Santa Barbara, Goleta, Montecito, & Carpinteria January 2008

The real estate markets of Southern Santa Barbara County got off to a slower start this year than last, with one exception.

Goleta actually had more sales than last years 25 and was one short of the 32 sales in January 2006. This is good news in that the lower end of the market is the one that appears to have been hit hardest in the last few years. Maybe this is the beginning of a comeback in that market.

Carpinteria and Summerland came very close to matching the January number for the last couple of years with 10 sales. The previous years had 11 and 12 respectively. As is the case in Goleta, this could be good news for the lower end markets in our area.

Santa Barbara and Montecito had the biggest declines of the areas in January. Santa Barbara had 41 properties close when last year there were 55 and 74 the year before. Montecito had 10 closed sales this year with 20 last year and 21 the year before.

I will be interested to see what February's closings show for this year. We have been experiencing a fair number of openings, but nothing really consistent yet. The numbers won't lie.

See You In Escrow!

Happy Valentines Day!

Santa Barbara's Conforming Loan Limits Not Good Enough!

I have pasted the text of an email sent out by the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors below.

I definetely agree that for Santa Barbara's South Coast to have the same conforming loan limit as Santa Maria and Lompoc doesn't make sense.

I have heard that the loan limit for Ventura County would be the mimum of $729,500 if it is figured by county.

So join the campaign of letter writers who are going to try and send the message to our elected officials that from Carpinteria to Goleta our conforming loan limit should be raised.

Let Lois Capps, and Barbara Boxer, and the organizations listed below know that this should be considered a seperate area when it comes to figuring the new conforming loan limits.

This issue could affect pricing and the number of homes that end up in foreclosure, which affects everyone in Santa Barbara.

You can download the letter from the Association's site referenced below.

Stimulus Package will NOT help Santa Barbara!

South Santa Barbara County (Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, and
Carpinteria) is lumped with North Santa Barbara County (Santa Maria, Lompoc and Santa Ynez) which means a $587,500 maximum loan instead of a $729,500 maximum loan. We need to split the calculations for the county.
Help us contact our Congresswoman, Senators, HUD, OFHEO, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae and ask them to split north and South County
for purposes of calculating conforming loan limits.

Thank you for making a difference!

Please visit
http://sbaor.com/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=32
to see more information about this and to download the letter.

For further information please contact:

Krista Pleiser
Government Affairs Director
Santa Barbara Association of REALTORS®
1415 Chapala St, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805-963-3787 office
805-884-8609 direct
805-966-9664 fax
GAD@sbaor.com
For more information visit: www.sbaor.com