We ended the year with a bang! December shows our area from Carpinteria to Goleta with 118 home sales completed, up from November, which had 96. Not only did we have more sales than last year, our average selling price went up by 8 percent.
Our inventory is much lower than at the beginning of 2010. We are down by more than 300 units. Although this time of the year has some sellers thinking no one is buying and they take their homes off the market, which decreases the inventory, the sale numbers show the serious buyers are out in our brisk weather making purchases. I just closed a small home in Goleta that we negotiated for the buyer in just two weeks. The seller had the property on the market for more than 170 days and was happy to complete the sale before the end of the year for tax purposes. It was a win-win for everyone.
This past month interest rates rose by almost 1 percent. That may not sound like much; however, when buyers write their first check to the bank for their new home they may pay approximately 13 percent more because of that small increase in rate. That’s just one more reason to buy now.
In the 25 years I have been in town, I have never seen a better market for buyers to purchase. Sellers are willing to negotiate, interest rates are historically low, and there is plenty of inventory from which to choose. There is much opportunity in this market if you know where to look.
— Elaine Abercrombie, a broker with Abercrombie Fine Homes, is past president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. She can be contacted at elaine@afhomes.net or at 805.450.0086.