Ross home in 2023 was $4.3 million, and the median priced Ross home was $3.2 million. So by no means are they cheap, and they're much more expensive than the average home in Marin. Just to put what that looks like in perspective, the average home in Ross was about 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a little over 3,000 square feet on over an acre of land. So it really comes down to that value play when you think about how much land you're getting in relation to home. If you're thinking about moving to Marin, I have a Marin County relocation guide. I'll link it in the description below.. It has everything you need to know before deciding to move here. Now, as I mentioned at the outset of this video, while living in Ross is incredible, there are some cons. Let's get into them. First up, while Ross itself, once you're here, is pretty easy to navigate, you are going to have to face a little bit of traffic getting here because most of the time, depending on where you live in Ross, you're going to have to face Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, which is one of the busiest streets in all of Marin County. There's routinely construction on it. It gets really backed up, especially during rush hour. So once you're in Ross, yes, very easy to drive around and get to your house.. But getting here can be difficult during busy times. It's definitely not as bad as like Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California, or, you know, trying to get across the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. So, you know, it's all relative, but it is still, you know, pretty annoying to have to, you know, if you're coming from the city, for example, or need to go to the city, you know, driving 30 or so minutes and then have to sit in traffic for 15 minutes just to get to your town. Another con about Ross, if you're trying to buy a place in Ross, you're moving to Ross, it is extremely competitive. There just aren't that many homes that come for sale every single year. And when they do, people bounce on them. People love living here. Only 21 homes sold in Ross in all of 2023, and as I'm filming this video, there's only one home in Ross that's actually on the market. So really, really sparse inventory. So you don't have a lot of optionality, you have a lot of competition, and it means you might have to settle for something that you otherwise might not ordinarily want, or that might not be like your entire dream home. You know, just to put some perspective on it, you know, it can cost $2 to $3 million just to get a fixer-upper home in Ross. So it's very, very expensive and very difficult to get into Ross, let alone finding something that, you know, checks every single one of your boxes. Another thing you definitely need to be aware of before moving to Ross, and especially if you're considering an offer on a home, Ross is in a fire hazard zone because of all the open space, because of the weather. It is relatively fire-prone. It is in fire hazard zones for purposes of hazards disclosures when you're, you know, thinking about making an offer on a house. And that requires homeowners to implement defensible space measures. It's going to put insurers on alert. You might not have as many insurance options available to you for homeowners insurance. So it's really important to diligence that kind of stuff upfront before thinking about putting an offer in on a home. Less of a concern if you're just, you know, trying to rent somewhere. But if you are thinking about buying something, you need to figure out how you're going to get insurance because of the fire issue. Now, even with those negatives, like I said, I still think Ross is one of the absolute best places to live., you know, not just in Marin County, but the entire country. It's really hard for me to think of a more peaceful and tranquil setting. There's just no way you can't be happier. Now, if you made it to this point in the video, you're probably thinking about moving to, you know, San Francisco or Marin County, or, uh, maybe relocating if you're already here. I've helped so many people find a place to live in San Francisco and Marin County. So if you're thinking of moving, consider me a resource. My contact information's in the description below. I will personally answer all of your messages and happy to help any way that I can. And if you enjoyed this video and you're thinking about moving to Marin, I've linked in the description below another video I did, which describes why people are choosing Marin County over San Francisco to find their forever home. It'll tell you all the reasons why people are choosing Marin over SF. I'll link it up top for you to watch, and I'll see you in the next video.