Moving On Up - Who says the luxury market is dead?

My market is in Santa Barbara/Hope Ranch/Montecito, located in South Santa Barbara County. For years, we have competed with the La Jolla/San Diego market and Beverly Hills as the most exclusive and highest priced real estate in California, not to mention the rest of the United States. Considered an easy commute to Los Angeles, only 100 miles away, we were discovered by the entertainment industry crowd a decade ago. The second and third home buyers fueled our market for 12 years, from 1996 to 2008. Only recently, have the high end sales slowed down. Many perceive this to be an adjustment by the CEO's and COO's of publicly traded companies not wishing to call attention to any public perception of spending the profits, when there weren't really any. The market meltdown in 2008 also tempered down payment monies and there was a bit of a pull back even after the mortgage market meltdown of 2007.

Now, our luxury market is making a real comeback.

We feel that statistics show that February 2009 was most likely the bottom of our real estate market, in all price ranges, and that pricing has stabilized. Certainly, inventory is lower now than the last few months by comparison. Since January 2009, for properties priced $5MM and up, there have been 17 sales in south Santa Barbara county with 6 pending sales reported as of this writing:

Sales:

0 Rockbridge Road - listed for $32,500,000, sold privately for $25,279,265 (Montecito)

815 Cima del Mundo, listed for $25,000,000, sold for $18,500,000 (Montecito)

3284 Beach Club listed at $6,850,000, sold for $6,100,000 (beach)

3447/3445 Padaro listed at $8,150,000, sold for $6,350,000 (beach)

168 Rincon listed at $6,500,000, sold for $5,500,000 (beach)

777 Ayala Lane listed at $7,900,000, sold for $5,975,000 (Montecito)

735 Fuera Lane listed at $8,200,000, sold for $7,600,000 (Montecito)

427 Lanai Road listed for $5,495,000, sold for $4,700,000 (Montecito

1525 Las Tunas, listed for $7,500,000, sold for $7,150,000 (Montecito)

330 Malaga, listed for $5,875,000, sold for $5,550,000 (Montecito)

798 Park Hill Lane, listed for $9,700,000, sold for $8,200,000 (Montecito)

1631 Posilipo, listed for $8,950,000, sold for $8,300,000 (beach)

1039 Cima Linda, listed for $5,200,000, sold for $4,850,000 (Montecito)

4050 Cuervo, listed for $5,600,000, sold for $4,737,500 (Hope Ranch)

616 Juan Crespi Lane, listed for $6,988,600 sold for $6,988,660 (Montecito)

566 Picacho, listed for $5,950,000, sold for $5,450,000 (Montecito)

4280 Via Esperanza, listed for $9,950,000, sold for $8,200,000 (Hope Ranch)

Pending sales - in escrow - waiting to close:

4763 Sandyland $5,900,000 (beach)

1144 E. Mountain $12,500,000 (Montecito)

2549 Sycamore Canyon $16,000,000 (Montecito - Val Verde Estate)

2190 Alston $9,490,000 (Montecito)

4385 Marina $15,750,000 (Hope Ranch)

1340 E. Mountain $6,950,000 (Montecito)

How many active listings are there still out there, priced over $5MM? Plenty to choose from:

Montecito/Beach - over 80 listings priced up to $29MM

Hope Ranch - 8 listings price up to $9,300,000

How many other properties are for sale, privately? Call me or search on my web site: www.kathleenbarnato.com