hill section

It was just 2 weeks ago that there were no listings in the Hill Section. Zero.

The Hills always run the lowest inventory in town, but zero – well, you can't get lower.

Now, a mix of new options has brought inventory to a whopping 7. Hey, it's a start.

And some options "look like" the Hill Section, offering the sorts of grand estates you'd expect to see.

The newest and grandest is clearly 620 8th St. (6br/7ba, 7250 sq. ft.), a Hill Section estate if there is one. (They've even named it, "La Belle Vue Estate.")

Built into a gently downsloping hillside, the home looks relatively modest from the front on 8th, but it goes back and back, and down and down, with 3 levels in total. (We almost missed the media room and 6th bedroom on the lowest

Sometimes it's great to be able to look back at a property's history not just with a couple of data points, but a few blog posts.

Such is the case with 511 Pacific (5br/9ba, and, yes 7960 sq. ft.), newly offered in the Hill Section, but with a track record on MBC.

This is a 2008 build that shot out of the blocks (in its framing stages) in May 2007, asking $8.150M.

It was back for a little stretch of 2008 at $8.0M, and for a long stretch of 2009 in the $6M range.

The listing was on and off for 2010 in the 5's, and the new home finally sold in July 2010 for $5.250M.

Lessons: Launching a huge, totally unique megahome while a financial crisis explodes is... tough. Also, there are lots of challenges, beyond timing, when building new.

Here

Since our redesign here at MBC, we've been publishing spreadsheets of our market updates. But this time, we wanted to try one of our update posts like from the olden days, with a discussion of market action during this period, broken down by section of MB. It takes a little longer to produce these "Comings & Goings" reports, but here's hoping you enjoy.

First, here's the quick overview on active inventory:

• 38 active listings as of 4/30/13 (+3 from mid-month)
• 34 SFRs (+5 from mid-month)
• 4 THs (-2)

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach:

• Tree Section: 8 actives
• Sand Section: 16 actives
• Hill Section: 0 actives (nothing, truly nothing)
• East MB: 14 actives

You can see the complete report on active listings, with

We've recently seen 2 homes that are severely dated, nearly un-fixable, with the upside mostly on development, not a remodel.

Not that we dare to rule out remodels every time – smart and creative people do wonders.

But 418 Chabela in East MB (pictured) and 1026 Pacific in the Hill Section share something in common: They're old, cluttered wrecks that invite require buyers to see past everything around them and imagine something different.

Chabela is the most curious case, perhaps. First, we have to say where it is. This is in the "Poets Section" of East MB, just east of Sepulveda and pretty far south for MB. (Hermosa is on the other side of Sepulveda.)

Nearly this whole area was originally developed in the 1950s/60s as flat, one-story

Plans change. You buy a house, something changes, you gotta get out again.

Sometimes quickly.

This is a scenario that could have cost sellers a lot of money over the past few years.

Indeed, we remember a Hill Section example of this that was brutal. In June 2010, someone said "must have" to a Craftsman at 861 10th St., paying $2.635M for the privilege.

Just 5 weeks after closing, it was right back up for sale – but the resale took forever (16 months) and lost a bundle when the price dropped well under $2.3M.

The final damage: -$366K (-14%). (For more, see "Hey, Didn't They Just Buy That? – Part 2," from Nov. 2011.) And that's just the market price; the sellers also had to pay roughly 5% costs of sale.

But more recently, we saw someone

So many new listings, but still many new sales.

Inventory dropped from late March through mid-month.

Here's the quick overview on active inventory:

• 35 active listings as of 4/15/13
• 29 SFRs
• 6 THs

This is a drop in inventory by 7 homes from the end of March. New listings are simply being absorbed.

(Update: Inventory is at 41 total as of Friday morning.)

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach:

• Tree Section: 8 actives
• Sand Section: 13 actives
• Hill Section: 1 actives
• East MB: 10 actives

You can see the complete report on active listings, with live links to every property, in this single post on our data blog: "MB Inventory as of 4/15/13."

It's worth noting that Sand Section listings dropped the most,

The Manhattan Beach real estate market remains active. Spring has sprung in a big way.

Turns out that April Fool's day "moratorium" proposal was a nonstarter. (You did know it was April Fool's, right? Like our past posts about Obama regulating house prices and Robert Shiller leaving "fusty" and "damn cold" Yale for USC and a nice MB walkstreet, among others.)

Back to business, though. It's time our twice-monthly Manhattan Beach market updates.

Here's the quick overview on active inventory:

• 42 active listings as of 3/15/13
• 38 SFRs
• 4 THs

This is a drop in inventory by 4 homes total, very surprising to see given that we saw 29 new listings post just between March 16-31. New listings are simply being absorbed, and quickly.

Active

It's a theme we keep checking in on, because the results are so interesting: What couldn't sell before, does sell now.

And in two very recent cases, listings that ran quite a while in 2012 sold quickly in 2013 with $200K overbids.

In fact, the stories of these two recent sales have almost everything in common.

1125 3rd (4br/4ba, 3900 sq. ft.) is a newer (2005), custom-built home built on a steep hillside. In our review in February, we summarized: "Suffice to say it's an unusual home, but that they've done a lot to try to echo a conventional home despite the quirks – like countless stairs inside and out that move you into the home, around the home, and among the various tiers of outdoor spaces."

This home was offered on and off over nearly 7 months

Anecdotes don't make for good analysis, but...

Observation from a Northern California agent we spoke with Monday: "This isn't bubble pricing. It's worse than the bubble years. Our inventory is too low. Everything gets bid up crazily."

That's a different market the agent was speaking of, but it rhymes with what we see in MB these days.

So in this market, people can shoot for the moon, and sometimes hit it.

Look at one of the newest listings/pending deals in MB: 3312 Manhattan Ave., a detached townhome with 4br/3ba, 2000 sq. ft. (2000 build with views.)

This one tried to get $2.390M for a small stretch of Spring 2006, but didn't succeed.

Now, it's in escrow in an off-market deal that has posted at $2.399M (pending), suggesting that it may

With our new site setup here at MBC, we're able to deliver twice-monthly Manhattan Beach market updates in a new, friendly format.

First, let's get the quick overview on active inventory:

• 45 active listings as of 2/28/13
• 40 SFRs
• 5 THs

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach:

• Tree Section: 6 actives
• Sand Section: 21 actives
• Hill Section: 3 actives
• East MB: 15 actives

You can see the complete report on active listings, with live links to every property, in this single post on our data blog: "MB Inventory as of 2/28/13."

We're also providing a report on pending and closed sales by region of MB.

In a fashion to the report on active listings, you'll find the report on sales organized by sub-region of