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 […]
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 […]
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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 […]
A deep dive into real estate’s incredible first half of 2021, and the trends it has kickstarted in Montecito
In pre-COVID times, one could buy a very nice home with 2,000 – 3,000 square feet of living space on a larger lot (over half-acre) or in a prime spot or beach area, for around $2 to $2.5 million. I can point to dozens of closed comps just two years ago, that illustrate how these […]
Santa Barbara’s venerable Granada Theatre is back in business! The eight-story icon that towers over State Street, originally built in 1873 and rebuilt in 1924, has been eerily silent for the past 15 months, other than intermittent audience-free video filming by the Santa Barbara Symphony under maestro Nir Kabaretti. But it will finally be all […]
The real estate market in Santa Barbara and surrounding areas continues to be stronger than ever, with the first quarter statistics confirming that sellers currently have the advantage over buyers. With staggeringly low inventory, and an influx of out-of-town buyers adding to our already strong local buyer pool, home prices are at an all-time high. […]
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At this point I am unsure of whether we will see enough new listings hit the market in Montecito before the last house goes up for sale and is sold. That won’t happen — will it? — but if you follow the numbers, it’s not impossible. As of right now we only have about 47 […]
Something tells me that times they are a-changing in Montecito… Whether it’s the 50-plus cars I saw at both the Hot Springs and San Ysidro Trailheads on the same day recently, or that I could not find a parking spot at sunset near Butterfly Beach on a weekday in March, or the fact that booking […]
The Montecito Heat Index measures demand for Montecito single-family homes in five price sectors. By identifying demand, (contracts to purchase), rather than sales, (closed escrows) we create a forward-looking indicator of market strength. And since real estate activity fluctuates seasonally, today’s Heat score is compared to this date last year. All data are from the […]
Considering there are fewer homes in the Multiple Listing Service (the MLS, which feeds Realtor.com, Zillow, and others) than at any other time in the past 20 years, I feel it’s an interesting time to pause and ask (as others often ask me), what’s next in our real estate market? Will the buyers who find […]
The desire of so many to purchase a home in Montecito, along with the phenomenal number of homes sold and sales over ten million dollars this past year, has been covered at length in many local and national publications. This rush to buy has left Montecito’s Real Estate market with very few homes for sale, […]
