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 March 2013. For the Home Estate market sales remained strong for the month coming in with about 95 closings up from the 80 we saw in February. The Median Sales Price stayed at about $940,000 which is roughly where it was at the end of February while the days on the market for sold properties went down to around 75 from the 90 we saw in the previous month. The opened escrows went up a little however from 118 in February to fewer than 130 in January while the median list price on those escrows also went up to about $1.1 million from $949,000 in February. There were about 150 new listings that came on the market in March with a median list price of approximately $1.1 million and an average list price of about $2.1 million with the overall inventory rising from about 280 units for sale to around 290.
Year over year sales are up about 7% with the median sales price up to roughly $900,000 for a 15% rise. The average sales price is also up going from just over $1.258 million in 2012 to approximately $1.5 million in 2013 and the numbers of escrows are also up about 12% with the median list price on those escrows up over 20%
For the Condo segment of the market sales also remained strong rising to about 35 in March up from 28 in February. The median sales price went down slightly however from about $482,500 to roughly $455,000 and the numbers of escrows went down from 38 to approximately 30 with the median list price on those escrows rising from $499,000 to about $515,000
There were about 45 new condo listings that came on the market for the month with a median list price of about $575,000 and an average list price of approximately $790,000. And, just like with the Home Estate market the overall inventory rose slightly from just below 50 to just about 47.
Through the end of 1st quarter both sales and prices for the Home Estate and Condo markets are up with about 35% of the home sales going for over the asking price in March and about the same percentage of condos. For Homes the percentage of the sales price over the asking price was about 8% while for condos it was only about 1.5% and most of that percentage over asking for condos came from 1 sale in Montecito. With escrows up for single family homes but down for condos the second quarter looks like a mixed bag. If listings don’t start to pick up for both segments of the market the recovery could start to stall. But, if the rise in prices attracts interest from the sellers and listings start to rise then the 2nd quarter will remain strong.
