This is the quintessential Santa Barbara beach front cottage (view video). Set just above the waves in a private alcove of sand and sea, this beautifully peaceful rustic Santa Barbara beach home is the escape everyone is searching for.

Santa Barbara Beach Cottage

Listen to the waves crash at your patio foot step. Lounge in the peaceful solitude as the dolphins and whales play in your back yard. Search the horizon to Santa Cruz island in the distance. This beach cottage has views from everywhere. 3 bedrooms and 3 baths all tucked into privacy and a grand living area and cozy dining area. A large surrounding deck with views from every vantage point, keeps you outdoors to views miles of Santa Barbara beaches and vistas. This is the reason we crave to be at the beach in Santa Barbara and why we never want to leave. For information about this fabulous one of a kind Santa Barbara beach front home contact us. Available monthly for $20,000/mo in season.

Santa Barbara Jesusita Fire

The raging fire is now mostly burning in the wildland area where few structures exist and few people live. The worst it seems is past.

Aside from this unfortunate mishap, no lives were lost. A testament to the preparedness of local fire and emergency services. Only homes that were poorly mitigated for fire defense were damaged. We thank local and out of area fire crews and services in helping keep Santa Barbara safe from disaster.

There are currently 19 oceanfront properties for sale in Santa Barbara in the area from Goleta to Carpinteria. The prices range from $1,399,900 for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath second floor condominium in Carpinteria to $29,950,000. There are 2 oceanfront estates for sale at $29,950,000. The first is an estate on Padaro Lane. This estate features 1.7 acres with sprawling lawns extending to the sandy beach, a beautiful 4 bedroom contemporary home with a separate 2 bedroom guest house, and a pool for when one tires of swimming in the ocean. The other is also a beachfront contemporary.           

 It is on Fernald Point in Montecito. It features a stunning 5 bdrm house with an oceanfront pool, decks, and lawn on just over 1/2 acre. There are 7 properties for sale priced above $20,000,000, 1 in Hope Ranch priced at $19,500,000 - this is an incredible 13,500 s.f. Italian Villa set on a bluff top overlooking the ocean & islands with a pool & horse facilities, 1 at $11,900,000 (a fantastic new home reminiscent of old Cape Cod which could be purchased fully furnished), 1 at $8,900,000, 5  oceanfront homes in the $5,000,000 to $8,500,000 price range and 2 exquisite condominiums in a gated Montecito Oceanfront complex. Santa Barbara’s oceanfront real estate market remains extremely limited in its number of available properties for sale and highly sought after. It continues to be a rare and desirable investment.Santa Barbara’s main waterfront is a long stretch of coastline that is mostly commercial including Leadbetter Beach adjacent to the marina,  West Beach to Stearns Wharf with its dolphin fountain sculptured by local artist Bud Bottoms, onto Chase Palm Park with its charming carousel, and to East Beach known for its volley ball courts & tournaments. Extending further into Santa Barbara is Shoreline Park with fantastic views of the city, harbor, ocean, islands & mountains and into Montecito is Butterfly Beach across from the world renown Biltmore Hotel - a perfect place to enjoy the sunset. There are restaurants, shops, a path for biking, rollerblading, jogging, or enjoying a leisurely stroll, a Sunday art show, museums, and of course the ocean with all its fun activities! Santa Barbara’s waterfront is bordered by palm trees with the sparkling blue Pacific in one direction and the glorious mountains in the other. It is one of the most beautiful coastlines to be found! Santa Barbara’s Oceanfront remains a favored destination for people worldwide!

Santa Barbara, Montecito, and Hope Ranch have some of the finest examples of George Washington Smith architecture as he spent many years living in the Montecito area. Born Feb 22, 1876  George Washington Smith was raised in Philadelphia & studied painting at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  Later Smith attended Harvard University to study architecture.  

Around 1911, Smith married Mary Catherine Greenough and moved to Europe.  He traveled around the continent painting landscapes.  Just a few years later, Smith traveled to California where his paintings were on display in the Palace of Fine Arts at San Francisco’s Panama Pacific Exposition.   While in California he traveled south to visit friends in Montecito.  He loved the area so much, Smith decided to stay and build a home.  He modeled his Montecito Estate after farmhouses he had seen in Andalusia during a trip to Spain in 1914.
 
The home built in 1917 called Casa Dracaena was successful.  Neighbors were asking for him to design houses just like his.  Soon he stopped painting and took up architecture full time in Santa Barbara.  He remained in the Santa Barbara area until his death in 1930.  At that time George Washington Smith (GWS) designed over 80 estates in the Santa Barbara Area.   Since then Smith has been credited as being the father of Spanish Colonial Revival Style.   Many of the homes George Washington Smith designed are now a part of the National Register of Historic Homes. His “Casa Del Herrero” in Montecito was just designated a National Historic Landmark in January 2009. George Washington Smith’s vision has shaped Santa Barbara’s history and style. Estates designed by George Washington Smith are extremely limited in availability and quite coveted.

There are currently about a half dozen GWS estates for sale in the Santa Barbara area.

One particular estate currently for sale is Robledal. It was built in the early 1920’s for Milton Wilson. Wilson was one of the three partners credited for developing Hope Ranch Park.  Robledal is one of the finest homes created by George Washington Smith. It has incredible views of the Pacific Ocean & Channel Islands.  Robledal is a fantastic example of GWS architecture with his signature detailing such as wrought iron sconces, chandeliers, grates, tiled stairs, fireplaces, fountains, carved wood doors and ceilings. The beautiful oak studded estate (the Spanish translation of Robledal is oak grove)  In addition to the magnificent  main home there are two attached guest-apartments, and one detached guest cottage, a five car garage and staff apartment with two extra multi-use rooms. This rare offering consists of 8 acres with an adjacent parcel that could also be purchased. It is an equestrian’s dream as the trails lead right to the beach for oceanfront horseback riding! This is truly one of the prime Hope Ranch estates!For additional information on this exquisite George Washington Smith estate go to  http://estateinhoperanch.com

In yet another testament to the strength of the Montecito Real Estate Market, two properties across from Butterfly Beach have just entered escrow. One is a gorgeous Montecito Estate on Hill Road with 4 bedrooms, 6 baths and ocean, mountain and harbor views. The asking price was $18,800,000.

Also in escrow are the adjacent 2 lots that front Channel Drive - asking price of $8,000,000 for both lots together. This property (the house and lots) previously sold for $5,900,000 in 2003 prior to an extensive remodel. Overall about a 450% increase. Not bad for a 6 year holding period! Montecito Oceanfront real estate remains a rare and desirable commodity.

A brief analysis of the sales activity in Montecito shows twice as many pendings & solds for February as there were in January. March seems to be right on track with February in number of pendings and solds thus far however the average sold price for March is at $4,483,333 up from an average sold price of $3,035,714 for February! This positive Montecito Real Estate data is in line with the impressive statistics of 2008 where there was a substantial increase with the average sales price being 16% higher than in 2007.

Montecito remains a desirable destination for people from all over the world. Due to the geography of our area with it being bordered by the mountains on one side and the ocean on the other the number of properties are quite limited. Add to that the slow growth philosophy of the powers that be and one sees that Montecito Real Estate is a rare offering with ocean view and ocean front in even less supply. The desirability of our area for primary homes, luxury real estate, vacation homes, and investments remains stable. While many places in the country saw large decreases in property values, the Montecito Estate Market continues proving to be a solid investment. Santa Barbara Real Estate remains desirable and why wouldn’t it - we have ideal weather, breathtaking scenery, pristine beaches, fine dining, theatre, golf, boating, polo, wine tours, international appeal, and so much more. Whether vacation destination, primary residence, second home or pure investment, Montecito is a proven prime choice for the old real estate adage of location, location, location!

The Santa Barbara real estate market has proven itself through good markets and bad, that the old real estate tenet of , Location, Location, Location is still enforce!! The Santa Barbara properties market continues to out perform most markets in the US and the world for that matter. Just review many of our “Santa Barbara properties outlook” post on this site for proof.  Santa Barbara area homeowners are thankful for these facts. With all the negative national press about real estate, it is still a local phenomenon.

Althought the Santa Barbara real estate market will see little of it, not much detail has emerge from the Treasury department about $50 billion housing rescue plan, which has caused the big banks to temporarily halt foreclosures. J.P. Morgan Chase announced it would stop foreclosure proceedings, through March 6, “we will not add any new owner-occupied residential loans foreclosures that are held by JP Morgan Chase.” as reported by Diana Olick of CNBC and excerped here.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit committed to virtually the same Wednesday, before the House Financial Services Committee, and issued this statement, extending their foreclosure hold offs to March 12th. “Today’s announcement expands on Citigroup’s current foreclosure moratorium in where Citigroup does not initiate or finish a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower where Citigroup owns the mortgage, the borrower seeks to stay in the home, which is their primary residence, is working in good faith with Citigroup and has sufficient income for affordable mortgage debt.”

JP Morgan also says it will stop on loans they hold, but Citigroup is only acting on Citigroup owned loans. One of the largest impediments to foreclosure mitigation is the fact that most loans are held by outside investors. Which actually could be the blessing in disguise.

As for any new details on Geithner’s new plan, except for a haandful at the Treasury, none can expand on the recent leak that it would involve some sort of standard modification process that the government (read “US Taxpayers”) would subsidize.

But on top of all that rhetoric, came the announcement from the “Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)” along with the “Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)”. These are the ones who gave a report in December on re-default rates on mortgages that had been modified (nearly 50-60 percent!) that gave everyone a harsh reality check, that this yet again, poorly supervised or hastily put together program, simply forestalls the inevitable, and at taxpayers expense. And now because of all that concern, they are expanding their data, which, as we’ll see, is more wasted resources. Ultimately the market will prevail with or without programs paid by taxpayer money to manipulate it.

John Dugan, Director of the OCC said, “I’m hopeful that the numbers we collected already and the numbers we collect in the future, will help this going forward”. Unfortunately, statistical analysis is always in hindsight and only tells us if a program has worked or not, based on whose analyzing the data, and does nothing to ensure the program will wok at all, particularly in the case of brand new programs with no history of success or failure. So, by the time we figure out if any of this has worked, what’s done will be done, and we’ll have great detailed analysis of how clever we were to have paid to much for the program, and the added bonus of paying too much for the analysis of same. 

 ”We’ll then take the new categories and for each, figure out what was the re-default rate in each of those categories,” Dugan explained. This data of course would be very helpful to the government bean counters crafting a massive mortgage modification plan, and of course to homeowners who might otherwise rely on their own resourcefulness and help themselves out of their situation, but might now be induced to sit and wait for government entitlements, “expecting” to be saved by government, or worse, become resourceful in manipulating the goverment program itself, which has already been evidenced. (Didn’t Democratic Icon John Kennedy say “Ask not what your Country can do for you, ask what you can do for your Country. One of the greatest statement of US citizen’s right to self determination. What happened to that once prevalent American sentiment? The presumption that government needs to protect us from ourselves.) And of course in perfect harmony with this perfect storm of preposterous government, Mr. Geithner won’t get those stats until long after he’s announced his hastily constructed social mortgage plan. Dugan, however, assured, “I know for a fact they’re taking re-defaults into serious consideration.” Re-defaults we know are simply forestalled foreclosures that happen anyway, but only after the US taxpayers subsidize the stalling process, which in turn delays that housing inventory from becoming a performing asset, which of course is ultimately what the economy needs to be normalized.

The Santa Barbara Association of Realtors recently held its Real Estate & Economic Review & Forecast for the Santa Barbara real estate market at the Montecito Country Club. This review of the recent Santa Barbara Real Estate market dynamics, including the luxury real estate market, shows the median price has come down over the last 12 months, yet upon an analysis of past years, the 2008 median price is higher than the median price of 2004. The recent increase in number of sales at the lower end of the Santa Barbara Real Estate market has had a downward effect on the median price. However, looking at the 10 year period from 1996-2005, there was an amazing 303% increase in the median sale price of homes in Santa Barbara real estate market!  Santa Barbara Real Estate has proven to be an excellent long term investment. Historically it has doubled approximately every 10 years, so to buy now when we have just experienced a short term median price correction may be the smart move particularly in light of recent historically low mortgage rates which cannot last forever.

 Looking at the Montecito Estate market in the $2,000,000 - $4,000,000 price range there are currently 43 active homes for sale with 4 in escrow. This is a 10 month + supply. A 6 month supply of homes for sale is considered a balanced market for buyers and sellers with less being a seller’s market and more translating to a buyer’s market. Thus, this 10 month supply of Montecito Homes for sale currently offers some tremendous opportunities for buyers. Again, add to that the historic low interest rates and it may very well be the most opportune time to buy a Montecito Estate! Indications are it is now a Montecito Buyer’s Market! Historically, a rare occurrence.

With little press attention about this, as doom and gloom continues to remain the media focus, this appreciation rate is a testament to the stability of the Santa Barbara Real Estate Market and the desirability of our area for primary homes, luxury real estate, vacation homes, and investments. While many places in the country saw large decreases in property values, the Montecito Estate Market continues proving to be a solid investment.  Any homeowner or investor would be hard pressed to find such an increase in property value for this past year. Santa Barbara Real Estate remains desirable and why wouldn’t it - we have ideal weather, breathtaking scenery, pristine beaches, fine dining, theatre, golf, boating, polo, wine tours, international appeal, and so much more. Whether vacation destination, primary residence, second home or pure investment, Santa Barbara is a proven prime choice for the old real estate adage of location, location, location!

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2009 (SBIFF) runs in Santa Barbara, California from January 22 through February 1. Along with its idyllic Mediterranean climate and setting, the SBIFF has put Santa Barbara, California on the map, providing notoriety to Santa Barbara as a resort destination. Even through today’s market conditions, Santa Barbara view, oceanfront and estate properties have proven to be prime real estate holdings, including Montecito Estates, Oceanfront Properties, Hope Ranch Estates, and Santa Barbara Estates. Many in the film industry call Santa Barbara and Montecito home or have vacation homes in Santa Barbara.

Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara

This year there will be over 200 films screened including 21 World Premieres. This year’s festivities include the presentation of awards to Penelope Cruz, Clint Eastwood, Mickey Rourke, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Kate Winslet. Roger Durling of Santa Barbara, California is the SBIFF Director. This year’s theme is”Discover by Day and Be Dazzled by Night” promising a fun time of films, events, and parties. The SBBIFF 2009 guest director is David Fincher. He will discuss his films including his most recent work “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” starting Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie attended last year’s film festival in Santa Barbara where Angelina Jolie was presented with Outstanding Performance Award for “A Mighty Heart”. The films and events will take place at various venues throughout Santa Barbara including the historic Arlington Theater. There is speculation as to part time Montecito resident Oprah Winfrey making an appearance! Oprah purchased her Montecito Estate for $42,000,000  in 2000 and it is estimated to now be worth over $90,000,000. A testament to the relative strength of Santa Barbara and particularly Montecito real estate values even through down markets, which currently present a new round of buying opportunities.