Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Update – Market Statistics & What’s Fueling Activity

 The average rent for Santa Barbara properties has gone up by 5% or more for work force housing.  Renters are paying on average about $1,500 per bedroom. Rents can be far higher if in a good school district or redeveloped areas of down-town or former “industrial” zones such as SB’s blossoming “Funk Zone” where tenants can expect to pay $3,500, or more, for a 2 bedroom 1 bath cottage.

 In many markets, from national to local, at some point renters have determined this isn’t affordable when they’re paying up to 50% of their income for housing. With mortgage rates still historically low many are turning towards purchasing a home. First time buyers are up 5% year over year and expected to increase according to the National Association of Realtors. Respondents to a Zillow survey showed that nationally 5.2 million people and families wanted to buy their first home in the coming year, up from 4.7 million in 2014.

Home buyers still remain challenged however due to a weak jobs market, student debt and low credit scores. Coupled with mortgage rates creeping up from 3.65% last year to 4% this year means buyers will become less qualified for a home or have to settle for a lesser house. First time buyer programs from the Federal Housing Administration and some other lenders are letting buyers put as little as 3% down. This helps and if home prices stabilize first time buyers can get into the real estate market and build equity for their future.

 Santa Barbara Real Estate Activity, June 2015 ,   *Data from SB MLS

 The Santa Barbara real estate sales numbers are still on a positive trend but sales did fall for the month of June with 115 properties sold down from 127 in May. The Median Sales Price also went down from $1.28 million in May to about $1.25 in June. On the other hand Days on market for sold properties dropped to 45 in June from 52 the previous month.  Opened escrows went up from 114 in May to 127 in June and the median list price on those escrows was stable at $1,130,000 in June from $1,110,000 in May. There were 172 new listings in June with a median list price of $1,349,500. The average list price was over $2 million and inventory rose from 285 homes for sale in May to 307 in June. This tells us there are still buyers actively pursuing properties and there are more sellers trying to accommodate them.

Sales are up about 12% year over year and the median sales price is up 5%  to $1,175,000 and the average sales price is also up to $1,900,000 in 2015 from $1,700,000 in 2014. The number of escrows are up 19% and the median list price of these escrows is down 3.5%.