Santa Barbara Real Estate through the end of January 2011 for Montecito, Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and Summerland
Escrows are up from January 2010 when there were 48 with an $825,000 median list price to 68 for 2011 with an $850,000 median list price. The return to an $850,000 median list price is particularly encouraging after experiencing 2 months of the median list price for escrows dipping into the $790,000 range and seeing evidence of that decline in the $787,500 median sold price of December 2010. Throughout most of 2010 and back into a substantial portion of 2009 the median list price of escrows was $850,000 so at this time it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a further erosion in home prices.
The sub $1 million market took a big drop from 56 sales in December to 25 in January and the $1 to $2 million market fell from 20 sales in December to 12 in January with the over $2 million segment dropping from 12 to 4 sales including only 1 over $5 million.
New listings always spike up in January because a lot of listings expire at the end of the year and then get re-listed at the beginning of the New Year and 174 “new listings” appeared in January. But, the overall inventory also went up to 472 from 429 in December with those approximately 475 properties having a median list price of about $1.55 million and an average list price of $3.2 million.
Looking at the Districts, we see that Home sales in Carpinteria/Summerland fell from 9 in ’10 to 1 in ’11 and the median sales price dropped from $790,000 last year to $591,000 for that one sale. In Montecito sales declined from 7 in ’10 with a median sales price of $3.3 million to 5 in ’11 with a median sales price of $3.15 million.
On the East Side of Santa Barbara sales fell dramatically from 21 in ’10 to 8 in ’11. But, those 8 sales this year had a median sales price of $1.4 million compared to those 11 sales last year that had an $849,500 median sales price. On the West Side of town the sales are way up over last year however rising from 8 in ’10 to 17 in ’11 but the median sales price fell from $738,750 last year to $730,000 this year.
In Hope Ranch there has been 1 sale this year for $1.6 million and last year there were 2 sales with a median and average sales price of $3,582,125. For Goleta South sales have fallen from 8 last year to 5 this year. But the median sales price has gone up from $546,000 last year to $707,500 this year and in Goleta North sales are up with 9 in ’10 and11 in ’11. But, the median sales price has gone way up from $674,000 last year to $900,000 this year.
Sales this year are starting out substantially below where they were in 2010 but the escrows for all the Districts are up from where they were last year plus the median list price on those escrows is up for all the Districts except Goleta North and South. After seeing sales rise for the last three months of 2010 and then falling back a lot in January 2011 with the numbers of escrows that have opened in January activity should return to the 2010 level.
The condo market in Santa Barbara also experienced a dramatic decline in sales in January 2011 going from 25 in December to 16 in January 2011. The numbers of sales was also below January 2010 when there were 21 closings. The median sales price also continued to increment down falling from $422,500 in November to $415,000 in December down to $382,000 in January. But, at least the median sales price for January ’11 was ahead of where it was in January ’10 when it was $375,000.
Unlike Homes however the opened escrows declined from the previous year except for Goleta North which had one more property start the buying process than occurred in 2010. In the past three months escrows went from 31 in November with a median list price of $399,000 to 18 in December with a median list price of $450,000 then stayed at 18 for January with the median list price sliding back to $420,000.
With only 16 sales for the month and 9 of those in the $350,000 to $500,000 range it looks at this time like condo prices are continuing to increment down. There were 2 sales in the $850,000 to $999,999 range but nothing over the $1 million mark which had seen a substantial increase in activity in the past few months.
There were 44 “new listings” in January with a median list price of $499,000 but the overall inventory remained at around the mid 140 level with a median list price of about $575,000 and an average list price of approximately $780,000.
Looking at the Districts, sales for Carpinteria/Summerland were the same with 5 in ’10 and 5 in ’11 but the median sales price went up slightly from $330,000 to $350,000. Escrows went up from 4 to 5 but the median list price on those escrows dropped from about $400,000 last year to $348,300 this year.
In Montecito there was 1 sale in each year with the 2010 offering going for $1,050,000 and the 2011 property selling for $890,000. Last year there were 2 escrows at this point with a median list price of $1.2 million and this year the one escrow has an asking price of $998,000.
On the East Side of Santa Barbara there were 7 sales last year compared to 3 this year but the median sales price rose from $310,000 to $450,000. The numbers of escrows are also down from 3 to 2 and the median list price on those escrows is down from $435,000 last year to $369,900 this year.
The West Side of Santa Barbara is down 1 sale from 2 to 1 this year and the median sales price is down from $443,000 in ’10 to $315,000 for that one sale this year. Escrows are way down however dropping from 7 to 2 with the median list price on those escrows remaining basically stable slipping from $434,900 to $420,000.
Sales are the same in both years in Goleta South with 3 in both years but the median sales price declined from $465,000 to $335,500. The numbers of escrows are up however going from 3 to 4 with the median list price on those escrows rising from $259,000 in 2010 to $375,950 in 2011.
Goleta North sales are up by one going from 3 to 4 but the median sales price has dropped from $459,000 to $382,000. The numbers of escrows are the same however with 3 in both years with the median list price on those escrows going up from $228,100 last year to $479,000 this year.
For the overall Santa Barbara area, home sales while starting slowly look like they’ll return to the 2010 level with the median sales price remaining stable at about $850,000. Condos however look like the numbers of sales are going to decline as does the median sales price of those units that do sell.
-Gary Woods