An International Affair

Just a hop, skip, and a jump across the pond...and then all the way over to the West coast - yesterday, our fantastic affiliates at Mayfair International Realty paid us a lovely visit here in Montecito! Along with Village Properties' founder, Renee Grubb, we were fortunate enough to network with our guests, Managing Director Nick Churton and Director Annette Reeve. Much of the day was spent discussing advertising and press opportunities, as our exclusive collaboration with Mayfair presents the unique advantage of superb exposure to the global market. With member firms dating back to 1750 and covering every aspect of modern estate agency, land agency and property related professional services, Mayfair blends multiple disciplines with outstanding expertise and geographical supremacy. The Mayfair Group brings together all the very best independent firms to make a formidable force in property services. Over 300 hundred UK offices working in 47 counties, plus 150 offices active across North America and Australia, all have one aim in common – to provide the best possible property service where you live or would like to live.

So, we took the best to tour the best of our beautiful town. Throughout the day, we explored a variety of Village's properties including the romantic Villa di Serenita, charming Brookside, and one of our newest listings, enchanting Garden Lane. Of course, a proper experience of Santa Barbara would not be complete without a stop at the El Encanto Hotel for a delicious lunch! We wanted to thank our UK visitors for an enjoyable visit, we hope that our adoration for Santa Barbara and Montecito rubbed off on you and left a lasting impression!

Mayfair6-3

To find out more about our premier affiliates at Mayfair International Realty, click here

Montecito Real Estate is Heating Up!

View fullsize

In the Montecito Journal's Real Estate View, published the week of February 21, author Michael Phillips makes sense out of the Heat Index for Montecito. The article explains that the heat index measures present demand for single-family homes in multiple price sectors and scores are compared to those from a year ago. Astonishingly, today's heat score is 378, which reflects a 302% increase over last year's. While the under $1 million range saw an enormous gain with a score of 250, the luxury markets of $2-3 million and $3-4 million saw encouraging gains with scores of 25 and 26 respectively. Rising prices was also a topic of interest in the article, stating that despite a demand-supply imbalance, resulting in a thin market, prices are rising and buyers are acting quickly on exciting opportunities. December marked the 10th consecutive nationwide monthly home price increase at 9%. However, Montecito real estate price increase far exceeded that number, with home prices rising 25%! As we enter into the Spring and Summer seasons, Riskin Associates hopes to continue to see gains across all price ranges.

Southern California Median Home Prices Hit 4 Year High

The LA Times reported today that the median home price in Southern California hit its highest point in nearly four years as buyers compete for fewer homes. The median is up over 8% from this time last year, and has been increasing steadily for six consecutive months. Last month's sales were also up 13.8% over July 2011, with approximately 20,500 properties sold throughout the six-county region.

While home prices in Montecito don't quite compare to the Southern California media price of $306,000 (according to DataQuick), we have been seeing full price or multiple offers in some high-demand price ranges. And as we reported last week, the high-end market at $10+ million is seeing a local resurgence.