January 2017 – First Quarter Client Newsletter

We had a solid year in 2016 with prices up 3.6 percent for the median priced house on the South Coast, growing from $1.1 million to $1.14 million.  For the entire year Berkshire Hathaway home sales were up, keeping the company in the number one position for both number of sales and dollar volume of sales compared to all local companies.  I was in the top 1 percent of agents across the country.  This is performance at the outstanding level.  I sold 18 homes in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Real Estate
The number of sales was down about 4 four percent for the year, and the inventory was up with about 20 percent more homes for sale than in 2015.  Inventory is still quite constrained.  Most of the sales were under $2 million. The over $5 million market has slowed.  Locally, there was a significant pick up of sales in November and December.  We’re watching closely as the year starts to see if this translates to a strong beginning to the 2017 market.

The Southern California Housing Economy
In 2016 Southern California median prices were up 9 percent compared to the year before according to PropertyRadar.com, so they are doing better than Santa Barbara, especially in the Los Angeles and Orange County markets.

Sincerely,

Scott Williams
CalBRE 00628741

P.S.  I have 39 years of experience in Santa Barbara, with more than 732 homes sold. Please recommend me to your friends.  Call (805) 451-9300, or email scott@scottwilliams.com.  All calls will be kept completely confidential.