Tag archives: real estate

Mortgage Minute: Getting Creative in a Shifting Market
By Matt Genovese   |   August 9, 2022

In response to this constantly swift-moving and uncertain real estate market – a statement that for most buyers and sellers sounds dramatic but is rather consistent for those of us who in work in the real estate industry – more and more we are seeing buyers get creative with the type of loans they use […]

Real Estate Gains: Maximize Your Capital Gains Tax Exclusions
By John J. Thyne III   |   August 9, 2022

As a broker and real estate attorney of nearly 30 years, one of the most common questions I face is how clients can best maximize their capital gains tax exclusions. Capital gains taxes are a tax on profits realized from the sale of highly appreciated real estate property, art, businesses, stocks, or other such assets. […]

Home Design Roundup: Making Home Your Own
By Zach Rosen   |   August 9, 2022

Montecito has long had its eye on style and recently Summerland is becoming a hotbed for finding the design, décor, and items that adorn your bed and interior spaces. Here is a roundup of the designers and stores in the area that help make our homes feel like home.  Marc Normand Gelinas Interior Design Marc […]

Key Santa Barbara County Contacts: A One-Stop Shop for Key Contacts within Santa Barbara County
By Montecito Journal   |   August 9, 2022

New to the area? Experiencing an ongoing issue at your home or in your neighborhood? There are people for that. The County of Santa Barbara has more than 4,000 employees that can help with everything from behavioral wellness to tax collection to County Fire and Sheriff’s operations. But knowing who to call for what can […]

QAD Property Sells
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   July 5, 2022

In a quiet off-market sale that closed last week, QAD’s 28-acre blufftop site in Summerland has reportedly sold to the University of California for over $100M.  Once utilized in off-hours by nonprofits in the area for large-scale events, the property boasts impressive coastline views and was fairly open to the public for sunset viewing. Speculation […]

No June Gloom… At Least Not in the Real Estate Market
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   June 28, 2022

While it might be foggy here and there thus far in June, it’s been lovely just the same. The dividing argument of whether the fog line is at Montecito Union School or whether it’s East Valley Road (just a block apart but worth the discussion), is one of the longer running debates you might hear […]

A Season of Change
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   June 14, 2022

The seasons are changing, and so is the Real Estate market… at least that’s the way the numbers are rolling out here, nearly halfway through 2022, with most months being down in sales volume from the month before. Now I know, many will say it’s because of low inventory, and that’s true, or partly true. […]

Latest Match at the Field
By Richard Mineards   |   May 24, 2022

Prince Harry may not be appearing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with his actress wife Meghan Markle after the Trooping of the Color ceremony next month, but he was definitely front and center at the Santa Barbara Polo Club playing in the final of the Folded Hills Pope Challenge final on Sunday. The closely […]

Weedman on Board
By Richard Mineards   |   May 17, 2022

Santa Barbara-based Camerata Pacifica has appointed Jonathan Weedman to its board. He has more than 30 years of extensive professional experience working in the corporate, nonprofit, and community sectors, and was the sixth executive director for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. From 1996 to 2016 he served as senior Vice President for the […]

April Showers… A Few at Least
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   May 10, 2022

The warmer than winter weather and the longer days of sunshine make April an especially lovely time of year in Montecito. Falling after the colder and shorter winter months and coming usually before the May Gray or dreaded June Gloom (fog), April is often a mix of all the seasons in one month. Freezing nights […]

March Was Madness
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   April 12, 2022

A whopping half of all homes for sale in Montecito’s 93108 zip code are priced over $10,000,000 While I don’t follow March Madness basketball, I do follow the Montecito Real Estate market, house by house, sale by sale, and March was indeed Madness. While an average March might bring 18+/- sales, March 2022 showed strong […]

A Winn-ing Needlepoint Gallery
By Richard Mineards   |   April 12, 2022

Montecito entrepreneur Ann Winn, who with her husband, Alastair, recently bought Santa Barbara’s Public Market with partners for $7.65 million, has opened Village Needlepoint in the former premises of bling king Bob Bryant, just a tiara’s toss from Tecolote. Her love for the art started in her early 20s and she started building her influential […]

February Stats and My 10th Anniversary with the Montecito Journal
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   March 15, 2022

This spring marks my 10th anniversary writing about Real Estate for the Montecito Journal and I just want to say how appreciative I am, to the publication and to the local Real Estate agents, who have allowed me this forum to share my insights on the market and the Montecito area during this past decade. […]

Colossal Homes on the Ocean Prairie
By Richard Mineards   |   March 1, 2022

A tony triumvirate of uber salesmen from Douglas Elliman, America’s third largest real estate company, have banded together to form a sales colossus. Local realtor Adam McKaig, who has been selling property for 23 years and founded Adam’s Angels in 2020 to help the homeless, has teamed with Malibu-based Sean Landon, son of the late […]

The High End Keeps Going Higher
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   February 15, 2022

For one of the longer months of the year, January came and went quickly it seemed. Many lovely days, a bit of good winter surf, and some big estate sales in Montecito as well. So far, this year we are seeing the same low available housing inventory as in months past and at the same […]

Montecito’s Market
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   January 25, 2022

If  you are moving to Montecito, you are likely doing so for a specific reason or for a few. We arrived 20 years ago to raise our daughter here, among the many generations of family we had in the area at the time, and so we could reset from city life to a more chill, […]

‘Semele’ Stuns
By Richard Mineards   |   January 25, 2022

Opera Santa Barbara was again in fine form when it presented Handel’s Semele at the Lobero, which was first performed in 1744 at London’s Covent Garden. A fusion of elements of opera, drama, and oratorio, the popular work is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses with Semele, the mother of the god Bacchus, superbly played by soprano […]

Ten Notable Sales in 2021
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   January 4, 2022

With nearly 350 sales of homes, estates, and condos in the “93108” this year, we saw many record-breaking transactions in all price points. Here is a short list of remarkable sales from 2021:  10. Monarch Lane: $3,895,000 The sale of this three-bedroom, four-bath home in April broke the record for highest-priced sale of an Ennisbrook […]

2021 Near Year-End Real Estate Update for Montecito
By Mark Ashton Hunt   |   December 28, 2021

Happy Holidays and all my best to everyone out there in Montecito. Cheers to all of those who make and keep this such a special place and welcome to those who are spending their first holiday season living here in town.  We all know the real estate market has been hot and it’s still hot […]

Montecito Market Update
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   December 14, 2021

As we head into the holiday season, the Montecito real estate market has slowed considerably; as of press time there have been just 39 sales so far in Q4, compared to 99 sales in the same time period last year. Q3 saw a slowdown as well, with 82 sales from July through September, compared to […]