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 September 2014. For the Home Estate/PUD market the numbers of sales has gone up three months in a row from 90 in July to 100 in August and about 110 in September. The Median Sales Price went down however to about $1.2 million in September from $1,377,500 in August, but up from $1,173,500 in July. The opened escrows dropped in September to about 90 compared to 101 in August and 94 in July, while the median list price on those escrows rose going from $984,500 in August to roughly $1.2 million in September. There were about 135 new listings that came on the market in September with a median list price of approximately $1.2 million and an average list price of roughly $1.88 million, which moved the overall inventory up from 330 units for sale in August to just about 340 in September.
Year over year sales are down about 18% with the median sales price up to roughly $1,175,000 for a 26% rise. The average sales price is also up going from about $1.42 million in 2013 to approximately $1.78 million in 2014 for a 25% rise, while the numbers of escrows are down by approximately 16% to roughly 840 with the median list price on those escrows up about 25% to $1,185,000.
For the Condo segment of the market sales dropped dramatically with about 27 in September down from 44 in August and 43 in July. The median sales price went down a lot however from $717,000 in August to approximately $649,000 in September, while the numbers of escrows went up from 39 in August to over 40 in September with the median list price on those escrows falling from $620,000 in August to about $589,500 in September.
There were roughly 55 new condo listings that came on the market for the month with a median list price of about $599,000 and an average list price of approximately $769,000, while the overall inventory fell a little in September from 133 units for sale in August to about 125 in September and the median list price on those listings went down to about $600,000 in September from $625,000 in August.
Through the end of September sales of single family homes are down about 18% while the median sales price for those homes is up about 26%. For condos, sales are down approximately 11% with the median sales price up roughly 11%. Of the single family homes that sold for the month roughly 20% of those sales were over the asking price and for condos that number was about 21.5% with all of the condo over-asking sales coming from The Hideaway. The average over asking price for homes that sold was about 2.7% and for condos that number was about 6.8%. On the other side of the coin 18% of the single family homes had price reductions while 23% of condos also had reduced prices.
Sales picked up in September but escrows fell and the median sales price went down to about $1.2 million. With escrows falling but sales rising and the median sales price still hovering around $1.2 million it looks like quarter 4 is beginning with some mixed messages. The good news is that the inventory is climbing for single family homes and that should close the year with a substantial amount of activity.
