Realtors Home Sales Statistics For Jan 2008

Gary Woods sent out his updated statistics reviewing the market in January 2008. He has compared those numbers with Jan of 2007. One thing to make a note of is that this information only reflects the sales that were reported to The Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. There are transactions that aren't reported and I'll review them when they are available.

Total Active Listings; Jan 07 605, vs. Jan 08 676 UP +10.5%
This certainly shows that there is still a good selection to choose from when buying a home

New Listings; Jan 07 155, Jan 08 151 DOWN -2.6 %
Pretty much that same number for both years, not much to really draw any conclusions from

New Listings Median List Price; Jan 07 $1,295,000, Jan 08 $1,299,000, UP +0.4%
This tells me not much has changed when it comes to the sellers expectations of what their property is worth. The real issue is how many of these properties will sell and at what price.

Properties that went into Escrow; Jan 07 88, Jan 08 56, DOWN -36.4%
Number of Sold Properties; Jan 07 60, Jan 08 40 DOWN -33.4%
This is the trend we have been seeing for the last 6 to 7 months. It continues to tell me that there is a pent up demand we will get hit with shortly.

Median Sales Prices; Jan 07 $1,200,000 Jan 08 $1,130,000 DOWN -5.9%
The median price seems to continuu to slip and this isn't any surprise either. I'm not certain the lower price is really that significant though.

Median Sales Price without Montecito/Hope Ranch; Jan 07 $975,000 Jan 08 $920,562 DOWN -5.6%
This statistic really goes to show you that the median price decrease is the same pretty much across the board.

Average Sold Price; Jan 07 $1,928,066, Jan 08 $1,981,600 UP +2.8 %
I just feel like prices aren't going to continue to slip that much and this is representative of that.

Average Sold Price without Hope Ranch/Montecito’07 $1,338,922 ’08 $1,124,367 DOWN -6.1%
This number of course counters my last comment, but I do think prices will slip, just not that much. I have heard people predict a 25% decrease....... I don't see it.

Sold Volume Jan 07 $115,684,000 Jan 08 $79,264,025 DOWN -31.5%
This of course is representative of the number of transactions and a little lower median price.