One of the things you become very aware of in Marin County as a realtor is the existence and headaches associated with non-county maintained roads. There are over 144 of them in Marin County. What is important to know is that they are not maintained by the county, but instead maintained by the homeowners on the street. As you can imagine, not everyone will agree with when the road should be maintained, how it should be maintained, or even be able to afford it if it does get maintained.
The question I frequently get asked is: "How much does renewing a private road affect the home value of the homes on the street?" This is a hard thing to determine, but based on my experience, there is a premium for roads that are well maintained. Partly because once the road gets maintained, homeowners along the road spend money improving their own house as well.
While I was helping some of my neighbors work through this process, I did do some research on home values of homes on a non-county maintained road versus being on a county maintained road nearby. I took the example of Marin Dr. since Marin Dr. had recently been upgraded and all the non county maintained roads near it were still unmaintained. The data I used was from 2017 to 2018 and what it showed was that homes on non-county maintained roads typically sold at a discount compared to the homes on the maintained road.
Once again, knowledge is power and being informed when you make your decisions on buying and selling a home is important. Call me today at 415-297-3874 to discuss your particular situation.
