This exquisitely remodeled home is open today! 623 Alston is near both the Upper and Lower Villages of Montecito with easy access to downtown Santa Barbara, too. Reminescent of a country home in the South of France, this home is a perfect blend of old world charm with today’s modern amenities. Charming features include leaded glass windows, high wood beam ceilings, antique inspired fireplaces, gleaming wood floors, gorgeous master suite with relaxing spa tub. French doors flow out to the expansive brick courtyard with beautiful gardens. Approx 3000 s.f.  with 3 bdrms and 3 full baths, formal living and dining rooms, kitchen, family room, breakfast nook, office/den. Just reduced to a great price of $1,595,000.  Hurry on this one!

Enchanting entry

I am pleased to announce a pocket listing in Montecito, California. This Montecito luxury home is located with easy access to the Upper or Lower Villages. This French Country home has a classic, vaulted roofline with stately fluted chimneys. The hedge and flower-lined walkway leads to the brick entry. The spacious living room boasts high beamed ceilings, hardwood floors and an antique inspired fireplace. The tastefully remodeled kitchen opens to a breakfast nook and a spacious family room  with a charming stone fireplace. The formal dining room and the breakfast area have French doors flowing to a delightful brick patio and lush grounds – ideal for entertaining large crowds or for more intimate gatherings. Thereare 3 bdrms and 3 full baths – the romantic master suite opens to a private patio complete with spa, one bedroom suite is upstairs separate from the others, and there is a wonderful office/library which could serve as a media room. Decorator colors and designer touches are found through out this home creating a perfect blend of casual elegance! A must see for those seeking a Montecito luxury home! For more information on this Montecito property or Santa Barbara

Bel Air Knolls Sunset

Spacious Santa Barbara home for sale  in the coveted Bel Air Knolls neighborhood – ideally located near downtown Santa Barbara and less than 2 miles to the Santa Barbara oceanfront where Hendry’s Beach and a wonderful beachfront restaurant await you!  Colorful semi-tropical landscaping greets you at the front of this stunning home. The interior entry has beautiful wood floors in a herringbone pattern and flows to a cozy sitting area overlooking the impressive living/dining room. Soaring ceilings and an abundance of windows frame the picturesque views. This stylish light and bright home features an expansive deck which can be accessed from either the dining room or the kitchen. It is a great place to enjoy the Santa Barbara sunset views with plenty of room for entertaining. The sun-lit kitchen has a large island with cook top, cabinets galore, a walk-in pantry, and an eat-in area for casual meals. There is also easy access to the deck from the kitchen for dining al fresco – as Santa Barbara’s mild climate welcomes this year round. The spacious master suite features a romantic fireplace surrounded by bookcases and high vaulted ceilings. The adjoining master bath has a spa tub, separate shower and lots of room with double sinks.  The master also has a walk-in closet and a deck of exotic mahogany – great to escape for a little quiet time. There are 2 additional large bedrooms with full baths and a den or home office. The lower level bedroom has treetop views and its own private deck. There is lots of off street parking and a 3-car garage which serves the hobbyist well. The 1/3 acre lot boasts lots of mature & drought resistant plants including beautiful pepper,oak, and palm trees – what Santa Barbara home would be complete without palm trees?  An exceptional opportunity at $1,300,000. For more details contact Pat Saraca at 805-560-9951, Distinctive Real Estate, Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara

Watched the Fourth of July fireworks from a magnificient bluff top location on the Mesa in Santa Barbara. This oceanfront (click to view Santa Barbara Ocean Front homes for sale) location is a prime spot for a Santa Barbara luxury home. Plans are in place for a gorgeous Tuscan Villa. This remodel opportunity is a rare offering. This locale has a unique orientation facing south and east over the Santa Barbara coastline allowing incredible sunrise views plus ocean, city, harbor, mountain, and island views. Just steps to Shoreline Park, Leadbetter beach – great for surfing and paddle boarding, Santa Barbara Harbor and Santa Barbara Yacht Club plus restaurants and shops. Also close enough for a stroll to State Street and downtown Santa Barbara. Directly in front of you is a favorite local surf spot, for your own live surfing extravaganza. Watch kayakers and paddle boarders from Santa Barbara Harbor, a regular Regatta of international visits from the most spectacular sporting yachts in the world, weekly sail boat races, occasional cruise ship visits and visits from the USS Ronald Reagan, a state of the art U.S. Naval Aircraft Carrier. You may also be delighted with the appearance of dolphins and whales! This is what Santa Barbara beach homes are all about! Build your dream home on one of the most spectacular view properties in Santa Barbara! For additional details on this fantastic offering go to www.BeachFrontSantaBarbara.comAct now and you can watch next year’s fireworks from your very own Santa Barbara beach front home!

The luxury home segment in Santa Barbara has seen a very active spring! Fourteen estate properties have closed escrow at the $5,000,000 +  price since April 1. This compares to 8 properties closing in this price range for the same time period last year. That is an astounding 75% increase in closed sales! Perhaps the money is coming out of gold and into real estate again! The highest priced sale is an oceanfront estate which sold for $16,250,000. Located in a guard gated community this gorgeous 7000 s.f. Cape Cod style home has 5 bdrms, 7 baths and 190’ beach frontage on 2+ acres. And yes it has a guest house and a home theater! Originally priced at $32,500,000 when it hit the market in 2008 – it sold at an impressive 50% discount – I’d say well worth the wait!

Another notable luxury estate that recently closed escrow is a 1930’s Dutch Cape on 3.5 acres with dramatic mountain and ocean views in Montecito. Located just a stone’s throw from Oprah’s little place this property was written about in a previous blog about Montecito ocean view estates! It came on the market at $23,900,000 a year ago and just closed escrow at an even $15,000,000. Some great deals have been made in the Santa Barbara luxury market. Sellers are showing lots of motivation as can be seen by looking at the list to sales prices. Watch for an update on the Hope Ranch estate market next!

Newly listed Santa Barbara luxury home for sale is in the desirable San Roque Park neighborhood.This spacious gem is on a beautiful tree-lined street. Enjoy the scent of jasmine and roses as you enter the flower lined brick walkway. An inviting front porch greets you where you can sit and take in the gorgeous mountain views. This coveted location is near a beautiful neighborhood park and Santa Barbara shops and restaurants. The large living room features coved molding, a wonderful picture window and a fireplace. The adjoining family & dining room flow out to a saltillo tiled deck overlooking the lush grounds. The chef’s kitchen has lots of room for creating gourmet meals and a charming breakfast nook in which to savor them. Specialty grocery stores are mere minutes from this home – so convenient! The master suite is on its own wing providing great privacy from the other two bedrooms. The huge yard is a gardener’s delight with an abundance of colorful flowers, plants, mature trees, lawn & patio areas, and a relaxing spa. Now is a fantastic buying opportunity as rates are incredibly low and predicted to go up. Offered at $1,280,000! Click here to view this home or search for other Santa Barbara luxury homes at http://santabarbarapocketlistings.com/

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 weather has been outstanding the past few days with the most incredible sunsets here in beautiful Santa Barbara. If you are considering purchasing a luxury home in Santa Barbara there may never be a better time with a great selection of properties for sale. There are approximately 180 properties for sale just in Montecito.The most expensive luxury home for sale in Montecito currently is a spectacular 1920′s Italian Mediterranean (click for details) estate on 7 fantastic acres listed at $29,000,000. Truly one of the finest Montecito Estates for sale. There also currently over 500  Santa Barbara homes for sale and many motivated sellers making this a wonderful opportunity to obtain your Santa Barbara dream home.

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!