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 August 2014. For the Home Estate/PUD market sales remained strong for the month coming in with 96 closings up from the 90 we saw in July. The Median Sales Price also rose to about $1.4 million from $1.17 million which is where we ended July, while the days on the market for sold properties went to 50 from the 49 we saw in the previous month. The opened escrows also went up from 96 in July to 108 in August while the median list price on those escrows went down to about $1 million from $1,324,000 in July. There were approximately 140 new listings that came on the market in August with a median list price of roughly $1.2 million and an average list price of about $2.24 million, with the overall inventory rising from about 315 units for sale at the end of July to 330 at the end of August.
Year over year sales are down about 20% with the median sales price up to roughly $1,165,000 for a 24% rise. The average sales price is also up going from just over $1.4 million in 2013 to approximately $1.8 million in 2014, but the numbers of escrows are down about 17% with the median list price on those escrows up over 25%.
For the Condo segment of the market sales also remained strong going to 44 in August from 43 in July. The median sales price went up however from $565,000 to roughly $715,000, but the numbers of escrows went down from 41 to 39 with the median list price on those escrows rising from $560,000 to about $635,000.
There were about 60 new condo listings that came on the market for the month with a median list price of about $625,000 and an average list price of approximately $710,000. And, just like with the Home Estate/PUD market the overall inventory rose slightly from 118 units for sale at the end of July to 133 at the end of August.
Through the end of August sales of both single family dwellings and condos is down while the prices for both segments is up. In August for the Home Estate/PUD market about 13% of the home sales sold for over the asking price and for condos that number was roughly 30% with most of the over asking sales coming in the Hideaway. For Homes, the percentage of the sales price over the asking price was about 3% while for condos it was about 3.5%. On the other side of the coin 15% of the homes listed for sale had price reductions and 27% of the condos listed had price reductions.
For August the median sales price of single family homes went up dramatically to about $1.4 million but the median list price on escrows went down to about $1 million which means it doesn’t look like the median sales price on single family homes will be going up. The median sales price on condos also went up a great deal to about $715,000 with the median list price for escrows also going up but at a lesser rate so condo prices could see another rise. If the inventory continues at the present level it looks like quarter 4 sales will remain strong and that may trigger another round of price hikes.
