The Santa Barbara Groups Real Estate Blog

The Santa Barbara real estate market continues to surprise us an many fronts. We are seeing big discounting on a minority of new listings that tend to pull down the comparables rather fast. We are also seeing random sales that remind us of the unique resilience in our market.

A new listing that stands out as a "new low" for a particular section of the Mesa, is a 3bd/2ba on a 9000 sqft lot listed at $775,000. This is about $100,000 less than what we would expect a home like this would be offer for.

Staying on the Mesa, we were reminded of Santa Barbara's seductive allure when a 3bd/2.5ba home closed at $1,415,000. This was a very cool, completely redone, "green home" with modern architectural style. The lot was 6200 sqft. This home started at $1,535,000, was reduced to $1,449,000, and sold in 73 days.

Another nice sale took place on a hill across the street from Hendry's Beach. This was a 2200 sqft 4bd/3.5ba with ocean views. This home was listed for $1,900,000 and sold for $1,800,000 in just 22 days.

The high end luxury real estate market continues to show some new signs of life, just at a reduced price. A beach home on Padaro lane just closed escrow for a price of $6,350,000. It hit the market 265 days ago offered for $9,950,000. Padaro has scene prices above $30,000,000.

There is a stunning celebrity home for sale near the San Ysidro Ranch that started at $9.4M just 39 days ago and was reduced today down to $8.2M, a good sign of motivation. It features 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, pool, pool cabana, guesthouse all on just over an acre.

An equestrian estate in Carpinteria went into escrow today. It was listed at $7.5M after hitting the market 294 days ago at $9.5M. It featured a 12 acres lot with a 6 bedroom 6 bath home, guesthouse, horse facilities and some views.

The luxury real estate market got an injection of excitement today with a large estate on Hill Road in Montecito going into escrow. This property hit the market in October of 2007 at a price of $32,800,000 and was reduced several times down to $26,800,000 when it went pending. There has been very little action in the luxury real estate market so it will be very interesting to if, and at what price this closes at.

There is a new listing in Hope Ranch described as a "teardown" on two acres listed for $2,050,000, tough sale. Another Hope Ranch listing on Laguna Blanca hit the market in May of 2008 for $4,150,000. After several price reductions it was listed for $2,975,000 and just went into escrow.

The home we wrote about on the Mesa at Salida Del Sol - a 3/2 priced at $775,000 - received 6 offers and is in escrow. There are several lots on the market that are victims of the Tea Fire. The latest came on today for $695,000. This is 3/4 of an acre and features ocean views.

Please consider The Santa Barbara Group for all of your real estate needs.