Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice » Santa Barbara

New 3 Bed 2 Bath San Roque Real Estate Listing in Peabody School District – Price $775,000

kevinschmidtchen — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:27:59 +0000

Wonderful New Listing in San Roque

Exceptionally well-cared for remodeled single level 3 bedroom 2 bath home located in the Peabody School District. Located in a well established neighborhood in San Roque, mountain views, mature landscape, great street, minutes to downtown and uptown Santa Barbara.

Numerous upgrades including:

A/C and heating in 2011
Paint and landscape 2011
Sewer lateral in 2008
Roof, extension of home adding master and master bath plus dining in 1997
Remodeled kitchen 1997
New copper plumbing throughout 1997
Almost complete new electrical 1997.

For many, San Roque is Santa Barbara’s quintessential family neighborhood. The entire area is relatively flat and great for walking or biking and seemingly minutes to most all that Santa Barbara has to offer.

Address: 2949 Valencia Drive, Santa Barbara CA 93105

Price: $775,000

Santa Barbara Real Estate - San Roque

San Roque Real Estate - 2949 Valencia Drive Santa Barbara

View: Current Active Real Estate Listings Peabody School District

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Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

For more information on Real Estate here in Santa Barbara, Montecito and/or our surrounding areas, as well as any other aspects of life in the Santa Barbara area, please don’t hesitate to contact Kevin Schmidtchen at Sotheby’s Int’l Realty.

2011 Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Update for The Monroe Elementary School District

kevinschmidtchen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:29:06 +0000

The main areas of the Monroe Elementary School District encompass the neighborhoods of The Mesa, Campanil Hill and Yankee Farm and then stretches over and grabs a small swath of Downtown.

Monroe School Map - Santa Barbara

The Mesa area in Santa Barbara stretches from the Santa Barbara City College on the east and extends two and one-half miles to Arroyo Burro County Beach (or “Hendry’s/The Pit” to locals). The Mesa is an extremely desirable neighborhood and has often been voted the “Best Neighborhood” in a local paper’s poll.

The Mesa would be considered by most “a family neighborhood” although you get your mix of everyone it seems. Much of the housing on The Mesa consists of single family homes, but there are definitely numerous condo and apartment complexes as well as some scattered income properties (duplexes / triplexes).

On The Mesa the average price for a single family home tends to be between $700,000 and 1.1 million, but prices can easily go up to $2.5 million. So far this year (through the first week of December) there have been 33 Closed Sales on The Mesa area (in the Monroe School District) ranging in price from $525,000 to $1.55 million. Currently as of today there are 6 homes pending sale and 7 Active homes for sale in the Monroe School District on The Mesa. The active homes for sale range in price from $625,000 to $1,350,000.

The Campanil Hill area is located on the sea-cliff just outside the boundaries of Hope Ranch and is a gorgeous private feeling neighborhood filled with larger homes and estates. Most of these homes have expansive views of the ocean and Channel Islands and sit on nicely landscaped parcels of .5 acre to 6 acre lots. The entire area is relatively small and sits on a gently sloped hill.

In the Campanil Hill and Yankee Farm area the average price for a single family home tends to be between $1.1 million and $5 million. So far this year (through the first week of December) there have been 4 Closed Sales in The Campanil Hill area ranging in price from $1,485,000 to $4.85 million. Currently as of today there is 1 home pending sale and 3 Active homes for sale in the Monroe School District in The Campanil Hill area.

View: Current Active Real Estate Listings Monroe School District

Further Reading:

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Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

Santa Barbara Real Estate Benefits From Fixed Mortgage Rates Continuing Near Record Lows For 6th Straight Week

kevinschmidtchen — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:09:46 +0000

This weeks average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage continued to hover just above its record low. Freddie Mac reported this week that the rate on the ever popular 30-year home loan sat just below 4% at 3.99%. The record low for the 30-year mortgage rate was set about 9 weeks ago when it dropped to 3.94%.

The average rate of the 15-year fixed mortgage has been sitting around 3.27 %, down from 3.30 % the last few weeks. The record low for the 15-year mortgage rate was also set about 9 weeks ago at a low of 3.26 %.

Here in Santa Barbara, these low rates are helping to continue a fairly strong real estate market.

If you talk to most people in the business as well as active buyers and sellers, the overall thoughts are that the market is very steady with “lot’s pending and closing”. Buyers know the price points and when a home comes on the market that is priced well (at market), it seems to be going into escrow on average anywhere from 1-6 weeks after being listed. Some homes are coming on and even getting 2-3 offers in the first week.

The hottest part of the market seems to be in the lower end from around $300,000 to $750,000. Often we are seeing these well priced homes sell within 1-2 weeks. The second hottest part of our real estate market is then from around the $750,000 to about $1.5 million. I would then say that the slower part of our market seems to be in the $1.5 to $3 million price point, mainly because of lack of new inventory.

View: Santa Barbara Real Estate Listings $750,000 to $1.5 million

View: Santa Barbara Real Estate Listings $250,000 to $750,000

Further Reading:

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Search: The Santa Barbara Area MLS

For information on Real Estate here in Santa Barbara, Montecito and/or our surrounding areas, as well as any other aspects of life in our area, please don’t hesitate to contact Kevin Schmidtchen at Sotheby’s Int’l Realty.

How To List and Sell Your Santa Barbara Home Without Sitting on The Market for Months!!

kevinschmidtchen — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:22:03 +0000

As a Realtor, I take part in numerous daily discussions on various topics about our real estate market here in the Santa Barbara area. Fortunately for all of us, even with the overall craziness in our country’s economy, we live in an area where the real estate market is still fairly strong and homes continue to sell.

A seller who is reading this and who has a home that’s sitting on the market for a while might beg to differ... But, most certain the reason their home is sitting and not selling has a lot less to do with our real estate market than they may think.

Right now, getting a loan can be very tough and the hoops that certain buyers are having to go through to simply get an approval to buy a home is difficult. Beyond this fact, the reality is is that there are a lot of buyers out there in our market looking at homes and buying homes.

So how does a seller list and get their home sold quickly?

The #1 reason is price. It is as simple as that.

Unfortunately, many sellers do not want to come to terms with the value of their home and they are not listening to their Realtor and/or what the market is telling them and therefore are over pricing their homes. to simply sit on the market. The problem with this is the following:

buyers are very educated these days and understand price points and value
buyers feel no rush to jump on a particular home

Because of this, you as a seller have to attract buyers to your home, and the #1 way to attract a buyer is to price your home at market value for what it is worth. If you can do this, along with having your home clean and presentable and available to show, your home will sell.

It is fortunately as simple as that for us here in the Santa Barbara area. Buyers are out looking and with the incredible low interest rates and the confidence in our area, they are willing and ready to buy.

Further Reading:

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Search: The Santa Barbara Area MLS

Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

Very Nice Referral from Recent Client – Santa Barbara Real Estate, The Mesa

kevinschmidtchen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:30:45 +0000

To whom it may concern :

“I, Robert Hay, wish to acknowledge the excellent service I received from Kevin Schmidtchen at Sotheby’s Realty. I have lived in either Montecito or Santa Barbara since 1954 and my family has or has had deep ties in businesses and in charities throughout the town. I wanted to sell my beautiful house at 104 Vista Del Mar Drive and after giving it a good try in the summer, and fall of 2010 I took it off the market. I remember years past how Kevin would send me updates on The Mesa real estate and he seemed on the ball so this spring of 2011 I decided to list my property with him. I wanted someone who was motivated, a hard worker, and smart. Kevin was all this and more.

I believe he listed my house a the right price and his photos and marketing strategy in my opinion were very good. We sold my home yesterday and I have to say working with Kevin has been a real pleasure. I isn’t so easy to sell a house these days and Kevin spent a lot time in explaining things to me and was very professional.

My friends and family are impressed and one close friend told me if he is going to list his house he would like to use Kevin. I wish Kevin lots of luck.”

What Seller Incentives Entice Buyers the Most in Today’s Real Estate Market?

kevinschmidtchen — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 20:48:16 +0000

In today’s real estate market here in the Santa Barbara area, sellers can find themselves in a serious situation with no offers in site from buyers. If you’re trying to sell your home, are confident in your realtor and you have priced your home very well, but still find your home struggling to get offers…adding Buyer Incentives might prove to be a road to success.

Buyer incentives are simply perks that you as a seller can offer to an eventual buyer. These

incentives that end up having the most power to get your home sold tend to be money related perks

that actually fill a real need for the average home buyer. Here are a few simple and

easy incentives a seller could consider offering to a new home buyer if they are having a hard time

getting their home sold:

Interest rate buy-down. Paying points towards the new loan that a buyer will be getting can go a long way. This is a cash payment to the lender that simply will reduce the interest rate for the buyer and thus strike right at the heart of most buyer’s concerns when buying a home…$$$. Depending on the loan amount, buying a half point to a point here in Santa Barbara will usually range around $2-6,000 depending on the loan amount. Seller-paid rate buy-downs not only save buyers money on their monthly payment over the entire lifetime of their loan, but sometimes these seller-paid points can be tax deductible.
Credit at closing. For many buyers these days, getting a loan is the biggest obstacle and struggle…not finding the right home. After securing the loan and potentially depleting reserves for many buyers just to come up with the down payment, there is not much $$ left over for some basic upgrades such as painting, new flooring etc. Offering a credit to the buyer upon close for such items goes a long way not in just the pocket book, but the overall gesture can help secure a buyer that is on the borderline.
HOA dues credit. If you are selling a home that is part of a homeowners’ association (HOA) that charges monthly dues, alleviating a new buyer of this payment for a timeframe for around a year can do wonders with a buyer’s psyche. There is a huge laundry list of costs for new home buyers as far as mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance etc. Alleviating one of these such as a year of paid HOA dues again helps not just in the pocket book, but also because of the gesture. Depending on the unit, here in Santa Barbara most HOA dues fall somewhere in the $250 to $450 per month. Higher end condo units with more pools, facilities or prime locations tend to be more in the $500-750 per month range.

Further Reading:

Subscribe: Receive Personal Listings of Santa Barbara Real Estate

Search: The Santa Barbara Area MLS

Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

How Many Santa Barbara Real Estate Closed Sales are Bank Owned? Update August 2011

kevinschmidtchen — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:46:06 +0000

Here are the latest statistics for real estate sales in Santa Barbara proper for August 2011. The shaded area with an ‘X’ states whether the property was a bank owned (REO) sale or not. Although bank owned foreclosures seem to get a lot of the news, the vast majority of sales are still traditional sales in the Santa Barbara area. Additionally, most of the REO’s tend to be at the lower end of the price scale.

Further Reading:

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Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

Santa Barbara, Montecito and Hope Ranch CORT Report on Yearly Real Estate Market Price Changes

kevinschmidtchen — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:53:29 +0000

Here are some of the latest statistics for the CORT reports for real estate here in Santa Barbara, Montecito and Hope Ranch CA. These statistics give a quick overview of comparative price changes in the real estate market in the month of July for the last 8 years.

Further Reading:

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Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

Santa Barbara Real Estate Median Price Trends Year over Year 2004 Through 2011

kevinschmidtchen — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:29:26 +0000

Here is a very informative graph that lays out the monthly price trends since 2004 up through July 2011. These statistics are for Santa Barbara proper and do not include other areas such as Goleta, Carpinteria, Montecito etc.

Further Reading:

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Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

Great Opportunity for New Condo Development in Downtown Santa Barbara

kevinschmidtchen — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 15:59:57 +0000

If you are looking for a new condo / townhome to purchase in the downtown area of Santa Barbara, most of the time the options start at around the $700,000 price point with many of the units around the $900,000 to $1.3 million price range. For the first time in many years, there is a great new complex in the downtown area (The East Beach Collection) being developed right now with units selling from $380,000 to $450,000.

In total there are 48 units within the East Beach Collection with 8 selling at market rate (no restrictions) and 40 units selling “below market” since they are only available to be purchased by homeowners that are working in the South County of Santa Barbara. It is not an affordable program and it is not income restricted. The true caveat is that the buyer has to be a home owner and be working in the South County. This eliminates any investors, family members buying for their children going to University, second homes etc.

The design of the units are going to be Spanish/Contemporary town homes with 2 car garages, patios, relatively low HOA fees and the project is a LEED Certified Community complete with individual solar panels. Most units are 2 bed 2.5 bath around 1200-1400 sqft. Scheduled completion is August and September 2011 for the first 2 phases with 2 more additional phases shortly after this.

For me as a real estate agent, this is one of the better condo buys I have seen in the last several years for the right buyer.

Further Reading:

Thank you for reading. I hope you find Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice informative. Please feel free to contact me or comment below with any thoughts.

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