America's hottest emerging real estate market is idyllic but expensive Santa Barbara, according to a new report.
The Santa Maria-Santa Barbara metro on the California coast, where a typical home sells for nearly $1.8 million, ranks among the U.S. housing markets in the Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com's 2024 Winter Emerging Housing Market Index. Shined at the top of the list.
The index considers housing market data, economic vitality, and lifestyle indicators to highlight emerging housing markets offering a high quality of life and future home price growth.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara was followed by Jefferson City, Missouri, and Canton-Masillon, Ohio.
The typical home price in America is approximately $383,000 as of December 2023, far below Santa Barbara's median listing price of $1,795,000.
Although prices in the city are “well out of range for many potential buyers,” it remains a popular market, the report said.
Homes were on the market for 52 days in December, nine days less than the national average. The number of homes sold for the month also increased by nearly 14%.
The report said about 80% of online views of properties in the city in the fourth quarter came from outside the metro, with “particular interest” coming from Los Angeles, followed by San Jose and San Francisco.
Additionally, 3.3% of listing views in Santa Barbara were from shoppers outside the United States, “suggesting international demand is putting pressure on already high prices,” WSJ/ said the Realtor.com report.
According to Mortgage, to buy a $1.8 million home with a 20% down payment (or $360,000), a homebuyer would need at least about $425,000 a year to take out a 30-year mortgage at a 6.9% interest rate. He says he needs to earn money. I purchased a budget calculator from Freddie Mac.
Buying for that amount would require a jumbo-rate loan in Santa Barbara County, which carries a higher interest rate than a conventional mortgage, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Ultimately, buying a typical home in the metro will require monthly payments of more than $9,800.
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