For the Santa Barbara Real Estate area East of State St area the Median Sales price through April 15 has been $1,195,000 which is up about $150,000 at this time. The sales however are down from 60 last year at this time to the current number of 37. This difference becomes even more evident when we see that the numbers of listings is up to 183 this year from the 132 of last year. The Median List price is down slightly this year to $1,499,000 from the ’07 mark of $1,519,000 but the gap between List Price and Sales Price was even larger last year than it is currently.
With the Median Sales price up for the area it tells me that the homes farther down in the price level are the ones that are not currently selling. This group of people would generally be more susceptible to market fluctuations and so at present are not participating in the buying for the year.
The gap between the current Median Sales price of $1,195,000 and the current Median List price for the entire inventory of $1,499,000 is almost $300,000. This means that the gap between the two prices is approximately 13%.
For Santa Barbara Real Estatearea of East of State St area through April 15 there have been almost half the numbers of sales as there were in the previous year. The Median Sales price is also down from $775,000 last year to the current $699,000. At present there really is not gap between the Median List price of $712,000 and the Median Sales price of $699,000 but this is the same condition that existed last year at this time.
Unlike other areas that have seen a huge rise in the inventory the East of State St district is only slightly ahead with 57 listings this year compared to 48 last year. With this modest increase in the numbers of listings the Median List price has declined from $795,000 last year to the current $712,000. I keep thinking that the condo market will start to rebound but so far that is not the case.