Santa Barbara California Real Estate

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Santa Barbara has preserved much of its historic California charm, with successful building codes ensuring many new structures meet traditional Spanish architectural standards. Tile roofing and simple, white building designs are trademarks of the city.

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February 2010 Market Update

Santa Barbara Homes, Estates & PUD’s Market Update

While 4 more homes closed escrow in Feb of ’09 than Feb of ’10, 9 more home/estates went into escrow in ’10 than in ’09.
Interestingly enough the days on market time was almost identical for the properties that closed escrow in February at 92 and 94 days.
The sales price to original list price was just about 80%.
The $740-800k range saw the great amount of activity with 7 sales. Like the last year or so, the general $400-900k range is still seeing the greatest activity, though in February the number of sales in the $1.4-2.25m range was significant compared to the recent past.
The Luxury market was slow though with only 2 sales above $2,250,000 and only one of those above $5million (1169 Hill Rd at $12,943,000), where we have seen 2-5/mo in recent months.
The number of homes/estates sales so far in ’10 is higher than both ’08 and ’09 numbers. 14% more sales than 2009 and 16% more than 2008. That said, our sales volume is still 23% below ’07 volume by this time last year.
The medium home price so far is $775k for the entire market. Interestingly enough, if you take out the Montecito/Hope Ranch market the medium home price is $760,000 which is actually over 6% more than last year ($715k).
The number of “pendings” so far this year, those properties that have gone into escrow are right around ’08 levels and 6% more than at this time in 2009.
Interestingly enough the Fall through rate, defined as the percentage of properties that go into escrow, and then fall out is the highest it’s been since 2006 at 12.6%. That means roughly 1 in 8 properties are currently falling out of escrow. At certain times of the year and in past year, title companies have quoted this figure as being as high as 25% or 1 in 4 properties falling out of escrow.
While many buyers suffered from the poor selection caused by lower inventory levels in certain price ranges, this year while we have the same number of current new listings compared to ’09, there are actually 6% fewer homes current available for sale. Price ranges like $400-900k are still suffering from a shortfall of inventory with anxious buyers continuing to miss out on properties as so many are selling so quickly.
West of State street and SB/Goleta South are the two districts that have had the most dramatic reduction in the number of new listings compared to last year in those districts (roughly 25% fewer listings). SB/Goleta North on the other hand has seen a dramatic increase in new listings (roughly 30% more).
A fairly dramatic figure is the volume of sales which so far is $136,000,000. That is nearly 30% more volume (dollar amount vs number of sales) than last year at this time.
While the Luxury market continues to give mixed signals, since the first of the year (compared to ’09) there have been 25% more sales.
In addition, the first two months of the year saw significantly higher average sales price for both Montecito ($4.54 million) and Hope Ranch ($3.58 million) than the first two months of ’09 (70% and 50% respectively). This means that either more of the higher end listings are selling which is dramatically pulling that average sales price figure up or there have been some sharp outliers that are skewing the data.

Condo Market Update

The sales activity in February 2010 was significantly better than 2009. 18 condos sold (closed escrow) this year compared to 10 in ’09 (80% more sales) and 26 went into escrow compared to 19 in ’09 (37% more sales).
The days on market was 66 days for the closed condos and 91 days for those that went pending.
Interestingly enough, the sales price to original list price ratio was only 93%, meaning that sellers are on average selling their condos for 93% of that original price they start with. This is also a higher figure than the same time last year.
The “hot” price range in the condo market in February was $400k-500k with a total of 10 of the 18 condo sales. The lease expensive condo sold for $230k and the most expensive for $3,000,000.
The total number of condo sales this year compared to last year at this time is significantly higher as well (77% more than ’09 and 18% more than ’08), though still under ’06 and ’07 levels.
The current median price for condos so far this year is $430k.
While the condo fall through rate is significantly higher than what we see in the homes/PUD market, 17.6% vs 12.6%, it’s still significantly below last year’s Condo fall through rate at 23.5%.
While sales activity is up significantly for condos so far this year, the inventory levels are down significantly offering buyers even fewer choices than last year. Currently the active inventory is down over 21%.
The sold volume for condos is up even more dramatically that on the Home/PUD side of the market with nearly 70% more volume (number of dollars) sold at this time compared to last year at the same time.

Santa Barbara Home & Condo Prices - October 2009

Santa Barbara Single Family Homes:

1-2 Bedroom Cottages: $335,000-$2 Million
3 Bedroom Houses: $350,000-$10 Million
4 Bedroom Estates: $325,000-$15 Million

Santa Barbara Condominiums - Condos & Townhomes:

1-2 Bedroom Condos: $260,000-$1 Million
3 Bedroom Condos: $400,000-$2.2 Million
4 Bedroom Townhomes: $450,000-$2.4 Million

>> More information on Santa Barbara real estate trends

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Santa Barbara, CA Information

Santa Barbara possesses a look and feel unlike any other city on the Pacific Coast. With more than 250 years of history spanning its Spanish and American periods, a diverse cultural makeup, and striking coastal beauty, the city is a cornerstone of the Californian Dream.

Located on the “American Riviera,” a stretch of Southern Californian coast known for its similarities in climate and geography to the Mediterranean, Santa Barbara real estate is often sought by Los Angelinos and film stars looking for a more liveable, scenic place to call home. Santa Barbara is located 85 miles northwest of Los Angeles, along Highway 101, and has a metropolitan region population of about 200,000.

Natural beauty surrounds Santa Barbara real estate, with the Santa Ynez Mountains rising dramatically behind the city to sandstone and chaparral peaks exceeding 4,000 feet. Directly off the Santa Barbara coast one encounters the pristine Pacific wilderness of Channel Islands National Park.

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