With companies such as Citrix, Sonos, Yardi, Deckers, Appfolio, and others reaffirming their local presence with large office leases, sales or buildouts (Deckers), Santa Barbara may see an increase in relocating employees. According to Santa Barbara’s Hayes Commercial, office leasing volume was up 29% for South Santa Barbara County in 2013 and overall vacancy plunged 18%. And although lease rates are down year-over-year, they are expected to increase across all commercial sectors.

Indeed, April’s unemployment figures for Santa Barbara County (released May 16) showed that the number of job seekers looking for employment dropped to levels not seen since July 2008. Much of the recent gains in Santa Barbara’s jobs have been in the business/finance and technology sectors.

An increase in office workers may create further pressure on an already limited Santa Barbara housing market. Several urban housing options have recently become available, however, that are ideally suited to the office worker who desires convenience and walkability.

Sevilla: Substantially renovated luxury Mediterranean style condominiums located at 401 Chapala Street in downtown Santa Barbara have recently been released to the public (a few have already been sold). Prices for a 1 bedroom start at $750,000 and go up to $2.5MM for a 2 bedroom/2bath condo. View the current inventory by clicking on this link.

Alma del Pueblo: In our March newsletter, we mentioned Alma del Pueblo — a luxury condomium development that includes a Gourmet Public Market (grand opening in April). There are still quite a few of these luxury units available for sale. Studios begin at $855k and prices go up from there … a two bedroom/three bath unit can cost $2.6MM. See the current inventory at this link.

These properties offer many of the most desired features in a new home. According to Cartus, a leading provider of relocating services, an upgraded kitchen ranked highest on the list of desired amenities, in-town location, proximity to shopping, dining and mass transit, availabity of parks and recreation facilties and less than 30-minute commute to work were also high on the list.

For more information about the properties mentioned above and the full suite of our relocation and affiliated Coldwell Banker moving resources, please send us an email or give us a call. Maurie McGuire / Scott Westlotorn:

Maurie@MontecitoLand.com | Scott@MontecitoLand.com
805.403.4313 | 805.403.8816