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 January 2015. For the Single Family Home market the number of sales fell from the previous month to about 70 in January from 80 in December and 73 in November. The Median Sales price for the month rose however going to about $1 million in January from $962,500 in December and $945,000 in November. The opened escrows rose in January to about 75 from the 70 we saw in December and November, but the median list price on those escrows fell from $1,095,000 in December to about $1 million in January. There were approximately 140 new listings that came on the market in January with a median list price of approximately $1.3 million and an average list price of just about $2.65 million, which left the overall inventory rising from about 220 units for sale at the start of January to 247 at the start of February.
Year over year sales are down about 5% from the start of 2014 and the median sales price is down to about $1,000,000 from the $1,250,000 we saw in January ‘14. The average sales price is up however going from about $1.523 million in 2014 to approximately $2 million in 2015 for a 30% rise, while the number of escrows is up with about 61 in January ’14 to roughly 75 in ‘15, with the median list price on those escrows basically flat at $1,000,000.
For the Condo segment of the market sales fell to around 25 in January from 46 in December and 39 in November. The median sales price rose however from $523,161 in December to roughly $565,000 in January, while the number of escrows fell from 35 in December to about 34 in January with the median list price on those escrows rising from $580,000 in December to about $612,000 in January.
There were about 54 new condo listings that came on the market for the month with a median list price of approximately $577,000 falling from $580,000 the previous month and an average list price of approximately $845,000 going up from about $658,548 in December, while the overall inventory rose slightly in January from about 85 units for sale at the start of January to 94 at the start of February.
Through the end of January sales of single family homes are down about 5.5% from ’14 while the median sales price for those homes is down to about $1million from $1,250,000 last year for a 20% decline. For condos, sales are up roughly 15.8% with the median sales price down about 6%. Of the single family homes that sold for the month roughly 8.5% of those sales were over the asking price and for condos that number was about 13%. The average over asking price for homes that sold was about 3% and for condos that number was about 2.7%. On the other side of the coin 17% of the single-family homes went down in price and 23% of the condos went down.
At the beginning of 2015 sales of single family homes are down while sales of condos are up. But the median sales price for both segments is down. We start 2015 basically where we left 2014, which means that if the listings start increasing then the numbers of sales will rise and the median sales price will moderate. But if listings remain stagnant then sales will continue to decline. As far as prices are concerned I don’t see any upward pressure despite some huge sales at the beginning of the year and if interest rates increase markedly them prices will fall.
