Home appreciation anything but standard across area.

Publication: Santa Barbara News-Press (Santa Barbara, California) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Santa Barbara News-Press

Byline: Maria Zate

Mar. 5--The median home price on the South Coast reached a record $1.25 million in 2005, with appreciation topping 24 percent -- the highest gain posted for the region over the past decade.

But as many sellers learned, home values didn't rise equally across all neighborhoods. For those trying to sell in the Goleta area last year, it was a rude awakening that prices were not going up 2 percent a month as the South Coast median suggested.

Buyers and sellers in the wealthy enclaves of Montecito and Hope Ranch, however, had a different experience, as sales of multimillion-dollar "high-end" homes dominated activity and price gains in 2005.

The price difference between homes in Montecito and Hope Ranch and the rest of the South Coast has widened in the past 10 years, illustrating the erosion of the area's middle class.

While the median price has reached an astronomical level and the number of homes considered affordable...

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