Canal Neighborhood in San Rafael?

[Annette Margolis]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for insights from people who know the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael. I'm looking at a property on Fairfax St. My plan is to move in with my boyfriend and dog (he's a good guard dog!) for a couple of years, renovate, refinance, and then rent out when we are ready to buy our next project. It's $300/sqft when median price per sq. ft in the County is $646.

This will be my first property! We went to tour the area and it's such an interesting pocket of mostly Latino immigrants living in densely populated condo buildings within a 4-5 block radius surrounded by large and expensive homes on the water.  I did some digging and found a research paper from 2015 that gave these stats:

"The Canal neighborhood is a dense, Latin American ethnic enclave in San Rafael, CA where most households are low-income (a quarter of families fall below the poverty level) and 71% of residents have only a high school degree or less. The area has grown over the last 20 years, largely due to immigration: Hispanics have increased from 47% of the population in 1990 to 80% in 2013. But housing stock has not grown as quickly, owing to how built out the neighborhood is already. This, along with high rents, has resulted in significant overcrowding in this majority-renter community, where most renter households pay more than a third of their income on rent. On top of all this, it is located in the highly affluent Marin County and is in a desirable water-front location."