While closed sales of single-family homes in the Santa Barbara metro area and their median price ticked up, pending sales took a breather.
Single-family homes under contract (pending) returned to March’s 102 from April’s 119. Completed single-family home sales increased from 97 in April to 105 in May, or a modest increase of 6 percent.
As home sales increased, so did the median sold price, trending upward from $992,400 in March to $1.15 million in April and $1.22 million in May, or an increase of about 6 percent from April to May.
Inventory is slightly higher but still extremely low at 321 single-family homes actively listed for sale, or roughly three months worth at our current sales rate.
May’s median price was 38 percent higher than the May 2013 median price of $883,000.
The median price, meaning half the homes sold were more expensive and half were less expensive, can be skewed upward with a higher number of more expensive homes sold and may not indicate a general rise in price levels. In fact, 20 percent of the sales in May were over $2 million with the highest price being $8,225,000.
Condos sales leveled off in May with 41, almost identical to April’s 42. The median condo sold price eased to $562,500. Currently, active condo listings increased slightly from 108 at the end of April to 115 at the end of May.
— Ed Fuller is a real estate broker with San Roque Realty Inc. and president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. Contact him at ed@sanroquerealty.com or 805.687.1551. The opinions expressed are his own.