January 2011 Market Update

Quick Statistics

The average price for the 41 properties is $1,177,850.

The highest price is $5,650,000 for 770 san ysidro.

The median price is $829,300.

The lowest price is $437,500 for 929 w islay.

The average Market Time is 83.

 

Overview:

Sales this year are starting out substantially below where they were in 2010 but the escrows for all the Districts are up from where they were last year plus the median list price on those escrows is up for all the Districts except Goleta North and South.  After seeing sales rise for the last three months of 2010 and then falling back a lot in January 2011 with the numbers of escrows that have opened in January activity should return to the 2010 level.

 

Home Estate/PUD

Starting 2011 for the Home Estate/PUD market in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Hope Ranch, Carpinteria/Summerland and Goleta, sales in January are down dramatically from the previous December which usually happens because there’s a lot of activity that last month of the year as people scramble to get those escrows closed. But, closings for January 2011 are significantly below December 2010 and also January 2010. For the first month of 2011 there have been 41 Home Estate/PUD sales compared to 62 in January 2010 and 88 sales in December 2010. On the bright side, the median sales price for January 2011 went up to $829,300 from $778,500 the previous month and $763,500 in January 2010.

Escrows are also up from January 2010 when there were 48 with an $825,000 median list price to 68 for 2011 with an $850,000 median list price.  The return to an $850,000 median list price is particularly encouraging after experiencing 2 months of the median list price for escrows dipping into the $790,000 range and seeing evidence of that decline in the $787,500 median sold price of December 2010. Throughout most of 2010 and back into a substantial portion of 2009 the median list price of escrows was $850,000 so at this time it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a further erosion in home prices.

The sub $1 million market took a big drop from 56 sales in December to 25 in January and the $1 to $2 million market fell from 20 sales in December to 12 in January with the over $2 million segment dropping from 12 to 4 sales including only 1 over $5 million.

New listings always spike up in January because a lot of listings expire at the end of the year and then get re-listed at the beginning of the New Year and 174 “new listings” appeared in January. But, the overall inventory also went up to right around 475 from 429 in December with those approximately 475 properties having a median list price of about $1.55 million and an average list price of $3.2 million.

 

Carpinteria/Summerland: Home sales fell from 9 in ’10 to 1 in ’11 and the median sales price dropped from $790,000 last year to $591,000 for that one sale.

Montecito: Sales declined from 7 in ’10 with a median sales price of $3.3 million to 5 in ’11 with a median sales price of $3.15 million.

East of State St: Sales fell dramatically from 21 in ’10 to 8 in ’11. But, those 8 sales this year had a median sales price of $1.4 million compared to those 11 sales last year that had an $849,500 median sales price.

West of State St: Sales are way up over last year however rising from 8 in ’10 to 17 in ’11 but the median sales price fell from $738,750 last year to $730,000 this year.

Hope Ranch: There has been 1 sale this year for $1.6 million and last year there were 2 sales with a median and average sales price of $3,582,125.

Goleta South: Sales have fallen from 8 last year to 5 this year. But the median sales price has gone up from $546,000 last year to $707,500 this year

Goleta North: Sales are up with 9 in ’10 and11 in ’11. But, the median sales price has gone way up from $674,000 last year to $900,000 this year.

 

 

 

Condos

The condo market in Santa Barbara also experienced a dramatic decline in sales in January 2011 going from 25 in December to 16 in January 2011. The numbers of sales was also below January 2010 when there were 21 closings. The median sales price also continued to increment down falling from $422,500 in November to $415,000 in December down to $382,000 in January. But, at least the median sales price for January ’11 was ahead of where it was in January ’10 when it was $375,000.

Unlike Homes however the opened escrows declined from the previous year except for Goleta North which had one more property start the buying process than occurred in 2010. In the past three months escrows went from 31 in November with a median list price of $399,000 to 18 in December with a median list price of $450,000 then stayed at 18 for January with the median list price sliding back to $420,000.

With only 16 sales for the month and 9 of those in the $350,000 to $500,000 range it looks at this time like condo prices are continuing to increment down. There were 2 sales in the $850,000 to $999,999 range but nothing over the $1 million mark which had seen a substantial increase in activity in the past few months.

There were 44 “new listings” in January with a median list price of $499,000 but the overall inventory remained at around the mid 140 level with a median list price of about $575,000 and an average list price of approximately $780,000.

 

Carpinteria/Summerland: Sales were the same with 5 in ’10 and 5 in ’11 but the median sales price went up slightly from $330,000 to $350,000. Escrows went up from 4 to 5 but the median list price on those escrows dropped from about $400,000 last year to $348,300 this year.

Montecito: There was 1 sale in each year with the 2010 offering going for $1,050,000 and the 2011 property selling for $890,000. Last year there were 2 escrows at this point with a median list price of $1.2 million and this year the one escrow has an asking price of $998,000.

East of State St: There were 7 sales last year compared to 3 this year but the median sales price rose from $310,000 to $450,000. The numbers of escrows are also down from 3 to 2 and the median list price on those escrows is down from $435,000 last year to $369,900 this year.

West of State St: Was down 1 sale from 2 to 1 this year and the median sales price is down from $443,000 in ’10 to $315,000 for that one sale this year. Escrows are way down however dropping from 7 to 2 with the median list price on those escrows remaining basically stable slipping from $434,900 to $420,000.

Goleta South: Sales are the same in both years with 3 in both years but the median sales price declined from $465,000 to $335,500. The numbers of escrows are up however going from 3 to 4 with the median list price on those escrows rising from $259,000 in 2010 to $375,950 in 2011.

Goleta North: Sales are up by one going from 3 to 4 but the median sales price has dropped from $459,000 to $382,000. The numbers of escrows are the same however with 3 in both years with the median list price on those escrows going up from $228,100 last year to $479,000 this year.