It's A Slow Climb!

March's property sales numbers are in and they are a small improvement over February. Maybe small is a relative thing. February had 73 and March had 80. The way I do my math that is 7 transactions or almost a 10% increase. A 10% increase sounds better, or does it?

Last year there were 122 transactions, up from 89 in February of 2008. That is a 37% jump from one month to the next. Now 10% doesn't sound that terrific. How about 2007, we jumped from 129 to 177. That is also about a 37% increase.

So can you see why I titled this post, It's A Slow Climb? Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Goleta, and Montecito have been hit hard by this real estate slow down. The number of sales occurring on the South Coast of Santa Barbara County is at historic lows. At least as far back as my records and or memory can go.

Some of the highlights for March were;

• Padaro Lane selling for $6,350,000. Looks like it may have been listed for over 8,000,000 according to Zillow. 
• Montecito reported 3 properties over 5 million, 566 Picacho Lane, 14 Cima Del Mundo Rd, and 779 Ayala.
• There were a number of properties under $300,000, 5930 Birch St., 4651 Oak Glen Dr. Unit A, and 450 Camino Del Remedio Unit E

The good news is we the number of sales are improving. It appears to be a slow climb, but at least the numbers are moving upward. I will have links to this information shortly, so check back and look it over.

Santa Barbara Area Sales Hitting Bottom?

January was very slow with respects to home sales in the Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and Montecito areas.

Maybe even a record low. That is the lowest number I can remember, and I've been around since the mid 80's. The map below shows the sales that did occur. Feel free to check out your favorite neighborhood.

This would lead me to believe the bottom is here!

(Edited 2-27-09) For those of you that may have found this from this link; http://santabarbarasblog.com/?p=2816 I do appreciate you coming by. As for the folks who have commented on that blog let me clear the record about a couple things. I am not a realtor and never have been. I also think the number of transactions is what has hit bottom, not prices. I do believe that prices will take quite a bit more time to recover. Thanks for the exposure santabarbarablog.com.

If you don't believe the number of transactions will start to improve then how do explain what is going on in Santa Maria and Lompoc and across the rest of the state? The bottom of the market is certainly showing a higher number of transactions and I would think that will hit us on the south coast some time this year.