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!

According to the top California foreclosure tracking resource, which tracks every California foreclosure and provides daily auction updates, and has issued its monthly California Foreclosure Report for May 2010. Foreclosure filings, outcomes and inventories dropped overall from April to May. Foreclosure filings have declined substantially year-over-year with Notice of Default filings down 43.3 percent and Notice of Trustee Sale filings down 35.8 percent. The only significant increases from the prior year were Cancellations, up 141.3 percent, Sales to 3rd Parties, typically investors, up 75.4 percent, and Time-to-Foreclose, up 30.5 percent from May 2009.

Santa Barbara had 208 notice of trustee sales for May of 2010, down from 273 the same month last year. We have participated in several of these sales and the speed with which the REO are moving and the processing of these sales has improved dramatically. Banks are better equiped and more familiar with the process and the REO buyers are better informed and pepaired as well. This all bodes well the for the Santa Barbara real estate market, California and the nation as we are moving towards a market normalization as this inventory is absorbed. Purchase loan rates are some of the lowest in years once again and prices are still very favorable, which is a combination seldom seen in and real estate market. As more loan product becomes available and lenders get back to favorable lending practices, markets are stabilizing as show by these Santa Barbara foreclosure and state wide foreclosure numbers. For a customized list of the best forclosure properties available in Santa Barbara, contact us here and we will email you the current list.

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 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.

This expansive Montecito estate compound is situated on one of the most desirable Montecito estate parcels in the Santa Barbara estates market segment. This magnificent Montecito estate offers spectacular ocean, island, harbor, city and mountain views, a very unique combination, all from a "close in" elevated vista close to the Montecito lower village on Coast Village Road in Montecito as well as the upper village on East Valley Road in Montecito. Perched on the most sought after Montecito estate parcel in the desirable Pepper Hill neighborhood, with its awe inspiring sweeping view vistas from all vantages within the gated compound, this rare Santa Barbara estates offering has not been available for 15 years and has been extensively updated within that time to become one of the premier Montecito estates offerings within the Montecito real estate market place. 

The Santa Barbara real estate market, estates offerings has rarely seen an estate property of this magnitude within the Montecito estates for sale market segment at any price point, much less below the $10 million ceiling within the last 8 years. Montecito estate properties like this are truely rare indeed, particularly in the Montecito Cold Springs Schol District. View details and over 30 photos of this Montcito estate for sale. This Premier Montecito estate is offered at $8.5 million.

This quintessential Montecito view estate includes 5+ bedrooms, 4 full and 3 ½ baths, with full guest suite. Detached opulent office, work shop and fire placed entertainment area. Gated entry. Pillared stone lined motor court. Two 2+ car garages. And gracious, matured landscaped grounds. An extraordinary Montecito estate situated on one of the most desirable Montecito estate parcels, with a prime location close to Upper and Lower Montecito Villages.

Below is a brief list of all Montecito homes for sale in the Montecito Union School District. The graphic is linked to a page with photos and details of all 103 single family homes available in the Montecito Union School area. The Montecito Union School District homes for sale currently offer greater diversity and more total homes for sale as compared to Montecito’s Cold Spring School District. Overall, the Montecito real estate market has maintained a very strong performance since what is considered the real estate market peak in 2005. Montecito properties median pricing has sustained a positive price growth throughout an overall National real estate market downturn. This bode quite well moving forward as traditionally stronger real estate markets are the quickest to return to even more positive appreciation performance. Montecito real estate has proven to be a true "blue chip" real estate market performer while other markets have become relatively soft.

Here is a link to all 103 Montecito properties now available in the Montecito Union School District.

Santa Barbara properties, privately offered Santa Barbara estates, Santa Barbara ocean front for sale, Montecito estates, and the signature property Santa Barbara properties market, is one which requires well informed local expertise and knowledge, crucial to successful acquisition and sale of these rare estates. Custom searches of Santa Barbara properties on the beach, Santa Barbara estates, Montecito properties for sale, Hope Ranch real estate, Carpinteria beach estates information and anaylsis of Santa Barbara CA homes for sale, is available at this site and http://www.RareEstates.com, a fine home sale transaction network, with specialized resources and knowledge of unadvertised Santa Barbara properties and qualified Santa Barbara estates property investors. For exclusive comprehensive analysis and information about Santa Barbara ocean front for sale, privately offered Montecito estates, Santa Barbara estates, or the Hope Ranch properties, inquire here.