The year is starting off strong for Montecito Real Estate sales with 13 properties closing escrow in January – this is more than double the number that sold for the same period last year when there were just 6 sales recorded. The most expensive sale was an

Montecito Real Estate for sale

ocean and mountain view estate on 2.5 gorgeous acres comprised of a wonderful 5000 sf main home, 2 bdrm guest house, 1 bdrm cottage, pool and cabana. This property sold for $9,550,000 which is almost 32% off of its last listed price of $13,900,000. A property in the Glen Oaks enclave sold for 3,700,000 in 2008 and just resold for $2,875,000 which is a 22% discount off the last sales price. Another home that sold at a significant discount from its original asking price of $7,195,000(when listed in 2008) was an estate on prestigious Park Lane that sold for $3,850,000. These are just a few examples of the recent fantastic buys Montecito. Now may be the very best time to find some great opportunities in the Montecito Real Estate Market. To search available Montecito estates for sale click here.

There is some positive news with this update of Santa Barbara Real Estate sales year to date. The number of sold properties is up by 16% over last year at this time. The median sales price is down however, by about 6%.  The Santa Barbara median sales price is down by 37% from the peak of 2007 – wow this is great for Buyers! Plus with interest rates being so low, currently fluctuating around the 4% mark, this may very well be the best time to get into the Santa Barbara real estate market and have affordable payments! Looking at the  high end, Santa Barbara luxury market ($2,000,000 and up) this segment is still showing signs of weakness with ONLY 10% of the sales in October being above $2,000,000. There are some incredible opportunities for high end buyers in Santa Barbara and Montecito with some very motivated sellers especially as we approach the holidays and end of the year! Click here to search for homes and estates for sale in Santa Barbara.

It was a beautiful day for viewing estates for sale in Montecito! There were 21 properties in Montecito on the broker tour this week.  The newest estate listing is a spectacular Mediterranean on 20 gated acres complete  with 7 bedrooms,  8.5 baths, media/screening room, fantastic gourmet  kitchen, 4-car garage, gorgeous pool, incredible ocean and mountain views, a guest house with its own gated entrance, bocce ball court, lawn, fruit trees, and Koi pond. This Montecito luxury home is located on one of the most desirable streets in Montecito. It  is offered at $12,700,000. On the other end of the spectrum there lies a  wonderful opportunity to purchase a Montecito property via a short sale. This single story, ocean view home set amidst larger estates,  overlooks red tile roofs and the Montecito Country Club. The 1/2 acre Montecito property is gated, has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and boasts lush landscaping and magnificent ocean views.
This is a rare opportunity to purpose a Montecito property in a distress sale. Whether you are looking for a high end luxury property or an entry level Montecito home now may be the best time to start your search! There are some great deals to be had!

Santa Barbara is world renowned for its gorgeous coastline and stunning beaches as well as its luxury real estate. Santa Barbara has an extremely limited number of homes directly on the beach or on the bluff top thus making those lucky enough to own them part of a truly exclusive group. There are just 28 oceanfront properties currently for sale in Santa Barbara. Click here to view them: Santa Barbara Oceanfront. Two oceanfront estates are now in escrow. The first is an 8 acre Mediterranean Estate in Hope Ranch complete with pool, cabana, tennis court, guest house, putting green, and path directly to the beach. Definitely your own private resort! This Hope Ranch Property came on the market in February at $28,500,000 and was reduced to $23,500,000 in June. It went into escrow in September. The other oceanfront estate in escrow is in the gated community of Sand Point. It is a gorgeous Cape Cod style beach home with a pool and guest house on 1.5 oceanfront acres. It had been on the market for over a year when it went into escrow in August. Its original list price was $15,900,000 prior to a price reduction to $13,800,000. If you would like to know the final sales prices of these properties or want further information about Santa Barbara real estate please contact me at patsaraca@gmail.com or 805-560-9951.Oceanfront estates in Santa Barbara have been selling at 50% off original asking prices so now may just be the perfect time for to buy a Santa Barbara home.

Santa Barbara real estate is seeing great interest yet again especially in the high end and particularly the “specialty” Santa Barbara property segment of ocean view and ocean front homes. The consensus of opinion among the higher end buyers is that now it the time to acquire a Santa Barbara view property or a Santa Barbara oceanfront property as they are probably priced as soft as they will ever be at this point, with the market showing definite signs of revival. Interest rates are also slated to increase over time as we move forward the U.S. government intervention of buying billions of dollars worth of bonds has now ended, and most experts feel this will effect bond pricing and associated mortgage rate to slowly rise over the coming year.

One unique and irreplaceable property seeing vigorous interest is this rare Santa Barbara beach front bluff top property available for $2.7 million on one of the most desirable Santa Barbara oceanfront parcels ever offered.

Another strong sign for the Santa Barbara real estate market resurgence is New York’s Manhattan market is seeing a large push in acquisition by foreign investors for the same reason. The consensus is that the market is poised to rebound and this is an opportunity to buy at a bottom in pricing as reported here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36033352/ns/business-real_estate/ The Manhattan market has run parallel to the Santa Barbara market in interest level and sales activity over the years and this correlation appears to continue.

Santa Barbara Oceanfront Home Site Easterly View

We feel that this is THE premier Santa Barbara Ocean Front Home Site. Why? because it has the very rare and unusual characteristic of actully having an Easterly view. Right. How can a West Coast Santa Barbara CA oceanfront property have an Easterly sunrise view? Well, first of all, the Santa Barbara shoreline actually faces south. That is why Santa Barbara coastal living has one of the most perfect micro climates in the world. (There  are only 4 other micro climates like this on the planet, in the Southern French Riviera, a coastal area in New Zealand, another small coastal area in Australia, and another small coastal area of South Africa). 

This beautiful Santa Barbara beach home is on a unique cut of the Santa Barbara coast line facing South and East before the coast line starts looping back to a Southerly view. This allows you to see the incredible sunrise over the Santa Ynez Mountains (which were recently snow capped which happens once every couple of years at the higher elevations). You can step to Santa Barbara’s beautiful Shoreline Park with acres of bluff top lawn, gardens and playground, steps to the beach, and BBQ areas. But those aren’t even the best parts. Directly in front of this Santa Barbara oceanfront home site is a favorite local surf spot, so you have your own live surfing extravaganza to watch almost daily. Just to the left of that, you can watch kayakers and paddle boarders from Santa Barbara Harbor, which has an on-going flow of boating traffic. Santa Barbara Harbor has its regular Regatta and also hosts many international visits from the most spectacular sporting yachts in the world. There are occasional cruise ship visits and even a nearly annual visit from the USS Ronald Reagan, a state of the art U.S. Naval Aircraft Carrier. Althought precious few, there are other Santa Barbara ocean view properties, but not with this proximity to walking to downtown Santa Barbara, State Street and famed Stearns Wharf  a few hundred yards away. With the level of ocean activities right in front of you and with stunning views of Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and Anacapa Islands, and regular visits by dolphins and even Hump Back whales it’s not hard to understand why we feel this is really not just one of the most spectacular and desirable Santa Barbara home sites, but one of the finest home sites in the world. Build your perfect Santa Barbara Luxury Home here. If you are interested in this home site or one similar (difficult to duplicate this one) contact stevedre@cox.net . We have several unique Santa Barbara estate and Santa Barbara waterfront homes available for purchase or lease.

The numbers are in for Santa Barbara Estates that sold in the final quarter of 2009. The high end, luxury estate market in Santa Barbara includes the areas of  Montecito and Hope Ranch as well as Carpinteria(lots of oceanfront) and Summerland. There were a total of 7 properties that closed escrow above the $5,000,000 mark in the past quarter. The year ended with 5 luxury home sales in December above $5,000,000. My favorite house happens to be the most expensive sale for the last quarter at $17,500,000. This is an absolutely gorgeous oceanfront home on Padaro Lane. This Cape Cod home – and being from there myself I can attest that this is an authentic Cape Cod style home – is over 7000 s.f. of exceptional quality. This private gated, oceanfront home for sale features an expansive green lawn flowing down to the sandy beach on highly desirable Padaro Lane.  I believe this was a fantastic buy as comparable sales in past years for Padaro Lane oceanfront (or any Santa Barbara oceanfront homes for sale for that matter) have been substantially higher!

The yearly total of estate sales (above $5,000,000) of 26 is just about ½ of the total number of Santa Barbara estate sales in 2008. There may never be a better time to purchase that luxury dream home in Montecito, Santa Barbara, and Hope Ranch (to view homes for sale in Santa Barbara click on any of these links) as the competition for buyers is heated with many motivated sellers in the Santa Barbara high end home market! 

May 2010 bring peace, love, happiness, prosperity and good health to all!

A recent sale of an Oceanfront Home in Hope Ranch reflects what a great time it is to be a buyer of luxury property! This extensively remodeled luxury estate of approximately 13,500 sf with 10 bedrooms & 13 baths on just under 3 acres was originally listed at $39,500,000 in 2007. It just closed escrow for $12,800,000. Oceanfront properties in Hope Ranch are rarely available. This final sales price was beyond a bargain! There are currently 23 active listings in Hope Ranch and an additional 4 in escrow. There have been 12 sales year to date in Hope Ranch – there were a total of 20 sales in Hope Ranch last year so we are running slightly behind this year. With the National Association of Business Economics citing that 80% of economist believe the recession is over now may be the best time to buy real estate in Santa Barbara. There are some fantastic properties currently for sale with perhaps more bargains to be had!  For horse enthusiasts there is an impressive Mediterranean with ocean views from most rooms, charming guest house and first class equestrian facilities in a prime Hope Ranch location now for sale. To view this and other Hope Ranch Properties for sale go to www.RareEstates.com or call 805-560-9951. For information about a privately offered George Washington Smith estate in Hope Ranch please call 805-560-9951.