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‘It feels like being alive again’ Paseo Nuevo shops open up, though concerns loom due to pandemic
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS
Some Paseo Nuevo shops opened on Saturday for the first time since mid-March.
By JORGE MERCADO NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
One of Cristal Clark’s newest listings is a single-level French Country-style home in Birnam Wood designed by Michael L. Hurst, combining contemporary finishes and amenities with French Country elegance. Ms. Clark has remained busy throughout the pandemic, with an average of 10 or more showings a week.
Real estate still strong Despite economy, Santa Barbara agents are busier than ever By CHRSITIAN WHITTLE NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
When Santa Barbara County was sent into lockdown in midMarch to combat the growing coronavirus crisis, the residential real estate industry held its breath and expected the worst. Buyers and sellers faced serious fears as jobs were in jeopardy and the prospect of opening one’s house to strangers kept homes off the market. “Basically in both directions buyers and sellers backed off. It became a real concern,” said Village Properties owner Renee Grubb. Now it appears those fears have been alleviated. Over the last two months, real estate activity has remained strong in the Santa Barbara area, and agents are busier than ever despite the transition to virtual showings. “I would have to say at least for now things are getting better. When I go on my calls for the California Association of Realtors, and they report on all of California, it’s looking better everywhere,” Ms. Grubb told the News-Press. “I chose not to lay off any of my staff, and I feel fortunate that
now the market is doing better and so my losses haven’t been as great as I thought they were going to be, which makes me happy of course.” At the end of March and going into April, the forecast was bleak. Village Properties saw a significant dip in closings and properties fall out of escrow. Compared to 2019, they saw a 50% decline in business. “Things started to pick up around mid-April. I think more people had gotten used to what was going on. We’ve been doing this for a month,” said Ms. Grubb. “You never know until they close of course, but there are showings of high-end properties three, four, five times a week now. That kind of high-end activity actually started maybe two and a half to three weeks ago to where my agents who sell high end have been very busy.” While the flurry of activity has been surprising, some agents, like Cristal Clark, did not even see business slow. “For me there was no lag time,” said Ms. Clark. “It was constant. I mean long hours working. It’s been nonstop.” Ms. Clark was concerned at first, but soon saw a lot of interest from buyers from Los Angeles
Lorie Bartron of Bartron Real Estate Group, a real estate team under Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, shows off a property at 1060 Cieneguitas Road. Despite a short setback, Berkshire Hathaway is back on track for breaking its record for best year ever.
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With the local Santa Barbara community slowly opening up, more and more local heads are taking a peek outside to try to regain a sense of normalcy. On Saturday, Santa Barbarans got to hang out at a few more spots that opened up as some shops at the Paseo Nuevo outdoor mall opened for the first time since being shut down in mid-March due to the pandemic. One of the shops was
Evangelina Boutique, which saw a couple customers go in and out. Despite not wanting to be interviewed, the cashier at the store looked pleased to be helping customers and having the shop open. The majority of the shops open, however, were in the food department with places such as ParadICE, 805 Boba, Sushi Tyme and other locations open for business. Scott Coons, a Santa Barbara Please see paseo nuevo on A2
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS
Natalie Grubb of Village Properties at one of her listings on the Mesa. Village Properties is preparing to reopen their offices after two months, while continuing to utilize virtual tours.
and San Francisco, especially in the under $10 million market. “I think people want to be here. They see the beauty that Montecito and Santa Barbara has to offer and they’re not thinking about ‘I’d love to live there in the future’. They’re really putting it into place now, be it primary homes or secondary homes,” said Ms. Clark. Kyle Kemp, district manager for Berkshire Hathaway, believes the slowing of activity in the first week was in part due to the uncertainty around using virtual tools to conduct business. Fortunately, many of his agents were already well versed in digital showings, and those that weren’t quickly caught on. Although they were down 60% in sales in the first week, Mr. Kemp said his agents have rallied and are now only 20% behind, with a 206% increase in property inquiries in California compared to 2019. “Once that stopped everybody started to feel comfortable, started to get their feet on the ground, realized Santa Barbara wasn’t going anywhere, the sun wasn’t going away, and all of a sudden people started coming back to real estate again,” said Mr. Kemp. Mr. Kemp said most buyers
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seem to be in the technology sector, interested in getting out of Los Angeles and San Francisco and into the open spaces of Santa Barbara and Montecito. “Those buyers don’t seem to be affected. In fact, a lot of them are telling us their businesses are doing better. We’re hit by the service industry for sure, because Santa Barbara is such an escape for everybody, so we tend to have a lot of hospitality, but that hasn’t for some reason affected the real estate,” said Mr. Kemp. While the majority of interest and sales have been from California, agents are speaking to a lot of buyers from around the country looking to purchase homes in the area as soon as it is safe to travel. “There are a lot of clients who want to live here, but they live somewhere where they have to take a plane ride, so they’re just kind of waiting until their areas open up more and they feel comfortable coming. I have a lot of clients coming next month in June from different parts of the U.S.,” said Ms. Clark. “We would be selling houses all day long if people could get here physically,” said Mr. Kemp. “They can do as much as they Please see real estate on A2
Jay Schwartz works on a chalk recreation of Thomas Hart Benton’s 1947 allegorical painting, “Achelous and Hercules,” on Saturday.
Finding a new canvas I Madonnari Festival goes online to continue sharing artistic vision By JORGE MERCADO NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The current pandemic sweeping the nation has forced the cancelation of many events, much to the chagrin of the local community as well as those who throw said events. The same was set to happen
to the I Madonnari Festival, an annual festival that benefits the Children’s Creative Project in Santa Barbara. As more and more sanctions came down about large gatherings, Kathy Koury, the executive director of the Children’s Creative Project, thought that there was no Please see CHALK on A3
Special section
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Today the NewsPress salutes local businesses as progress continues toward reopenings. See “Supporting Local Businesses.”
Sunday, May 24, 2020
LOTTERY RESULTS Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 7-27-35-43-45 Meganumber: 15 Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 8-10-20-44-46 Meganumber: 18 Friday’s DAILY DERBY: 05-03-12 TIME: 1:46.76 Saturday’s Daily 3: 8-8-8 / Evening: 1-5-0
Saturday’s DAILY 4: 7-0-4-5 Saturday’s FANTASY 5: 9-12-13-28-34 Saturday’s POWERBALL: 2-8-18-21-23 Meganumber: 16