Santa Barbara Connection Market Trends reports cover real estate market conditions in Santa Barbara and its surrounding areas and arm our clients with the most up-to-date information possible on sales prices, market statistics, economic background analysis and more.

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Analysis of Santa Barbara Real Estate through the end of April 2010 for Santa Barbara, Montecito, Hope Ranch, Carpinteria/Summerland and Goleta.

Through the month of April ’10 for the Home Estate/PUD market in the Santa Barbara area including Montecito, Hope Ranch, Carpinteria/Summerland and Goleta sales were in the mid 80’s with the median sales price remaining steady around $880,000. For contrast in April ’09 there were 68 sales with an $840,000 median sales price. So, even with the increased activity in the marketplace the median sales price is remaining at around the $860,000 level. But, the average sales price for April ’10 was over $2 million compared to April ’09 when the average sales price was about $1.3 million signifying a substantial increase in the sales of more pricey homes.

The escrows continued to pile up in April with about 120 new escrows opening which is up from about 100 in March and 62 in February. But, the median list price on those escrows remained around $890,000. What took a tumble in April was the Sales Price to Original List Price Ratio which again dipped to about 77%. This decline in the ratio is due primarily to higher priced properties that have started to sell but at a significant reduction from their original list price.

The inventory went up substantially in April with more than 200 new listings showing up with the overall inventory rising by more than 100 homes from the month of March. We ended April with about 580 properties available for purchase. The new listings median list price of just over $1 million continues to get closer to the median sold price for the month which means that sales should continue to surge forward. Also, the median list price on the overall inventory continues to fall and is currently hovering around $1.7 million down from about $1.8 million for most of ’09.

Looking at the Districts, Carpinteria/Summerland Home Estate/PUD sales remain about double where they were last year with the median sales price rising about $200,000 to $835,000. Montecito home sales are approximately 20% ahead of where they were last year ending the month with 36 but the median sales price is locked at right around $2.4 million for both years. The pending sales are up about 50% from where they were last year with 46 escrows opened this year but the median list price on those escrows is down from $2.8 million in ’09 to $2.4 million in ‘10.

East of State St home sales are about a third ahead of where they were last year with 65 closed escrows but the median sales price has dropped about $25,000 to approximately $925,000. The average sales price has remained steady however at about $1.1 million. Over on the West Side of Santa Barbara home sales are about 10% ahead of where they were last year with 53 purchases so far and the median sales price has come up about $50,000 to $800,000. The average sales price is remaining steady however at around $890,000.

In Hope Ranch sales...

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Archived Market Articles Apr 2010 Feb 2010 Jan 2010 Nov 2009 Oct 2009 Sep 2009 Aug 2009 Jul 2009 Jun 2009 May 2009 Apr 2009 Mar 2009 Feb 2009 Jan 2009

Briefing Market Update

July 28, 2010
1.65 Million Properties Receive Foreclosure Filings in First Half of 2010

RealtyTrac® - the leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, today released its Midyear 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 1,961,894 foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were reported on 1,654,634 U.S. properties in the first six months of 2010, a 5 percent decrease in total properties from the previous six months but an 8 percent increase in total properties from the first six months of 2009. The report also shows that 1.28 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 78) received at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of the year.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 313,841 U.S. properties in June, a decrease of nearly 3 percent from the previous month and a decrease of nearly 7 percent from June 2009. June was the sixteenth straight month where the total number of properties with foreclosure filings exceeded 300,000.

Foreclosure filings were reported on 895,521 U.S. properties during the second quarter, a decrease of nearly 4 percent from the previous quarter and an increase of less than 1 percent from the second quarter of 2009. Default and auction notices were down on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis in the second quarter, but bank repossessions (REOs) increased 5 percent from the previous quarter and 38 percent from Q2 2009 to 269,962 — a new quarterly high for the report.

“The second quarter was a tale of two trends,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “The pace of properties entering foreclosure slowed as lenders pre-empted or delayed foreclosure proceedings on delinquent properties with more aggressive short sale and loan modification initiatives. Meanwhile the pace of properties completing the foreclosure process through bank repossession quickened as lenders cleared out a backlog of distressed inventory delayed by foreclosure prevention efforts in 2009.

“The midyear numbers put us on pace to exceed 3 million properties with foreclosure filings by the end of the year, and more than 1 million bank repossessions,” Saccacio continued. “The roller coaster pattern of foreclosure activity over the past 12 months demonstrates that while the foreclosure problem is being managed on the surface, a massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans continues to sit just below the surface, threatening the fragile stability of the housing market.”

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