It's almost time to say goodbye to 2008.
As the year heads to the rear-view mirror, MBC offers the first of a few year-end roundups – this one covering the highest and lowest prices paid in MB west of Sepulveda this year. (Click any picture to expand.)
In case we forget to say it later: Happy new year to all MBC…
It's almost time to say goodbye to 2008.
As the year heads to the rear-view mirror, MBC offers the first of a few year-end roundups – this one covering the highest and lowest prices paid in MB west of Sepulveda this year.
(Click any picture to expand.)In case we forget to say it later: Happy new year to all MBC readers and their families!
Hill SectionHighest Price: 900 Pacific:
$9.85m. This home is a quintessential Hill Section estate – absolutely vast (6br/7ba, 10,500 sq. ft.), luxurious and boasting one of the best hilltop, ocean-view locations in the Hills. (Pacific in the Hills is
one of MBC's "Great Streets.")
900 Pacific was just about a year old when it was put up on public offer in June at
$10.9m. The sale happened quickly and closed in mid-August.
It's little wonder that this one set
a new record for a sale price in the Hill Section. That million-dollar discount was also worth noting...
Runner-Up: 116 N. Dianthus:
$7.2m. This large (5br/7ba, 6600 sq. ft.) corner-lot home was purchased off of the MLS during construction in late 2007; the deal closed in April of this year.
The location near the peak of the Hill offers some of the biggest ocean views around.
But there is a downside: one side of the house abuts 2nd St., one of the busiest streets in the Hills.
The owners offered up the home as part of the annual Sandpipers Holiday Home Tour. (See MBC's story, "
A Look at the Sandpipers Tour Homes" or go directly to
the HHT site.)
Lowest Price: 1100 John: $975k. Speaking of corner lots in the Hills – 1100 John had that going for it, too. But it's an older cottage (3br/2ba, 1550 sq. ft.) that unfortunately backs up onto a new commercial building and is only steps to MBB.
The dated home began at $1.259m but
cut $284k (-23%) to make a deal over the span of just 4 months.
Sand SectionHighest Price: 200 19th: $5.6m. Everyone knows there is something about those walkstreets west of Highland.
Take one of them near downtown and add a new, fully realized Cape Cod with loads of luxury features, and you've got the priciest deal in MB's Sand Section for the year.
This one offers 5br/4ba and 4200 sq. ft. (essentially the max on a full lot [2700 sq. ft.]), complete with a 3-stop elevator and very nice ocean views from the patio and balconies.
The listing came up in January and the property sold quickly, closing in March.
The buyer got a terrific home. For the builder, this was also a nice payoff – the lot was acquired for $2.9m in June 2006.
Runner-Up: 220 19th: $4.85m. Look at that – there's another 19th St. address.
Nice block, eh?Here you have a newer, but not new (2001), large and luxe home (5br/4ba, 4325 sq. ft.) on 3 levels, also with an elevator.
After a July start at $5.2m, 220 19th closed for in December at a minor 7% discount.
Lowest Price: 462 36th Place: $825k. Let's start this on the brighter side by pointing out that someone found a way into a beach-close house for much less than $1m. You get the weather, the schools, the uptown
(El Norte!) amenities...
MBC did label this 3br/2b, 1150 sq. ft. home "
A Real Turkey" in late 2007. That was due to its tiny size, poor remodel(s) and, well, the unfathomably large range of options a person might have for $800-900k all over the world, besides this house. But remember, now, they do say:
Every house has a buyer.Tree SectionHighest Price: 850 18th: $4.4m. One of the most surpassingly beautiful, newer homes in the Trees broke the $4m barrier this Spring.
This 6br/6ba home offers 5950 sq. ft. on a vast 8,000 sq. ft. lot –
those are Hill Section numbers.An extra attraction was the way the home had been outfitted and decorated. As MBC remarked in
writing up the sale:
[W]here do you start with the superlatives? Lush. Posh. Gigantic. Highly stylized (in a Spanish vein). You could melt into this home. Yum.
Lowest Prices: In a fairly narrow price range, there were really 3 lowest-priced sales in 2008, all at different lot sizes. All of these were livable homes, not scrapers:
- 3119 Valley: $720k. A small home (2br/1ba, 850 sq. ft.) on a half lot (2500 sq. ft.) near the northeastern edge of MBC's coverage area. MLS-reported price was $760k, but now we're seeing $720k in official records.
- 626 Rosecrans: $772k. This might be literally the smallest house we have seen sell this year or last – 1br, 1ba and 600 sq. ft. The lot, at least, was a bit bigger than our previous entry at 3625 sq. ft. (a two-thirds lot?). The home was updated nicely, great for someone who needed virtually no space. And free to the buyer: Plans for a 2000 sq. ft. addition, evidently abandoned.
- 1400 Oak: $780k. This dated home on a full lot (4480 sq. ft.) in a challenged location opened at $975k in mid-May. "Challenged?" The 3br/2ba, 1400 sq. ft. home is on the "wrong" side of Oak, backing up on a business and abutting two "cut-through" streets. (Oak and 14th, a bailout street for drivers on Sepulveda who don't want to wait for the light at MBB.)
Turns out, 1400 Oak made a quick 20% adjustment and set a new, recent low for full-lot sales west of Sepulveda. There will be challengers for that title in 2009.
Please see our blog disclaimer.
Listings presented above are supplied via the MLS and are brokered by a variety of agents and firms, not Dave Fratello or Edge Real Estate Agency, unless so stated with the listing. Images and links to properties above lead to a full MLS display of information, including home details, lot size, all photos, and listing broker and agent information and contact information.