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Santa Barbara Real Estate through the end of April 2012

Santa Barbara Real Estate through the end of April 2012

This is an analysis of the Santa Barbara Real Estate market including Carpinteria/Summerland, Montecito, Hope Ranch, downtown Santa Barbara and Goleta through the month of April 2012. For the Home Estate market April marked the second month in a row that sales were at or above 100. The median sales price fell however from $835,000 in March to about $760,000 in April. The reason for the decline in that median sales price is that 70 of the 100 sales were below $1,000,000 with 43 of those sales coming in between $450,000 and $800,000. There were about 20 sales between $1 and $2 million but of those sales 10 were below $1.4 million. The above $2 million range accounted for 10 of those 100 sales with 2 of those 10 coming in above $5 million.

Escrows continued to surge in April with about 145 Home Estates starting the buying process. But, just like with sales, the median list price on those escrows slid from $816,750 in March to $789,000 in April. With the inventory way down and a substantial number of sales drawing multiple offers I would expect prices to start rising up.

Comparing the first 4 months of 2011 with the same period in 2012, sales are still up about 35% with escrows up about 45%.  The median & average sales prices are down however, falling about 3% with the inventory down about 25%. Year over year the Sales Price to Original Price ratio is right at 87% for both years and the days on the market of sold properties continues right around 75.

For the Condo segment of the market, after the 41 sales in the month of March we came back to earth in April with 28 closed escrows. The median sales price also slid a bit dropping from $406,000 in March to $400,000 in April and the numbers of escrows fell from 52 to 44 for the month. The median list price on those escrows also dropped going from $409,990 in March to $389,000 in April. With the overall inventory remaining down at around 100 available condos from Carpinteria to Goleta and all the escrows and sales with multiple offers I would expect prices to start edging up.

Looking at the Year over Year numbers, condo sales are up about 45% and escrows are up 95%. The median sales price is up minutely by .2% with the average sales price down approximately 9%.  But, the median list price on condos in escrows is up 3%. The Sales Price to Original List Price ratio is down slightly however from 90% to 89% and the Days on the Market for sold properties has risen a bit from 80 to 82.

Starting quarter two, sales and escrows remain strong for both Single Family Dwellings and Condos and inventories remain low with about 400 Homes and 100 Condos currently on the market. Despite a substantial number of multiple offers occurring for both condos and homes very few of those offers have been for over the asking price. In fact, the median sales price for both segments continues to increment down.  At some point, if the inventories remain low and demand continues high I would think the basic law of supply and demand would kick in.

 

 

 

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Santa Barbara, CA 93108