It’s all relative when you review the final real estate sales numbers for 2007. If you’re an optimist and see the glass half-full, you’ll appreciate that Santa Barbara is one of the few regions in the country that saw the median price for single-family homes improve. Ending the year with a 4.3 percent increase in the median price — $1.25 million vs. $1.198 million in 2006 — is quite an accomplishment compared to the rest of the country and California.
If your view of the glass is half-empty, you’re bound to focus on the cooling of the local market. From 1998 there was double-digit appreciation every year except 2006, when the median price dropped 5 percent, and in 2007, which saw single-digit appreciation.
Those with the capital and the desire to live along the Central Coast drove the high end of the market. Sales above $5 million rose nearly 31 percent. The largest sale recorded in 2007 was a $35 million Padaro Lane estate that sold in the first quarter. The property has six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and two half baths.
New listings for 2007 declined 3.5 percent vs. 2006, and there was a 3 percent decline in the total number of homes sold for the year, with 27 fewer homes selling in 2007 than 2006, 863 vs. 890. Importantly, total revenue was up 3.9 percent, reaching $1.707 billion vs. 2006’s $1.639 billion. Clearly, real estate remains one of the key drivers of the local economy.
“As it turned out,” said Reneé Grubb, co-owner of Village Properties, “2007 was a stronger year than many experts predicted, and we anticipate modest appreciation again in 2008.”
Condominium sales performance for 2007 was lackluster for owners and investors, with a 5.2 percent decrease in median price — $635,000 vs. $670,000 — and a 6.3% decline in new listings.
In 2007, 377 condos were sold vs. last year’s 355, a 6.2 percent increase in total sales. The number of condos selling above $1 million improved 18 percent, with 72 sold in 20078 vs. 61 a year earlier. Total revenue for condos was $297 million, a 3.9 percent improvement over 2006’s $279 million.
In Montecito, meanwhile, single-family home sales performance in 2007 was by nearly every measure, positive. The year ended with an improved median price of $2.9 million, a solid 7.8 percent increase over 2006’s $2.69 million.
New listings for Montecito declined 8.9 percent, with 27 fewer homes listed for all of 2007 than in 2006, 297 vs. 324.
The number of total sales of single-family homes in Montecito increased 5.5 percent, with 174 properties changing hands in 2007 vs. 165 in 2006.
In 2007, there were 31 homes that sold at the top of the Montecito market — $5 million and above — equaling the total in 2006.
Montecito did its part to support the local economy, with total sales revenue growing 4.7 percent in 2007 for a year-end total of $656 million. In 2006, total dollar volume of sold listings reached $614 million.
Condo sales fared less well in Montecito in 2007, with every tracked category in the Village Properties index declining compared to 2006.
The median price for a Montecito condo was $1.25 million in 2007, a 30.4 percent decline from 2006’s $1.795 million. At the end of the year, 25 condos were sold, just one short of 2006’s 26. Montecito sold 18 condos for more than $1 million, just two shy of the 20 sold in 2006. Total sales revenue for Montecito’s condos dropped 5.4 percent to $41.8 million, vs. 2006’s $44.2 million.
For more information, contact Village Properties Realtors.