Tag archives: real estate

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 […]

Lovely warm days mixed with overcast mornings and a couple of very chilly nights tells us that we are heading into winter (more rain please). Daylight saving time has kicked in, which is great for the early birds and surfers, bringing light before 6 am. That said, I’m still getting used to darkness in the […]

Buyers today are facing enormous competition for the best properties all over the country, and few places more so than Santa Barbara.  To win the best properties today, buyers must be prepared to move quickly and confidently. As Exclusive Buyers’ Agents (EBA), we are advisors and advocates for our clients from contract to closing. But […]

As the weather teases us between hot and cold, and as the first rain falls and the clocks prepare to turn back time, we start looking ahead to the holidays, a new year, and we say hello to a lot of new neighbors. By my estimate, in the past 18 months we have seen approximately […]

Well, it looks like our Santa Barbara summer is finally here. OK, not the commonly thought of summer – Memorial Day to Labor Day – but the secret summer that we locals know, the October summer that often brings the best weather of the year. The islands are clear, the ocean glistens from a lower […]

It seems as if fall has arrived a tad unannounced, at least for me. I had been waiting for those definite signs of summer: feeling unbearably hot, the ocean warming up considerably for at least a few weeks, and that moment when one starts looking forward to cooler weather. The May Gray/June Gloom hung in […]

What a difference a month (of big sales) can make. In my last article reviewing Montecito’s Real Estate activity for June and most of July, I focused on the lack of sales of more than $10 million. In that writing, I also noted an overall sales volume decline that put sales numbers closer to normal […]

Juan Cabrillo, exploring the new world for Spain, sailed into the Santa Barbara Harbor in 1542. For the next 350 years, there was not much European contact. This changed in 1784 when the Spanish constructed the first adobe housing in Santa Barbara as barracks for soldiers. The Presidio, located between Anacapa and Garden streets on […]

The party animals were out in force, vaccination passports in hand, when the Santa Barbara Zoo hosted Zoofari Ball XXXV Return to Basecamp, attended by more than 630 supporters and raising nearly $200,000 for the popular menagerie. Guests in their safari gear and Harrison Ford lookalikes joined the party on the hilltop for sunset cocktails, […]

California’s most expensive residential property, a 22-acre spread known as the Sanctuary at Loon Point, has just surfaced for sale in Carpinteria for a hefty $160 million. The titanic price tag makes it the priciest property in the Golden State, beating out a $135 million retreat up for grabs in Woodside and a $115 million […]

Santa Barbara Symphony celebrated the founding members of the Crescendo Society, a group of visionary supporters who have each made a five-year pledge to support the orchestra at levels ranging from $2,500 to $100,000, with a boffo brunch at the Santa Barbara Club. This means the next four seasons of the symphony, under maestro Nir […]

The lodgings pictured on the Aug.5-12 Montecito Journal cover convey the “Dream Market” with gigantic accuracy. It was a good issue — the pieces on “pigmobiles” and failing wells helping to sober the frothing real estate euphoria. Having come to Montecito in 1952, I was moved by nostalgia, vexation, and a healthy sense of embarrassment. […]

As we kick summer into high gear and the fog fights with the sun for control of the day, the real estate market in Montecito remains robust, yet leveling off to a more normal number we are used to seeing in past years. Additionally, we are seeing fewer sales recently in the over $10 million […]

Over the past 18 months, the world has been put on its axis, not knowing which way it would spin due to a health crisis that is not only deadly, but unpredictable. But it has done one thing — it’s emphasized the importance of having a place to call home. Whether it be a studio […]

The real estate market in Montecito continues to exceed any and all expectations, creating records in both prices and number of sales. The first six months of the year have been incredibly active, with 140 homes* closing since January 1. This is nearly double the amount we saw last year, when 79 homes traded hands […]

The 101 is synonymous with a need for patience, particularly along the South Coast corridor. But for Jennifer Cheyne, that trip up the coast from Los Angeles was one she treasured each and every time — after all, the destination was Montecito, which was quickly becoming a home away from home. “Who wouldn’t want to […]

Santa Barbara has had many personalities in its long-storied past. From the large, successful native American Chumash community ten thousand years ago to the Spanish and Mexican eras in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present, world-renowned destination resort, people have continuously been drawn to this spectacular place on California’s South Coast. Unfortunately for […]

The Santa Barbara County real estate market continues to be a strong seller’s market, with 823 homes sold in the South County (which includes Carpinteria to Goleta, and includes Montecito and Hope Ranch) the first half of the year, which is a 54% increase over last year. In a pre-pandemic year, that number would hover […]

Santa Barbara Museum of Art is back in business! As the venerable 60,000-square-foot institution, a former Post Office, celebrates its 80th anniversary and its reopening on August 15 after the lengthy pandemic lockdown, not to mention a $50 million, six-year renovation expanding exhibition space enormously making it possible to show more of the 27,000 works […]

A deep dive into real estate’s incredible first half of 2021, and the trends it has kickstarted in Montecito