Real Estate Snapshot
by Kelly Mahan Herrick
(Kelly is a licensed realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, and a member of the award-winning Calcagno & Hamilton Real Estate Team. She can be reached at Kelly@ homesinsantabarbara.com)
Montecito Market Update
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s 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 127 in Q3 last year. Typically in Q3 (the summer months), we see about 50 sales in Montecito. Year-to-date, there have been 319 sales of homes, condos, land, and estates, compared to 328 sales during the same timeframe last year. Looking at sales prices, median sales price is up about 5%: $4,475,000, compared to $3,062,500 in 2020. Average sales price is $5,849,000, up from $4.1 million in 2020, year-to-date. Sales in Montecito have been diverse, from a $669,000 adobe on Coyote Road to the legacy sale of 1.13 acres on Fernald Point for $45 million, which sold off market in March. 1104 Channel Drive also sold, for an impressive $31.25 million after being on and off the market since 2016.
Listings: A Winter Cool Down
As is expected when the weather cools and we approach the holidays, we are seeing a drastic lack of inventory in the Montecito market, along with the greater Santa Barbara County market. As of this writing there are currently 45 active properties in Montecito, as well as five additional listings currently in escrow. There are two properties marked “Coming Soon” in the Santa Barbara MLS in Montecito. There are currently about 177 active listings total from Goleta to Carpinteria, including homes, condos, and PUDs. 43 of these are currently
This year’s highest price sale in Montecito: a beachfront home on Fernald Point, which closed in March for $45 million (listed by Kathleen Winter of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices)
pending. This translates to just a 1.1-month supply of homes if no other homes are to come on the market. (A six-month supply is considered a balanced market; fewer than six months is considered a sellers’ market and over six months is considered a buyers’ market.) Last year at this time we had a two-month supply of homes. In a typical year, we’d have about 350 homes available to purchase in the month of November. With only 177 current listings, we are still dealing with a staggering lack of inventory, which continues to put upward pressure on our prices.
Higher End Homes Selling
The sale of ultra-high-end homes has been nothing short of staggering this year. Since January 1, we’ve seen the sale of 37 homes of more than $10
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