Happy Summer!  We hope everyone is enjoying this amazing weather, our beaches, and hopefully some extra time with family and friends.

So what is going on in our Santa Barbara real estate market, in short our inventory is finally growing, but the market is active with multiple offers still common place.  How can that be?

As we sit at our desk and contemplate our market, it seems like if multiple offers are common place, our inventory should not grow.  Our thoughts are there must be so many buyers out there causing multiple offers.

But our inventory is outpacing sales over the last couple months as we have seen a slow but steady growth in our available inventory.  In fact, with 217 active homes and condos on the market between Carpinteria to Goleta as of July 27, 2023, we are inching our way back to what we would consider a normal low inventory.

Of course, some of the inventory growth can be explained by a seller setting a list price well above the market value.  In any market, this occurs and can cause the inventory to grow.  In addition, historically the higher price point properties take longer longer to sell.  Right now about 30% of the active inventory is priced above $5M.  This too could add to the increasing inventory.

Ultimately, those two reasons do not seem to settle our curiosity.

We think there is a third explanation for the growing inventory and yet still multiple offers.  Inventory remains just too low, even with the shelves starting to be re-stocked, it continues to not be easy to find what you are looking for.

Below is a graph, showing the active inventory in the Santa Barbara MLS, it pulls the data differently, so it does not parallel what we track directly because it includes some pending properties, but it shows well the overall trend.  As you can see below the inventory continues to be at an all time low.

Though inventory is growing there are still limited choices out there.  Overall, it is easy to wait weeks or months for a property to come up that meets one of our buyer’s criteria. To that end, that is why our market is staying so competitive.  As we review the statistics below, it is remarkable that even with the dramatic decrease in sales volume and interest rates pushing to highs that have not been seen in the last 23 years, that our market is staying so strong. As we discussed in previous months, prices are overall unchanged from where we finished up 2022 with a median price of $2,104,000.  In some segments of the market we have even seen some new highs. As always, we are grateful for your time, your recommendation, and your trust in us to help you with your real estate needs!

THE HIGH & LOW

June 2023 Highest Sale  | 319 San Ysidro Rd, Montecito |  Sold for $22,500,000

June 2023 Lowest Home Sale  | 679 Mayrum St, Santa Barbara |  Sold for $895,000

The Statistics

YTD | Jan-June 2023

• Total Sales:  556 in ’23  vs  832 in ’22  |  DOWN 33%
• Total Home Sales:  388 in ’23  vs  579 in ’22  |  DOWN 33%
• Total Condo Sales:  168 in ’23  vs  253 in ’22  |  DOWN 34%
• Median Home Price:  $2,112,500 in ’23  vs  $2,272,000 in ’22  |  DOWN 7%
• Median Condo Price:  $932,500 in ’23  vs  $931,777 in ’22  |  FLAT
• Sales Above $5M:  62 in ’23  vs  85 in ’22  |  DOWN 27%

June 2023

• Total Sales:  116 in ’23 vs 147 in ’22  |  DOWN 21%
• Pending Sales:  111 in ’23 vs 107 in ’22  |  UP 4%
• Total Off-Market Sales:  24 Sales  | 21%
• Total Cash Sales:  47 Sales  |  41%
• Average 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage: 7.09% as of July 27, ’23