Nothing says summer like a day at the beach… and where better to spend a day at the beach than in Montecito, at Fernald, Miramar, Hammonds, or Butterfly? The beach area in Montecito is bordered to the north by the 101 freeway, and to the south by the ocean, making it easy to define. While […]
From a mountain cottage to an impeccably well-designed ocean-view condo, from a mid-sized estate with a tennis court near town, all the way up to Oprah Winfrey’s mansion property, Montecito offers real estate options for anyone who can afford a purchase price of about $750,000 on up. To expand on that, an entry level condo […]
With sales in Montecito seeming to be back on track when compared with last year, (for the past six weeks anyway), with summer crowds making their way into Santa Barbara, and the re-opening of the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel, it’s prime home shopping season again. Open houses are more frequent as the weather improves, sales […]
I am pleased to report there were 15 Montecito homes that closed escrow in May (sold/changed owners), according to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). This is up considerably from just four that sold in April, though the number is down about 30% from the 22 homes that sold in the same month (in the MLS) […]
As the local climate starts to shift into something resembling a mid-season, pre-summer pattern (both with the weather and with real estate sales), we can feel it in the air… the upcoming graduations in local schools, college students coming back to visit families and reconnect with their friends in town, residents preparing to head out […]
Montecito continues to move forward in repairing and rebuilding after the damage caused by the debris flows of January 9. As an example, as I write this, a local couple I know is having their severely damaged home demolished in preparation for building a new home. These friends had mud, boulders, huge trees, and a […]
The question being asked of real estate agents in Montecito is simply, “How is the Montecito real estate market doing?” This question comes, of course, in the wake of the recent deadly debris flow that shut down the 101 freeway for weeks, took the lives of 23 of our friends and neighbors, and damaged or […]
While attempting to get a grasp of what is happening in the real estate market in Montecito following the debris flow event, it has been difficult to move past the fact that these are not only homes, properties, and assets, they are places where families and friends live, or lived. That said, it is not […]
I am enjoying the sound of rain dancing on the roof of my home in the upper village, and for the first time this winter, I am not concerned nor have I been ordered to evacuate. I attribute my current comfort level to the teams of experts, engineers, truckers, and laborers who are helping bring […]
I must say that the events of the past few months sort of slid right past me, both emotionally and literally. I remained stoic as we got past the fires; the flames stopped six houses up the hill from me. We moved back in, sort of. And then the evacuation warning on January 7, which […]
It was difficult to approach writing a year-in-review article, when faced with the recent calamitous episodes in Montecito. Then the hills I hiked every week came down onto our fair town the morning of January 9, many of us lost – or know someone who lost –family, friends, co-workers, even their homes and property. My […]
It was a challenging holiday season Montecito residents experienced under the cloud of smoke and ash created by the recent Thomas Fire, the largest such wildfire in California history; many of us were forced to spend weeks miles away, having been evacuated for a substantial part of December. Our hearts go out to those who […]
If you follow this column, you have likely heard me mention the lack of new listings in Montecito over the past six months or so. This lack of new housing inventory is never more evident than it is on the Montecito broker-agent open house tours on Wednesdays. Many real estate agents look forward to broker […]
For whatever reason, the available housing inventory for sale under $10 million in Montecito continues to be low, and this time of year, we don’t expect to see a lot of new homes hitting the market. That said, there are plenty of properties to choose from in most price ranges over a million dollars. So, […]
The past few weeks, well, months… okay, maybe even years… I have seen an ongoing dearth of available housing inventory to choose from in Montecito, especially in the “more affordable” $1.5-to-$3-million range. There are currently many $10-million-plus properties to choose from in a variety of shapes and sizes, but try finding the perfect family home […]