Year-Over-Year (Year End) Market Update, Santa Barbara South County

February 8, 2023

February Greetings!

January started off with a burst of rain, and a flurry of real estate activity has followed. Our beautiful area is sparkling and thankfully had little damage, despite media reports. Per the County of Santa Barbara, our reservoirs are up to their ‘spill’ levels, which is great news. Over the fall and into the holidays, we saw a slowing in the real estate market both in the number of new listings and the number of sales, but now that the large storms have passed, there is a new energy in the market and it feels as though spring has sprung a bit early this year.

National Trends

On a national level, inflation continues to trend down as energy prices have leveled off after the holiday season. We saw the Fed raise rates 7 times over the last year, which slowed sales on a national level. It was widely anticipated the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by 25 basis points at their February meeting, and this is exactly what they did, as their 8th rate hike. If interest rates stabilize or potentially trend lower, we will continue to see high buyer demand going into the peak real estate months of spring and summer. Employment remains strong. Soft landing? We shall see. With low inventory, strong buyer demand, and lower rates, we have seen activity pick up considerably.

Santa Bar