“World's Most Complete Neighborpedia”
Sponsor a Community — What is Localism? | Register or Sign In
Explore:   What's happening in your neck of the woods?
Home Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.

Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.

Blog_tag

Santa Maria and Lompoc Real Estate December 2007

01-22-08
Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.
The North County Sales showed some signs of life in December rebounding from October and November's numbers. The Santa Maria and Lompoc Real Estate Sales posted a 13% gain in the number of sales from November. If you look at some of the past years, this seems pretty typical in that market. In reviewing the list of sales, there were quite a few bank owned properties selling. Hopefully that is going to help strengthen that market by getting those properties out of the mix of listings that are available. If you focus your attention to the Santa Maria Orcutt sales, there increase over November was 17.5%. This was the highest number of sales in that area since August of this year. It is interesting to note that for December 2006 in Santa Maria there was not an increase in the number of sales as there had been in previous years. Lompoc on the other hand was flat. There were 25 sales in November and December of this year. I'm not quite sure what to make of the Santa Maria and Lompoc Real Estate markets. I do think that shortly people are going to start understanding that the prices are excellent. The really good news for these areas is that many properties can be purchased with a conforming loan. Those loans have excellent interest rates, even though they are a bit harder to qualify for than they were a year or so ago. See You In Escrow!
0 Comments
Blog_tag

Santa Barbara Real Estate For December 2007

01-15-08
Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.
You are living in historic times! As you can see from the chart to the left, the number of transactions for Santa Barbara's South Coast fell below the 100 number for the first time that I can remember. I CORT figures back to Jan of 1997 and Dec of 2007 is the first and only time this happened. This constitutes over a 33% decrease from December of 2006. It is only a 6% decrease from November. The last 4 or 5 months have been a real anomaly due in most part to the Sub Prime lending issues. I think the rebound we were seeing earlier in the year could have sustained itself if that had not factored in to the equation. This leads me to believe that there will be some pent up demand in the not to distant future. With respects to the individual markets of Montecito, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Goleta the charts to the right show the number of sales in each area. Montecito and Summerland had their slowest months in recent history. This didn't surprise me too much in that I think folks with big money have just decided to sit out during the holidays. Santa Barbara showed a slight decrease, while Goleta showed a pretty significant move upward. Having Goleta improve this way I think is good for everyone. The low end of the market was pretty sluggish in 2007 and for our market to gain some real strength posting better volume in that are would be a terrific thing. Don't forget you will have access to these charts underneath the Market Trend section to the right. See You In Escrow!
0 Comments
Blog_tag

Santa Barbara Sales Statistics For December

01-08-08
Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.
Via the hardworking and ever diligent Gary Woods the statistics for December of 2007 and the entire year have been released from the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. They are broken down in to 2 sections, one reflecting the information for Single Family Residences and Estates and the other section giving information for the Condominium market. The number of closed sales in December was slow and therefore it is hard to rely on information generated from such a small number of sales, but here it is. Homes and Estates saw 44 sales close with a median selling price of $929,000. This compares to 78 sales and a median price of $1,257,500. Condominiums were off as well reporting 12 closed sales and a median price of $526,000 compared to 29 closed sales and a median price of $635,000 in 2006. These declines are not surprising and the good news is that their appear to be some good buys on the market considering that rates are still good. The sales numbers for the entire year were not all that surprising either. For 2007 there were 886 closed transactions for the SFR Estates category and the median price for the year was $1,231,750. The median price was probably propped up a bit by since the high end was a larger percentage of the market this year. For reference the 2006 numbers were 913 sales and a median price of $1,190,000. For condominiums 2007 ended up with 354 sales and a median price of $629,000. In 2006 there were 332 sales with a median price of $655,000. My thoughts on the market are this. The number of listings dropped from 2006 to 2007, interest rates have remained low, and the median price has dropped. I think that smart buyers are going to start getting back in to the market in the next few months. Prices will need to remain low since the inventory is still too high for sellers to be in control. Look for an increase in the number of sales for the year, but we may not see this increase until the market gets a little steam. This could happen sometime between March and May. See You In Escrow!
0 Comments