open houses

We've got inventory at 55 now, heading toward Memorial Day weekend. We sense that the old rule about inventory dropping, and sales activity slowing, in June won't quite bear out this year. We're thinking Summer will be busier than expected. But still, this can be viewed as the last week of the Spring market.

To plan your 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 Beach Reporter list of opens.   

Sand Section

468 34th (4br/5ba, 3525 sq. ft.) is Dave's new listing up on the plateau. Of course we think it's great, but we don't purport to offer "neutral" reviews of our own listings. So here's the official description, and here's hoping you'll

Moms don't ask much, but they do like to get a little respect. And maybe a rose, or a nice brunch.

So this weekend we do our best to say "thanks," and typically the open-house caravan is shut down for Sunday. (What if mom wants to look at houses for kicks? There are some opens, after all.)

So focus your tours on Saturday, and focus on mom Sunday.

To plan your 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 Beach Reporter list of opens.  

East MB

Modest little 1150 Keats (3br/2ba, 1275 sq. ft.) could be the must-see property of the weekend, simply because it presents an affordable entry-level option, is somewhat updated and conventional

Did you notice the little pickup in inventory late in the week?

We had just bemoaned in our April 30 market update that there were just 38 offerings in MB – and then came a little flood. By Saturday, we were up to a whopping 52 offerings citywide.

Many of these came in at the higher end, but more is simply better, isn't it? 

There were plenty of new homes to see this week and review.

To plan your 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 Beach Reporter list of opens. (This week, the BR list is a little buggy.)

Hill Section

1023 9th (4br/3ba, 2500 sq. ft.) is a 1950s original that's been added onto, stretched out and even given a

This past week was disappointing for buyers looking for more choices. No bogus holiday got in the way of new listings, but the recent pace of new offerings just didn't continue.

Has MB lost its "big mo"?

Not in sales, but maybe in new supply. (Yikes, just 37 listings active as of Saturday.)

We've only got reviews of 2 new listings below that both launched this week and have public opens.

There are others open that we've reviewed before, including Dave's listing at 700 27th. Here's hoping you can stop by there and say hi.

To plan your 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.

Tree Section

It was another one of those weeks that Spring 2013 is becoming famous for.

You want more choices? You were happy about the 16 new listings in the past 7 days.

You want more choices? You saw fewer, net, as 19 active listings went into escrow over the same time.

You haven't bought yet? Here's hoping you're preapproved, well represented, locked, loaded and decisive.

Below we'll look at some of the highlights of the weekend's open houses. There are more we couldn't quite get to.

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.

Sand Section

440 5th (4br/5ba, 3070 sq. ft.) is

Everyone wants more choices – and they're coming.

East MB seemed to debut the most listings this week, so we'll start there. The Sand and Hill Sections: A shutout for the past week. Hey, folks, are you holding back?

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.

East MB

1430 3rd (5br/5ba, 4000 sq. ft.) is new construction on a great, low-traffic block tucked away so near to school, and yet so far away. It's a great family-friendly location, and a quality Cape Cod with everything that's "now" beckoning buyers to make it theirs.

A wide-open first floor, plus-sized rooms,

With Spring Break this week, we didn't exactly have a "moratorium" on new listings (har, har), but out of the 11 new listings for the week, compared with 21 new listings the prior week. Only 3 are actually opening their doors to John Q. Public this weekend for the first time.

There's this hypothesis that you want to avoid listing or having your opens during Spring Break because "everyone's gone." Kind of like how you should avoid listing during "Ski Week" in February – because everyone looking to buy in Manhattan Beach already lives here and has kids in school and is tracking the school schedule. Mmmm hmmmm.

Here's hoping for more next week.

This time, you have a good mix, including a very different kind of place in East MB, 1500 1st, the first

It's Easter Weekend, with many fewer open houses to see, but we wouldn't suggest that our market is "slowing down" for this "break."

There were 21 new listings in this past week in Manhattan Beach. It feels like a mad rush, as sellers see the opportunity in front of them.

But we also count 24 new deals (newly posted escrows) over the same period.

You could say things are hoppin'.

But that would be a cliché. (Sorry.)

Inventory is actually down despite the new listings, to 42 total SFRs and THs around all parts of Manhattan Beach. Yikes. (That was as of Friday night. More listings are posting this weekend.)

One surprise among the open houses: A home complete with massive workshop, a place to build or fix your own boat, car(s) or motor

This past week, we've seen 17 new listings hit the market in MB, another good sign that Spring has sprung.

It's a busy weekend for open houses – even more so than most for Dave, who's running 2 of them. Those are the first 2 listings we'll feature below, both in the Tree Section. And rather than present neutral "reviews" of either one, we'll mainly excerpt the listing descriptions for those. We hope we can meet some readers this weekend at the opens.

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 Beach Reporter list of opens.

Tree Section

700 27th (4br/4ba, 3420 sq. ft.) is the Tree Section modern home we've been

This is a busy weekend, if you'll let it be.

Dave got to 16 properties Friday in around 3 hours, not all of which will be on the MLS or publicly open.

We've written up as many as we could here, but there are more to see. Your challenge is to make it to as many of the public opens this weekend as you can.

Before we jump to the reviews, we'll briefly take note of MBC now beginning its 7th year online. Our 6th anniversary is Saturday. Dating back to 2007, when we launched this little site, who'd have thunk we'd be here today?

It remains fun to produce MBC, and we keep meeting great people through the site, so we're happy to keep it running.

To plan your weekend open-house tours, try this Redfin map list of open houses – sort by price or