November returned to the seasonal trends of real estate with an 8 percent drop in closed single-family homes in the Santa Barbara metro area, going from 76 in October to 70 in November.
The median sold price decreased from $1.090 million in October to $947,500 in November, reflecting continuing strength in lower-end sales while the upper end goes on holiday.
Pending sales had a sizable drop, going from 101 in October to 75 in November with the median list price of homes going into escrow increasing from $949,000 in October to $1.05 million, reflecting a more balanced mix of homes recently pending.
In November 2013, we had 75 homes sell and 76 homes go into escrow, fairly close to this year’s numbers. The median sales price of single-family homes in November 2013 was also close at $980,000.
The most impactful monthly change was in inventory, with active listings dropping from 331 homes at the end of October to 285 at the end of November. This is almost identical to the end of November 2013, when the inventory was 288.
There was only one sale over $5 million, and it went for $5.9 million. The lowest priced sale was a home on Milpas Street that went for $500,000. There are currently 25 homes for sale at $750,000 or less, and 65 for sale priced at more than $5 million.
— 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.