Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Report - Summer 2021

Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Report

July 2021

State of the Market in a Couple Sentences (or Less)

Hey friend! Here’s your neatly typed, highly informative SB Monthly Market Moves Summer 2021 update. Before we quickly break down those numbers, here’s exactly what Joe, Avi, and Garrett think about the Central Coast market as we chug along through summer from July into August.

Joe: “The heat of our market is showing signs of cooling off. More homes are coming on the market, which helps with supply shortages. Many buyers have already bought, turned their focus toward travel and other opportunities that have recently opened up, or have been discouraged by the competitive market and have stopped their search.”

Avi: “More and more inventory is starting to show up as the summer progresses, but buyers remain really strong from Santa Barbara locals as well as tourists visiting from out of town. Our market will always have less supply because of limited new construction options, so hard to say when the seller’s market might shift.”

Garrett: “Santa Barbara South Coast real estate market remains very active with low inventory across the board. Buyers – and people in general – seem to be taking advantage of the summertime travel and vacation plans they have at the moment….in the next month sellers should maybe expect to be a little more patient depending on what price range you are in.”
June cools off a bit ❄️

Graphic from Fidelity SB and Chicago Title SB.

If you remember that last May, the average price for a single-family home climbed up to $3.5 million.

In June, the single-family average sales price—quite contrary to this toasty Summer weather—cooled off a bit. And by a bit, we mean nearly $1 million, dropping all the way to $2.6 million.

However, it’s important to remember that even a few sales of some of those behemoth mansions in Montecito and Hope Ranch act as outliers that can largely skew this data any given month.

In recent months, we’ve seen remarkable year-over-year increases in the average sales price for both condos and single-family homes.

Graphic from Fidelity SB and Chicago Title SB.

• Last month, the price was up 67% from the same time last year for single-family homes. Yet, for June of 2021 as compared to June of 2020, the average price rose a more modest 15%.
• The number of sales rose only 13% for single-family homes, while they shot up more significantly for condos at 51%.
• While the average price took a dip, sales did not. There were 198 total sales in June this year, up 23% from last year. We are still seeing decent movement in the seller’s market as pent-up demand from the pandemic continues to drive multiple offers on most homes.

That’s a wrap for the Summer edition of our Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Report. If you have questions or need some real estate help, we are here for you.

Best wishes,

Joe Parker
Garrett McCaw
Avi Becker
The Santa Barbara Group at Berkshire Hathaway HSCP