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 2014. For the Home Estate market sales remained strong for the month, coming in with about 100 closings up from the 72 we saw in March. The Median Sales Price rose to about $1.1 million from the $983,700 we saw in March, while the days on the market for sold properties went to around 50 from the 40 we saw in the previous month. The opened escrows went up substantially from 107 in March to over 120 in April, while the median list price on those escrows also went up to about $1.185 million from $1,095,000 in March. There were about 165 new listings that came on the market in April with a median list price of approximately $1.185 million and an average list price of about $1.773 million, while the overall inventory rose from 273 units for sale to just below 300.
Year over year sales are down about 24% with the median sales price up to roughly $1.1 million for a 21% rise. The average sales price is also up going from just over $1.46 million in 2013 to approximately $1.7 million in 2014 for a 17% rise, but the numbers of escrows are down about 19% to approximately 365 with the median list price on those escrows up over 15% to $1.1 million.
For the Condo segment of the market sales also remained strong rising to over 40 in April up from 26 in March. The median sales price also went up from $539,500 to roughly about $600,000 and the numbers of escrows went up from 35 to approximately 55 with the median list price on those escrows falling from $549,250 to about $525,000.
There were about 70 new condo listings that came on the market for the month with a median list price of about $560,000 and an average list price of approximately $850,000. And, just like with the Home Estate market the overall inventory rose slightly from about 100 units for sale to just about 105.
Through the end of April sales of Single Family Homes are down about 24% while the median sales price is up about 21%. Condo sales on the other hand are down about 9% while the median sales price is up about 20%. Of the houses that sold about 25% of them sold for over the asking price and for condos that number was about 10%. Of those 25% of homes that went out for over the asking prices that average over asking price was about 4% and for condos that number was about 5%.
Compared to last year single family home sales are down dramatically but this should start to level out in quarter 3 because at that time in 2013 home sales started dropping off precipitously. But the median sales price should continue to creep up slowly if the inventory remains low. For condos the number of new listings is strong but because the sales are increasing the overall inventory still remains low which should also continue to push prices up.
Inventory is still the key. If the numbers of listed homes and condos stays low then sales will remain low but the prices will continue to creep up. But if the sellers see the prices start to climb then it might be the motivator to bring them out and sales will rise while prices will moderate.
