In a year with great challenges, the 2018 housing market proved to be remarkably RESILIENT. Both Montecito’s and Hope Ranch’s high-end showed signs of record strength.
MONTECITO MARKET - Q4
BELOW YOU’LL FIND Q4 AND YTD STATS AND DETAILS, BUT FIRST… THE KEY TAKE-AWAYS:
Despite the tragic 1/9 debris flow, Montecito remains an incredibly desirable place to live; those that can afford to live anywhere in the world are still choosing Montecito. And it’s not just folks from LA or San Francisco coming here. We continue to see buyers from New York, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Hawaii and even a few from Europe.
While data doesn’t lie, sometimes it doesn’t take into account outlying factors. Though you’ll see that YTD sales are down approximately 20% in Montecito, we feel it’s important to remember that Montecito was physically closed in December and January, approximately 20% of the year, which affects those statistics. We feel positive as to how the market performed in 2018 and are looking forward to an even better 2019.
There were 19 properties on the market in the “red zone” that were sold this year; 2 of which were heavily impacted by the debris flow.
The high end finally started to sell again! After a very sluggish 2016 and 2017, sales over $10M began to rebound. There were only 7 sales total between 2016 and 2017 in Montecito. And yet 2018 saw 10 sales over $10M!
Even more good news; we know of one additional sale over $10M set to close early 2019… and a few other sales currently in the pipeline that we look forward to reporting in our 2019 Q1 report.
YTD SALES -21%
YTD sales were down 21%. In 2017, there were 186 sales and in 2018 there were 149 sales.
Q4 SALES -20%.
Q4 sales were down 20%. There were 50 sales in 2017 and 40 sales in 2018.
HOPE RANCH MARKET - Q4
BELOW YOU’LL FIND Q4 AND YTD STATS AND DETAILS, BUT FIRST… THE KEY TAKE-AWAYS:
Hope Ranch was already starting to see an uptick in sales towards the end of 2017, with 38% of the sales occurring in Q4 2017.
There was an increased demand in the beginning of 2018, some of which was spurred by the debris flow in Montecito and some of which was buyers that had been sitting on the sidelines realizing they couldn’t wait.
Hope Ranch saw 14 of 2018’s 37 sales in Q1 alone. Q2 had 9 sales; Q3 had 8 and Q4 closed out with only 5.
THE REAL STORY IS THE HIGH END IN HOPE RANCH.
Hope Ranch saw the highest number of sales over $10M in 2018, with 5 sales; the second best year for the high end was in 2007 when there were 4 sales.
2019 is already starting off to a great start for the high end in Hope Ranch, with sales at 4160 La Ladera for $14.8M and at 4445 Via Bendita for $16.438M.
YTD SALES +15%
2018 closed out 37 sales. This is up 15% from 2017.
Q4 SALES -61%
Q4 sales were down 61%. In 2017 there were 13 sales and in 2018 there were just 5 sales.
