Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Analysis for April 2010
The Santa Barbara real estate market has been heating up as we approach the peak summer buying and selling season. The number of homes sold in April 2010 vs. April 2009 is up in all coastal areas of the county including Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and Montecito. 2009 was a pretty bleak year in terms of real estate sales but you have to start somewhere. The city of Santa Barbarahad 85 homes close in April compared to 56 in April of 2009. That is a substantial increase. Carpinteria had 14 last month vs. 10 a year ago. In Goleta there were 24 vs 22. Not a substantial increase in Goleta but I suspect this is due to a lack of inventory because this lower priced market has been the hottest mover in recent months and new listings are down.
Sales of high end properties continue to lag with 14 Montecito properties closing, up from the 12 in April of 2009 but less than half of the 32 sold in April of 2008. Although overall sales are up, we have not seen any price increases in the market with the exception of Montecito. 2010 average and median sales prices are flat in comparison with 2009. The one exception is Montecito where the average sales price went from $1,993,167 in 2009 to $5,512,214 last month. Anyone who has taken a statistics class will know that averages are easily skewed with a big sale. In this case, the median was also up substantially from $1,927,000 in 09 to $3,667,500 last month. Will this trend continue? Only time will tell. Another interesting statistic is the increase in homes sold over 1 million dollars, up from 32 in 09 to 39 last month. It sounds like a lot but keeping things in perspective, April of 08 saw 66 and 2007 when the market had peaked, there were 102 homes sold in excess of 1 million dollars.
If I can be of assistance in your Santa Barbara real estate search or provide information about the market in general, contact me at (805) 757-1867 or richbosselmann@gmail.com You can always search all properties listed in the Santa Barbara MLS via my web site www.RichBosselmann.com No registration required.
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