September 2012 
There are 18 blog entries for September 2012.
Sunday Opens (9/30)
Sunday, September 30th, 2012 at 4:11am. 172 Views, 0 Comments.
Another 80+ weekend day here as October nears, and you're starting to think: Santa had better come to MB in a swimsuit.
It's a funny time for listings. Who chooses to launch in (basically) October? But we've got an intriguing new crop. That includes 2 in prime Tree Section locations.
To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or sub-region of MB by clicking the title on a column.
Or click here for the new-format Beach Reporter list of opens.
If you're thinking about getting into the market as a buyer or seller, please consider asking MB Confidential author Dave Fratello for help. For more, see MBC's Need an Agent?" page.
Tree Section
2400 Palm (4br/5ba, 3100 sq. ft.) is a classy and surprisingly warm…
It's a funny time for listings. Who chooses to launch in (basically) October? But we've got an intriguing new crop. That includes 2 in prime Tree Section locations.
To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or sub-region of MB by clicking the title on a column.
Or click here for the new-format Beach Reporter list of opens.
If you're thinking about getting into the market as a buyer or seller, please consider asking MB Confidential author Dave Fratello for help. For more, see MBC's Need an Agent?" page.
Tree Section
2400 Palm (4br/5ba, 3100 sq. ft.) is a classy and surprisingly warm…Another Go at 217 9th
Saturday, September 29th, 2012 at 12:40am. 202 Views, 0 Comments.
Quitters?
No, after a 2-month break, the sellers of 217 9th may really be sellers.
We mentioned this one the other day in "The Year's Quitters," noting that the property had been offered for lease after 6 months of not selling.
But now they've brought it back to market almost $500k lighter than before, at $2.500m.
And this time they're using a local and prominent agent, a change from the first time out.
That'll help, but what really sells is the right price. And pricing this little high-fashion SFR (3br/3ba, 1725 sq. ft.) is no easy task.
Yes, very modern/green. Cool. Ocean views. In the center of town.
But it's still a tough fit. The alley. The bedrooms that bleed into little bathrooms. The style's not for everyone.
This one surprised us with its $3.0m sale…
No, after a 2-month break, the sellers of 217 9th may really be sellers.
We mentioned this one the other day in "The Year's Quitters," noting that the property had been offered for lease after 6 months of not selling.
But now they've brought it back to market almost $500k lighter than before, at $2.500m. And this time they're using a local and prominent agent, a change from the first time out.
That'll help, but what really sells is the right price. And pricing this little high-fashion SFR (3br/3ba, 1725 sq. ft.) is no easy task.
Yes, very modern/green. Cool. Ocean views. In the center of town.
But it's still a tough fit. The alley. The bedrooms that bleed into little bathrooms. The style's not for everyone.
This one surprised us with its $3.0m sale…
Close the Books on 849 17th
Thursday, September 27th, 2012 at 2:18pm. 199 Views, 0 Comments.
What could you do with an 8000 sq. ft. lot in the Martyrs area?
Someone just paid $1.715m for 849 17th, apparently with their own answer in mind.
Do you keep the odd, dated, 1960 house with the 5 small br (and 2000 sq. ft.), or go big?
There's some charm to the C-shaped original ranch house, with its central, grassy "courtyard" space. (See our mid-August review.) But this longtime rental is nowhere near the optimal use of the land here in 2012.
It would be easy to rebuild and wind up with a far better house and yard. If you don't mind the land cost near $2m. Or being right across the street from a parking lot.
Hey, they think they can make it work – they should give it a go.
Now that this one is closed up, it's interesting to note again that nearby…
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| 849 17th |
Do you keep the odd, dated, 1960 house with the 5 small br (and 2000 sq. ft.), or go big?
There's some charm to the C-shaped original ranch house, with its central, grassy "courtyard" space. (See our mid-August review.) But this longtime rental is nowhere near the optimal use of the land here in 2012.
It would be easy to rebuild and wind up with a far better house and yard. If you don't mind the land cost near $2m. Or being right across the street from a parking lot.
Hey, they think they can make it work – they should give it a go.
Now that this one is closed up, it's interesting to note again that nearby…
The Year's Quitters
Tuesday, September 25th, 2012 at 1:59pm. 167 Views, 0 Comments.
Though 2012 has smelled like a seller's market for much of the year in Manhattan Beach, there's no such thing as 100% success.
We'll take a look at several listings that have quit this year.
Some clearly did not suit the market, some were overpriced, and some just got yanked due to the sellers' own change of circumstances – like not finding anything worth trading up or down to in a low-inventory market. (The math on that would be: No inventory = No sale.)
No doubt we'll see some again next year.
217 9th (3br/3ba, 1725 sq. ft.) didn't surprise us this time.
We've noted before that this modern/green SFR surprised us with its $3.0m sale when new in 2007. We were prepared to be shocked again if it traded this year, but didn't really expect it.
This home residence…
We'll take a look at several listings that have quit this year.
Some clearly did not suit the market, some were overpriced, and some just got yanked due to the sellers' own change of circumstances – like not finding anything worth trading up or down to in a low-inventory market. (The math on that would be: No inventory = No sale.)
No doubt we'll see some again next year.
217 9th (3br/3ba, 1725 sq. ft.) didn't surprise us this time.We've noted before that this modern/green SFR surprised us with its $3.0m sale when new in 2007. We were prepared to be shocked again if it traded this year, but didn't really expect it.
This home residence…
Weekend Opens (9/22-9/23)
Saturday, September 22nd, 2012 at 4:15am. 151 Views, 0 Comments.
As luck would have it, this weekend almost all the new listings are in the Sand Section.
Appropriate enough, since Summer refuses to die this September. (Yay!)
Remember 2010? If we'd had only the number of true Summer days in all of 2010 that we've had in half of September 2012, no one would remember 2010 as the "Bummer Summer."
Fog rolled in Friday for a bit, but luckily after Space Shuttle Endeavour had passed overhead. (See "Shuttle Over Manhattan.") Here's our video taken from 2nd St., MB:
The Stanley Cup and Space Shuttle in MB in the same year. Hey hey!
Although, that's the last shuttle, and the NHL is locked out... Yo, go rain on some other parade.
To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or…
Appropriate enough, since Summer refuses to die this September. (Yay!)
Remember 2010? If we'd had only the number of true Summer days in all of 2010 that we've had in half of September 2012, no one would remember 2010 as the "Bummer Summer."
Fog rolled in Friday for a bit, but luckily after Space Shuttle Endeavour had passed overhead. (See "Shuttle Over Manhattan.") Here's our video taken from 2nd St., MB:
The Stanley Cup and Space Shuttle in MB in the same year. Hey hey!
Although, that's the last shuttle, and the NHL is locked out... Yo, go rain on some other parade.
To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or…
Shuttle Over Manhattan
Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 11:35pm. 179 Views, 0 Comments.
Sometimes local real estate is exciting, other times it's what's flying over our local real estate that's exciting.
Friday the Space Shuttle Endeavour toured all over California. Just minutes before touching down at LAX, it buzzed Manhattan Beach and Hermosa. We caught it from the South End and made this little video (45 seconds), including the excited cheers of neighbors as the spacecraft flew overhead.
On a personal note, your blog author here (Dave) goes a ways back with the Shuttle program. With dad having worked on the engines, we had early, advance exposure to the program in our family, even before the final designs were hammered out, or flying models built.
So it was quite something to witness the final flying moments of the last shuttle built.
…
Friday the Space Shuttle Endeavour toured all over California. Just minutes before touching down at LAX, it buzzed Manhattan Beach and Hermosa. We caught it from the South End and made this little video (45 seconds), including the excited cheers of neighbors as the spacecraft flew overhead.
On a personal note, your blog author here (Dave) goes a ways back with the Shuttle program. With dad having worked on the engines, we had early, advance exposure to the program in our family, even before the final designs were hammered out, or flying models built.
So it was quite something to witness the final flying moments of the last shuttle built.
…
High Expectations on 2nd
Friday, September 21st, 2012 at 4:59am. 179 Views, 0 Comments.
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| 416 2nd |
Your blog author (Dave) used to live down by the house. We'd amble by. It's a marvel. The folks living there were nice. Great vibes.
Obviously, the home's a huge labor of love. French-inspired and literally loaded with features and amenities from overseas. Very old stuff, mixed with very new.
But we never got inside.
There were long rumors that it could be had for a $4m-ish number. They put it on the Martys tour (Sophisticated Snoop) in 2011. (Word to the wise: If a home's on the Martyrs tour, the owners are probably thinking of selling.) We missed the Snoop!
Did we know, before this week, that the home nears…
Quick Median Price Update
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 8:25pm. 186 Views, 0 Comments.
We last really looked at median prices at the midpoint of the year. Let's check in quickly before Q3 closes in a couple weeks, when we can do a nerdier post with graphs and charts.
First off, in case you missed the last couple references to 2012 medians, see "Sales Data for First Halves of '06-'12" and "More Median Price Data, 2006-2012." You'll see what we mean by "nerdy" there.
So how are things now?
Median prices still don't show much of a hot market, but at least we can say prices aren't down now – as they were, surprisingly, at the midpoint this year.
We're going to compare nearly 9 months of 2012 data against full-year data from 2011.
2012 (thru 9/18): 259 sales, median price: …
First off, in case you missed the last couple references to 2012 medians, see "Sales Data for First Halves of '06-'12" and "More Median Price Data, 2006-2012." You'll see what we mean by "nerdy" there.
So how are things now?
Median prices still don't show much of a hot market, but at least we can say prices aren't down now – as they were, surprisingly, at the midpoint this year.
We're going to compare nearly 9 months of 2012 data against full-year data from 2011.
MB Citywide Data - SFRs
2011 (full year): 320 sales, median price: $1.450m2012 (thru 9/18): 259 sales, median price: …
Reset That Clock
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012 at 3:55pm. 181 Views, 0 Comments.
2105 Oak has never sold.You may see it as a "new" listing now, but that's not quite the case.
Built new as a spec home in 2006, this Craftsman-accented home (5br/5ba, 3100 sq. ft.) tried at $2.5m in May 2007.
$2.5m... on Oak.
The listing ran through September 2007, about 5 months in total, dropping down to $2.1m.
But by Fall 2007, the writing was on the wall. This was not happening. The market had gone from strange, to declining, to tumbling.
It rented out.
But you've seen it recently. For a while.
2105 Oak re-emerged in May 2012, 5 full years after its first offering.
Asking price: $1.999m. (Can we just call it $2.0m?)
It's been out there for a while. In a warm-to-hot market, it ran 4+ months on market with no takers.
Intriguingly, a roughly similar…
Weekend Opens (9/15-9/16)
Saturday, September 15th, 2012 at 2:45pm. 176 Views, 0 Comments.
If there's anything good to be said about the anticipated, record-breaking 90-plus weather in MB this weekend, it's this: Maybe word will spread, and no one from inland will come to the beach seeking relief.
It's just as hot here, you see, why waste your time?
It's either that, or Katie bar the door.
We got to several properties Friday, but most turn out not to be open to the public this weekend. Janie Nagy covers a few this weekend that we did not see in her new post.
To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or sub-region of MB by clicking the title on a column.
Or click here for the new-format Beach Reporter list of opens.
If you're thinking about getting into the market as a buyer or seller, please…
It's just as hot here, you see, why waste your time?
It's either that, or Katie bar the door.We got to several properties Friday, but most turn out not to be open to the public this weekend. Janie Nagy covers a few this weekend that we did not see in her new post.
To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or sub-region of MB by clicking the title on a column.
Or click here for the new-format Beach Reporter list of opens.
If you're thinking about getting into the market as a buyer or seller, please…
