recent sales

It's time for one of our twice-monthly Manhattan Beach market updates.

For the first time, we're putting links to these Market Update posts (spreadsheets) in the top navigation bar on the site. These links on the nav bar be updated every 2 weeks as the new spreadsheets are created; now you won't need to search out a blog post on the main page to find the links.

Here's the quick overview on active inventory as of mid-month:

• 59 active listings as of 6/15/13
• 49 SFRs
• 10 THs

This is down 5 from the highest total so far this year, 64 at the end of May.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach:

• Tree Section: 10 actives (-7 from end of May)
• Sand Section: 23 actives (+1)
• Hill Section: 10 actives (+3)
• East MB: 15

You liked that post yesterday about 1.3-ish homes in the Trees. We heard that a bunch.

A new closing on Thursday opened the door here for us to look at recent 1.3-ish sales in the Sand Section, too.

That's 132 Marine (3br/2ba, 1400 sq. ft.), an ocean-view TH with the liability of being along 2 busy streets.

You can tell from the outside that it's a bit dated, though the kitchen inside is newer. It's got limited common space and the views aren't extremely well-featured, but they're there, and this home almost couldn't be closer to the water – an uninterrupted short walk down a wide sidewalk to the warm white sand.

Like so many listings we've seen go this year, this one has a troubled history on the market.

It ran virtually all of 2012, it

There was a time, and we swear it was in recent memory, when $1.3M could get you a decent house west of Sepulveda.

Now that's the price of a cottage in an off location, or a smallish fixer.

1404 Elm (3br/2ba, 1200 sq. ft.) is the one raising our eyebrows right now.

This is a small home that's not been so well-maintained, doesn't have much curb appeal (yet) and can only be called a fixer with potential.

But for that, they got $1.359M, with several offers pushing the price above the $1.279M start.

We had clients considering it, but never wrote an offer. We could see the appeal. And we knew of the dearth of alternatives near this price point. It was just hard to get over the hump and push into the 1.3s for such a small place.

In our review

We see two more examples of how this year is being kind to listings with a difficult history.

128 20th (5br/5ba, 4600 sq. ft.) is the latest to make a deal – posting an escrow on Monday afternoon.

On the one hand, here, you've got a lower 100-block location on one of the treasured Teen Streets.

On the other, you've got this, achem, very custom structure. In the past we've called it "a giant home with good views but way, way too much of its own style."

The current listing calls it a "[c]ustom artfully designed contemporary" and "sophisticated."

You say tomato...

This one ran a long time in 2010-2011, racking up an incredible 560 DOM in a failed listing.

The price at launch was $4.450M, and the last time we saw it make a chop was in

Please permit us a boast post.

With Thursday's closed sale at 700 27th, Dave has now sold 3 listings in the first half of 2013 over their starting prices.

The story on this one, a stunning corner-lot modern (4br/4ba, 3420 sq. ft.), began back in March, when 27th came out at $2.250M.

There were multiple offers, and some very impressive numbers, on the first round. But the first buyer and backup buyers did not perform. The listing came back to market, at a higher price ($2.450M).

Thursday the final sale posted: $2.300M, or $50K above the original start price. (Or below the increased price, however you want to view it.) Going back now to that very first market analysis we did for 700 27th, and all the factors that went into setting $2.250M as the

This is not exactly a market where people are bargain-hunting. Not in the first half of 2013.

But there are chances to make deals below the listed retail price. Just start with a list price that's too high, and watch the drops come when buyers make their case to the sellers.

An impressive example of a quick discount taken was over at 514 N. Dianthus (6br/5ba, 3700 sq. ft.), a corner-lot house that felt, frankly, unusual for the Hill Section when we toured it.

It "felt like" a Tree Section house, probably owing to the 40-foot wide lot. This creates a fairly narrow house for the Hills, but beyond that the home was outfitted like a luxe Mediterranean, and quite smashing attractive. (With a larger-than-Tree-Section-size lot at 5500 sq. ft., the house

It's time for one of our twice-monthly Manhattan Beach market updates.

Here's the quick overview on active inventory:

• 64 active listings as of 5/31/13
• 53 SFRs
• 11 THs

This is the highest total so far this year, up 26 from May 1. It's still not a ton, but at least it's more.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach:

• Tree Section: 17 actives (+7 from mid-May)
• Sand Section: 22 actives (+4)
• Hill Section: 7 actives
• East MB: 18 actives (+2)

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 5/31/13."

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

Sales are organized by sub-region of

No need to be schocked here, for once. At least we don't think so.

The basic family home people are looking for west of Sepulveda, in a decent part of the Tree Section, with 4+ bedrooms and 3000-ish square feet, looks like a $1.9M proposition.

That's higher than it was in some recent years, but a selection of recent sales firms up the price range:

2009 Elm (4br/3ba, 3100 sq. ft.) is the latest to close. It's a Mediterranean with an easy layout, clean and recently refreshed, and hard to place as the 1998 build that it is. Could be 90s, could be mid-2000s; many of these homes seem alike.

As you almost always find, in this home you enter into a formal living room, and continue back to a large kitchen/great room in back. First floor also has

The recent sale of 1804 Agnes serves as a reminder that finding a lot for a custom build is getting costlier by the day.

You can definitely say this flat lot at Agnes on a sleepy street boasts a prime location.

However, the 4780 sq. ft. lot size is average, and the backyard exposure will be to the east – less sunny in the afternoon – so we're not looking at pluses on every front.

So the sale price, after multiple bids, at $1.700M, is a wake-up call.

Wasn't it just last year that 1805 John shocked onlookers (and the 19 losing bidders) with a sale at $1.352M?

But that lot was a tad bigger (5065 sq. ft.) and with western exposure on the back. About the only major liability of the lot was (is) the giant eucalyptus in the front yard, which

Ready for another shocking overbid? Or maybe we don't get "shocked" anymore?

725 12th (3br/2ba, 1325 sq. ft.) is a nearly perfect little beach cottage inside, in a location that affords a quick walk to downtown, church and elementary school.

We said in our review:

It's a great example of the most you can do to a little 1950s cottage. Wide open, high ceilings in the great room, a modern kitchen – with marble, not granite – and attractive baths.

Those "must have" qualities sparked a bidding war when the home came out in April at $1.399M. Multiple multiples again.

What would happen?

First, look back. The same property had traded in very nice condition in 2008 at $1.187M, after a start at $1.400 and 100+ DOM.

But that was 5 years