Central Coast: Full Sails Again for Santa Barbara Realtors

Spring flowers are blooming, the Pacific Ocean breeze is blowing, and South Santa Barbara home sales activity is picking up!  Central Coast resale agents are finding themselves busy again.  Traffic, escrows, listings and pricing in certain areas are all up, kicking the Central Coast’s spring selling season into gear.

The Beautiful Santa Barbara Real Estate Blog reported… Santa Barbara Real Estate through the end of March ‘12 for Montecito, Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria and Summerland:  Comparing the first 3 months of 2011 with the same period in 2012, sales are up about 35% with escrows up over 50% and the median sales price is up bit while the average sales prices is down a bit. Year-over-year the Sales Price to Original Price ratio is within 2% of where it was last year and the Days on the Market for sold properties is within 12 days of where it was in 2011.

An example of the Central Coast’s uplifting sales activity is City Ventures’ East Beach Collection in Santa Barbara.  The 48-unit attached townhome project is seeing impressive sales, with only 5 more to go before completion.  The project has sold 15 homes in 2012 (5 per month!).  The City Ventures marketing team attributes the strong homebuyer interest to the project’s unique location, quality product and the limited supply of new product currently available in the marketplace.  The East Beach Collection is four blocks from Santa Barbara’s famous State Street and four blocks to the ocean.  With no amenities and surrounded mostly by office buildings, the project is in the new hip, up-and-coming area (also referred to as the “funk zone”).

Source: Matt Power, Senior Marketing Consultant, (805) 845-2660

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Fresno, Spring in its Step?

This winter, Fresno homebuyer traffic is the best we’ve seen in 2+ years! Could it be due to Fresno’s declining unemployment rate?  Or, perhaps it’s the dry warm weather this season?  Either way, homebuilders active in the Fresno marketplace right now are welcoming the new interest from homebuyers with open arms as the spring selling season begins full bloom.

Median new home base prices are hovering around $110 per square foot, which is $60 per square less than peak values in 2006.

News You Can Use from the Fresno/Clovis Submarket…

Valley Builders Optimistic In Spite Of Housing Market: Despite a sea of foreclosures and bargain-priced houses for sale across the central San Joaquin Valley, homebuilders are still finding a reason to raise the walls and roofs on new homes… MORE

More on the Activity in Fresno’s New Home Market:  New home construction seems to be on an upswing in neighborhoods across the Valley. And builders are optimistic that the market is starting to turn. (This week’s) story in The Bee tells you what some Fresno homebuilders have done to get through the downturn and who is buying new, but it doesn’t cover everyone.

Here’s a look at what other builders in town have done to attract buyers along with more from homebuyers that we couldn’t squeeze into the final story… READ ON

Clovis City Council Oks Map Laying Out City’s Future:  A plan that lays out the future neighborhoods of Clovis was approved Monday (2/13) night by the City Council, despite fears from some rural residents that it won’t adequately protect their land from urban intrusion. …Rural residents who live on large lots east of the city say a proposed open-space buffer of 100 feet is not wide enough to shield their homes from the housing tracts of smaller-lot homes that would be allowed under the new general plan… READ ON or, WATCH VIDEO via KFSN.

California’s High-Speed Rail Project Continues despite Criticism: California’s high-speed rail project is already projected to take longer and be more costly than originally projected, but the obstacles facing it are not yet over. Governor Jerry Brown is trying to push the project through the Legislature this year, though… MORE

Source: Mark Utman, Marketing Consultant, (559) 449-4500

Window of Opportunity in Ventura County

Land Advisors’ Ventura County Team (comprised of Michel Faris, Randy Coe, and Richard Byrd) are pleased to offer an exciting new listing in the Ventura County submarket. The new ±8-acre listing, known as Northbank Meadows is a rare multi-family development opportunity in the highly desirable yet extremely supply constrained City of Ventura.

Historically, homes within Ventura County are highly sought after by homebuyers because of the County’s easy-going, high-quality beach lifestyle, in addition to its proximity to L.A. County job centers. Longstanding development constraints have kept Ventura County from over-development.  Amid the slow growth, land values in the submarkets are holding steady and homebuilders and developers are taking another glance at opportunities in the area as the macroeconomic environment improves.

County Home Sales Up; Median Price Falls via VCStar.comVentura County home sales increased slightly last month, while median prices continued to drop despite record-low mortgage rates… DataQuick reported that 561 homes sold in Ventura County in January — an increase of 2% compared with the same time last year. The sales include new homes and resold single-family homes and condos.  DataQuick also reported the median price of homes in Ventura County at $322,500, a 7.9% decrease compared with the same time last year. Read more

Source: Michel Faris, Marketing Consultant, (949) 852-8288 x14