Santa Barbara Real Estate Update
Santa Barbara Real Estate update...
The real estate market definitely has softened the last couple of years, which has been great. We're in a much healthier market now, and buyers are having opportunities to actually negotiate with sellers, rather than just place multiple bids. One of the segments of that market that shows the most opportunity for great deals is the low end of Single Family homes (from $600k-950k). We're seeing quite a few motivated sellers in that price range and I've been very pleasantly surprised to see what some of the homes have been closing at. Some clients of mind found and incredible home in a good area of the Westside (on Lorinda) for $760k, which started at around $900k.
My pulse on the market is that this will be the transitional year where it goes from a buyer's market to an equalized market. I don't expect the market to shoot up any time soon, but by the Summer, I would not be surprised if the market has firmed up a good amount and we stay at a healthy plateau with either steady prices or some slight single digit appreciation. I don't think we'll see any double digit appreciation for another 3-4 years though, as the cycles tend to last 5-7 years.
My recommendation to current buyers is get in when the market is soft and you have those motivated sellers to capitalize on, rather than wait too long and have the market change and lose that serious motivation, not to mention then have to compete with everyone else that waited and all jumped back in at the same time. Interest rates are still at almost an all time low--historically speaking, and that just can't last forever. When the economy firms up a bit more, I'd expect those rates to start creeping up to the 7-9% level.
The real estate market definitely has softened the last couple of years, which has been great. We're in a much healthier market now, and buyers are having opportunities to actually negotiate with sellers, rather than just place multiple bids. One of the segments of that market that shows the most opportunity for great deals is the low end of Single Family homes (from $600k-950k). We're seeing quite a few motivated sellers in that price range and I've been very pleasantly surprised to see what some of the homes have been closing at. Some clients of mind found and incredible home in a good area of the Westside (on Lorinda) for $760k, which started at around $900k.
My pulse on the market is that this will be the transitional year where it goes from a buyer's market to an equalized market. I don't expect the market to shoot up any time soon, but by the Summer, I would not be surprised if the market has firmed up a good amount and we stay at a healthy plateau with either steady prices or some slight single digit appreciation. I don't think we'll see any double digit appreciation for another 3-4 years though, as the cycles tend to last 5-7 years.
My recommendation to current buyers is get in when the market is soft and you have those motivated sellers to capitalize on, rather than wait too long and have the market change and lose that serious motivation, not to mention then have to compete with everyone else that waited and all jumped back in at the same time. Interest rates are still at almost an all time low--historically speaking, and that just can't last forever. When the economy firms up a bit more, I'd expect those rates to start creeping up to the 7-9% level.
posted by Daniel Zia at 9:20 AM
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