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 December 2013. For the Home Estate/PUD market the numbers of sales rose from the previous month to 100 in December rising from 81 in November and 91 in October. The Median Sales Price stayed about the same for the month however going to $986,000 in December from $990,000 in November but up from $942,999 in October. The opened escrows fell in December to 68 from 85 in November and also down from the 79 we saw in October while the median list price on those escrows fell from $1,150,000 in November to $995,000 in December. There were 55 new listings that came on the market in December with a median list price of $1.05 million and an average list price of just about $2.83 million which left the overall inventory falling from about 300 units for sale in November to roughly 215 in December.
Year over year sales are down slightly from 2012 but the median sales price is up to about $945,000 for approximately a 19% rise. The average sales price is also up going from about $1.35 million in 2012 to approximately $1.43 million in 2013 for a 5% rise while the numbers of escrows are down with about 1,300 in ’12 to roughly 1,230 in ‘13 with the median list price on those escrows up about 15% to approximately $970,000.
For the Condo segment of the market, sales rose to 35 in December from about 30 in November and October. The median sales price fell however from $530,000 in November to roughly $475,000 in December while the numbers of escrows fell slightly from 34 in November to 33 in December with the median list price on those escrows dropping from $505,550 in November to about $475,000 in December.
There were about 30 new condo listings that came on the market for the month with a median list price of approximately $460,000 falling from $532,500 and an average list price of approximately $455,000 falling from about $532,000 in November while the overall inventory fell in December from about 110 units for sale in November to approximately 90 in December.
Through the end of December sales of single family homes is basically flat from ’12 while the median sales price for those homes is up about 19%. For condos, sales are down approximately 15% with the median sales price up about 27%. Of the single family homes that sold for the month roughly 25% of those sales were over the asking price and for condos that number was about 11%. The average over asking price for homes that sold was about 5.2% and for condos that number was about 1.2%. Sales went up in December but escrows fell while the median sales price stayed stable at about $985,000.
At the end of 2012 sales and median sales prices were going up while at the end of 2013 sales are starting to cool and the dramatic increase we’ve seen in the median sales price is starting to moderate. For 2014 the real estate market is dependent on the inventory. If the listings start increasing then the market will continue to rise but if listings remain stagnant then sales will decrease but the median sales price will go up.
