Santa Barbara Real Estate Voice
| Jan 12th |
2011 Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Wrap up for The Peabody Elementary School District |
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2012
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Categories: Market Statistics / Updates, San Roque Neighborhood, School News & Information |
The main areas for the Peabody Elementary School District encompass the neighborhoods of San Roque, some of the Santa Barbara Foothills and a stretch of Downtown Santa Barbara West of State Street. For many people here in Santa Barbara, San Roque has become one of the quintessential "family neighborhoods" and has often been voted for as "Best Neighborhood" in a local paper's poll.
Much of the housing in The San Roque area consists of older character single family homes. Many of these homes are smaller in size running in the 900 to 1400 sqft range, although there are plenty of larger homes as well. One...
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| Mar 24th |
Are You an Expert Real Estate Agent in Santa Barbara? Know Your Community!! |
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2011
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Categories: Buyer's Resources & Advice, Random Thoughts & Opinions, Seller's Resources & Advice |
Be a True Real Estate Expert!
When looking for a great real estate agent, most buyers and sellers are not looking for someone to simply guide them through the A to Z process of paper work when it comes to real estate. This is in fact simply a given...but buyers and sellers (especially out of town buyers and sellers) are mostly looking to their agent as a knowledge source of the local schools, the local cultural scene, the "good and great" neighborhoods, information on local events, news and attractions...basically someone who knows Santa Barbara inside out. At least that is my...
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| Feb 17th |
So What Does $1 Million Buy You in Today’s Santa Barbara Real Estate Market? |
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2011
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Categories: Buyer's Resources & Advice |
As the Santa Barbara real estate market has come down in price over the last few years, it is interesting to now compare certain benchmark price points such as what $500,000 buys or $ 1 million or $2 million etc.
Overall in the last 12 months we have been relatively stable on prices with a small overall drop...so there has not been a huge change in the last 12 months. Nothing at least compared to 2007 - 2009 where we dropped a combined 25-40 % depending on exact neighborhood, home etc.
So what does $1 million buy you here in the Santa...
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| Nov 15th |
With These Incredibly Low Mortgage Rates, Is Now a Good Time to Buy Santa Barbara Real Estate? |
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2010
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Categories: Buyer's Resources & Advice |
For most of us, purchasing a home by timing the bottom of the real estate market would be the ideal.
With almost every buyer that I work with, there will be at least a few conversations about whether I feel we are near the bottom, the overall state of the market and inevitably whether I believe that prices will go lower or not. Unfortunately no one including myself has an exact answer to this.
What is true about our real estate market is the belief by many that the current affordability here in Santa Barbara is about as good as we will...
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| Jun 23rd |
What Questions You Need to Ask Your Santa Barbara Real Estate Agent |
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2010
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Categories: Buyer's Resources & Advice, Seller's Resources & Advice |
The decision to sell or buy a home here in the Santa Barbara and Montecito area is not a small decision based on the prices of homes that exist in our community. Because of this, if you are not careful in who you choose to represent you, you can be throwing away tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Often people will base their decision on which Realtor to use by whom they feel the most comfortable working with, whom they know personally and/or which Realtor is a great referral from someone they trust. All of these are logical and good...
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| Mar 17th |
Google and Real Estate Search Do Not Quite Get It!! |
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2010
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Categories: Buyer's Resources & Advice, Random Thoughts & Opinions, Santa Barbara |
Google is an amazing tool for so much of seemingly everything on the Internet. Not many will doubt this in my opinion and therefore for me there is no need here to elaborate too much. But what about real estate search?
Google obviously would like (love) to win the real estate search game. As far as I can see so far, to their dismay they are far from this goal. With all the technology out there and a few prominent aggregate sites such as Trulia and Zillow, Google is stepping up with a pretty simple result in property search...a red pin...
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| May 26th |
How is Santa Barbara’s Real Estate Market Doing Today? May 26th, 2009 |
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2009
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Categories: Market Statistics / Updates |
One of the most obvious questions posted to Real Estate Agents here in Santa Barbara these days is some form of the following...How is the overall market doing?
It is difficult to give one definite answer with regards to this question as there are many interpretations to this question. For that reason, I will just try and give an answer based on...
The most recent statistics
The current overall energy and pulse of the market
What buyers and sellers are both saying and doing
Let's start with...
Statistics
On average here in Santa Barbara CA. in a normal to strong real estate market, we see about...
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| Nov 9th |
Things to Do in Santa Barbara, California – The Waterfront |
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2008
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Categories: Santa Barbara Local / Things to Do, The Oceanfront Areas |
Whether you are a local, in town visiting family and/or friends, or here on vacation in Santa Barbara, California, there is never a lack of activities and things to do in our wonderful seaside resort community. Here below is the third installment in a series of articles that point out some of Santa Barbara's most prominent local attractions. Some of these will be cultural, some dining, some active pursuits and some I am still deciding on. This third installment will be focusing on...
Santa Barbara Waterfront:
The Waterfront runs along the coastline from Leadbetter Beach to Buttefly Beach. This scenic area is a natural fit for...
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| Oct 23rd |
5 Great Reasons Foreign Nationals are Buying Real Estate in Santa Barbara, California |
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2008
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Categories: Foreign Buyers & Sellers |
As the world has truly become global in the last 15 years, the wealthy are looking overseas to not just vacation but to also purchase real estate in resort areas in the U.S., especially on the coastline of California. In the last several years, I personally have been in contact with at least 10 international buyers. Savvy buyers are coming from Canada, Europe and beyond to take advantage of California's real estate investment opportunities.
Why is this the case?... There are several main reasons that foreign investors find California real estate so appealing?
Location, Location, Location - This is by far the biggest
Resort areas such as Santa Barbara...
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| Sep 26th |
Things to Do in Santa Barbara, California – The Mission District |
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2008
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Categories: Mission Canyon Neighborhood, Santa Barbara Local / Things to Do, The Upper East Neighborhood |
Whether you are a local, in town visiting family and/or friends, or here on vacation in Santa Barbara, California, there is never a lack of activities and things to do in our wonderful seaside resort community. Here below is the second installment in a series of articles that point out some of Santa Barbara's most prominent local attractions. Some of these will be cultural, some dining, some active pursuits and some I am still deciding on. This second installment will be focusing on...
Santa Barbara Mission District:
The Mission District is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in Santa Barbara and is home to the...
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| Sep 22nd |
Things to Do in Santa Barbara, California – The Downtown Area |
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2008
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Categories: Downtown Neighborhood, Santa Barbara Local / Things to Do |
Whether you are a local, in town visiting family and/or friends, or here on vacation in Santa Barbara, California, there is never a lack of activities and things to do in our wonderful seaside resort community. Starting today, I am going to write the first installment in a series of articles that point out some of Santa Barbara's most prominent local attractions. Some of these will be cultural, some dining, some active pursuits and some I am still deciding on. This first installment will be focusing on...
Santa Barbara Downtown Attractions:
The Downtown area is dominated by the main street in Santa Barbara, State...
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| Sep 15th |
Where is the Santa Barbara Real Estate Market Today? |
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2008
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Categories: Random Thoughts & Opinions |
Questions that are asked of me quite often these days are..."How is the market doing right now?...or Where do you think we are with the real estate market here in Santa Barbara?...or Do you think we have reached the bottom with the real estate market in Santa Barbara?"
As the Santa Barbara real estate market continued its torrent pace from 1998 through 1996, there were many "experts" along the way that predicted the peak at many various stages. Some as early as 2001 and all points in between up until 2007. Obviously none of them were correct until the early months of 2007.
Now on the flip-side of...
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Kevin Schmidtchen
Realtor - Sotheby's International Realty
1436 State Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Phone # 805-689-6877
[email protected]
Categories
- Luxury Real Estate
- The Oceanfront Areas
- Market Statistics / Updates
- Foreclosures & Bank Owned
- Short Sales
- Seller's Resources & Advice
- Buyer's Resources & Advice
- Foreign Buyers & Sellers
- Random Thoughts & Opinions
- School News & Information
- Santa Barbara Local / Things to Do
- Green Housing & Living
- Montecito
- Hope Ranch
- Summerland
- Goleta
- Carpinteria
- The Santa Ynez Valley
- Santa Barbara
- Downtown Neighborhood
- Samarkand Neighborhood
- San Roque Neighborhood
- The Mesa Neighborhood
- The Riviera Neighborhood
- The Upper East Neighborhood
- Campanil Hill Neighborhood
- Mission Canyon Neighborhood
- The Westside Neighborhood
