Lompoc California's Residential Loan Activity

Lompoc is an incredibly diverse community. The real estate lending game is all over the map. There is the pain of foreclosures that affect the market. The short sales are also part of the pain being experienced.

Getting a real estate loan has been hampered by properties that don't have equity as well as the overall economy in that area being poor. If you have a well paying job you are one of the lucky ones.

Besides residences the area is full of agricultural and ranch land. These properties are part of what makes the community diverse enough to hang in there during these difficult times in this real estate cycle.

Having said all this what is going on with residential lending in the Lompoc area? The refinance market would appear to be on the way up since January of this year. That is certainly good news. Individuals that can refinance out of an existing loan are getting some help. I have to believe the conforming loan programs are helping here.

The residential purchase loan segment of the market isn't quite showing the same increase yet as the refinance market. It dipped a bit from March but overall the trend is still up from fall of last year. Having the conforming loan programs available is bound to be a good thing on purchasing property in this area. Progress is slow and will probably continue to be.

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Santa Maria Residential Loan Activity

Santa Maria would appear to be in a steady climb since the end of last year when it comes to residential lending activity.

The purchase loan market which has been hit by a number of foreclosures is continuing to see improvement in the number of transactions. April showed 108 residential purchase loans for the Santa Maria area. This is the highest number since August of 2007.

As I reported in a previous post, Santa Maria had a 54% increase in the number of sales in April. I am anxious to see the numbers for May. The improvement should continue and this will help the area's economy in general.

Refinancing has been a difficult thing for borrowers to do in recent months. It has been affected by lower home values and increased borrower scrutiny.

The conforming loan products have been getting some help from government backed programs. This would appear to be helping the Santa Maria market as April's non purchase numbers continue to improve. There were 234 non purchase transactions which was about a 7% increase over March.

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Residential Loan Activity In Santa Barbara

The Santa Barbara area has been doing nothing but showing signs of the market improving. The residential lending activity for April continues that trend.

As you can see from the chart the number of non purchase transactions made a significant improvement from March. It was a 33% improvement, with the number hitting 533 transactions.

Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Goleta, & Montecito I'm sure are all benefiting from good loan rates and our market not being impacted by a number of foreclosures being sold.

I know prices have come down some, but rates are good and our economy locally seems to be pretty stable with tourism doing well.

The residential purchase loan numbers have also increased. April showed a 37% increase over the previous month. How's that for good news?

Many industries rely on the real estate economy here in the Santa Barbara area and if it gets it's feet back under it this community will be humming again.

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Santa Barbara California Foreclosure Trends

The trends for Santa Barbara County's foreclosures haven't changed much in recent months. All the areas I am tracking are up a bit. This seems to be the same trend we saw last month with the exception of the number of trustees deeds.

I am trying to put this in to perspective with the number of sales that occurred in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara in April. Santa Maria which had been hit hardest by the foreclosure problem had a terrific month regarding the number of sales. The Santa Barbara area also saw an increase in sales with the community of Montecito setting the pace.

Now back to the foreclosure topic;

The number of REO sales in April is the highest it has been since I've been tracking this information. I think it is about time these properties stopped sitting on the market and started moving. With rates being excellent, unemployment low and prices down I would think properties will be getting snapped up. This may be caused by a number of different issues.

1. The number of REO's could just be mirroring the number of trustees deeds recorded
2. The market is seeing these properties move more quickly.
3. Come to think of it, it could certainly be a combination of both.

I think it is about time these properties stopped sitting on the market and started moving. With rates being excellent, unemployment low and prices down I would think these properties should be getting snapped up.

One fact does remain though, there were more sales and that is a good thing. An REO listing just by it's very nature gets lots of attention from buyers, but now it would appear they are getting more than attention, they are getting new owners.

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Bank Owned Properties For April 2008

Santa Barbara County has not been immune to the foreclosure issues facing the country. There are of course some very distinct differences between the North County and the South County when it comes to the properties being foreclosed on and taken back by the bank.

There were 123 properties taken back by the lenders in April. Of those only 7 properties were in the Santa Barbara, Montecito, Goleta, & Carpinteria areas.

The Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Santa Ynez Valley areas took the brunt of the bank owned properties as has been a consistent trend. 116 was the total for all those areas and the hardest hit was Santa Maria.

I'm not expecting this trend to slow down, but I also don't expect it to increase much in the next few months. We have noticed that Santa Maria's property sales had a significant increase in April and I am expecting more of the same since this was a trend in many parts of Southern California as reported by Dataquick.

I do have to throw in the prerequisite disclaimer that this information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

April Santa Maria Property Sales, Incredible!

The north part of Santa Barbara County has not seen any real improvement in the number of sales in a long time. Last month that all changed.




Santa Maria absolutely exploded! There were 134 transactions reported by CORT. That is a 54% increase in the number of sales from March. It is almost a 60% increase from April of 2007.


I can hardly contain myself when I see that number. To see a market have this much activity when it has had such hard times for so long is very exciting. I can only hope it is a trend and not some sort of strange aberration.




The news about Lompoc isn't quite as exciting, but none the less it is hanging in there. There were 42 transactions reported compared to 45 in March. Not a big difference, but if you look at the chart Lompoc saw a nice sized increase in their transactions the month before.


The combined number of transactions was the most for an April on our chart going back four years. Pretty exciting news for the North County. I really get the feeling that the lower priced homes in our market are becoming appealing to buyers and investors. Rates are good prices are down and people who can qualify for loans should be buying if you ask me. Maybe they think so as well.


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Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Goleta, & Montecito Sales For April 2008

I am marginally good as a prognosticator, and I was off on my guess regarding how many properties we would see being sold in Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, and Montecito in April.

I cheated and looked at the CORT numbers about halfway through the month and we were in the neighborhood of 80 transactions. So I went a little conservative and told folks I thought we would hit 150. I was wrong there were 135.

Now before you think that is bad news, I want to point out that this in an increase of over 10% from March. Why is this good besides the obvious?

If you look at the chart this is the first time we have seen an increase from March to April. I'm thinking this is great news.

The only area that slowed down from March was Goleta. There were 26 transactions compared to 32 in March. Carpinteria increased slightly from 11 to 12. Santa Barbara increased from 56 to 65 and Montecito had the biggest percentag increase going from 23 to 32.

I glanced at the Santa Maria and Lompoc charts and they looked better than they have in many months. I'll get that information up shortly.

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April Santa Barbara Association Of Realtors Statistics

The Santa Barbara Association of Realtors has reported it's numbers for the month of April 2008.

Gary Woods one of the dedicated members of the association has created a power point of the information I am posting below.

That Association reported a higher number of sales in April as well as a pretty steady median price for both condos and homes.

Check out the slide show for all the details.


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Santa Barbara Commercial Industrial Vacancy Rates

Bob Tuler, Paul Gamberdella, and Gene Deering from The Radius Group have sent their report out. If you want the full report contact one of them.

The following is a summary of Vacancy Rates from January 2008 to April 2008.

Santa Barbara
Office Vacancy decreased slightly from 3.0% to 2.9%.
Industrial Vacancy increased from 0.2% to 0.4%.
Retail Vacancy remained the same at 1.1% to 1.1%.

Goleta
Office Vacancy increased from 3.5% to 8.6%.
Industrial Vacancy increased from 4.1% to 4.5%.

Carpinteria

Office Vacancy decreased from 2.9% to 2.5%.
Industrial Vacancy decreased from 2.9% to 2.8%.

Please contact Bob Tuler, Paul Gamberdella, or Gene Deering for any commercial real estate related needs.

Santa Maria & Lompoc Property Sales

I was reviewing my posts from the last month and figured out that I forgot to put up the Market Trends chart for Santa Maria, and Lompoc for March. I hope you can all forgive me.


The report showing April's numbers will be available in a matter of days.

In looking at March's numbers the North County has certainly been raising itself from the depths of months gone by. There were 132 properties reported sold by CORT in March 2008.This is about a 10% drop from March of 2007.

If you compare last year's first quarter and this years first quarter you will see that this years wins by 1 transaction. I had to do the math twice on that one, just because it was hard to believe.

That is fantastic information since comparing a larger time frame will usually give you information that has a bit more substance.

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I Am Anxiously Awaiting Aprils Numbers

I have been receiving a weekly update from CORT and through the 25th of April the numbers are looking pretty good.


Pretty good in comparison to some of the past months. The Santa Barbara area has 116 recorded sales as of that date.


There was a very nice one for over 26 million and a few around the 8 or 9 million dollar price point. I looked quickly, but they seemed to all be residential property.


If you do the math, the number of sales should be over 150 for April. That would mean the market is showing continued signs of doing better. March had 122 sales which was an improvement over the previous months.



It will be interesting to see the breakdown of sales and where they are. Montecito, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara and Goleta I would all expect to show a pick up. Stay Tuned!