The top 3 MLS-reported home sales in 2025 in Manhattan Beach were all on The Strand. No huge surprise there.
It's surely no coincidence that ALL of the Top 3 sales for the year were Strand homes south of the pier. That's the prime of the prime.
And yet, all 3 faced some kind of rocky road before selling. That's worth a look.
Let's look at these in price order.
The year's top MLS-reported sale was 108 The Strand (5br/8ba, 6910 sqft.), a mega-modern waterfront house built in 2014.
The closed price of $16.750M (Aug. 2025) beat all others.
But this one had aimed so much higher, coming out of the gates at $27.995M in January 2025, just months after 1800 The Strand had set the city home price record at $24.500M.
It was not to be. They took $11.245M below the initial asking, and $6.2M below the last ask.
The final sale price actually was not a great deal higher than the acquisition price more than 6 years ago: $15.250M, in Dec. 2018.
Did 108 The Strand really appreciate just 10% in 6+ years?
If that seems odd, let's talk about 304 The Strand.
Little, homely 304 The Strand (4br/4ba, 2829 sqft.) was offered up as a land-value proposition.
Better than that, it was promoted as a "shovel ready" project with plans and a chance to customize. (This rendering was in the listing.)
304 The Strand wound up as the second-priciest MLS-listed sale of the year at $13.350M (April 2025).
But when it closed, it went for less than it had sold for more than 10 years ago.
In August 2015, 304 The Strand sold for $14.000M.
Would you believe, way-back-when, that this same property was the TOP sale of the year? (We've got the proof right here: "High Sales of 2015 in Manhattan Beach: Sand Section.")
When the property first went into escrow in July 2015, we cited it as an example of the "giddy market" we were in at the time.
Absolutely no one would ever have told you that buying on the front row in the South End of Manhattan Beach would lead to an ostensible loss of money in 10 years.
And of course, they had tried for more – the first list price was $15.999M in March 2024. That's just not how it ended up.
These high-end properties end up with quirky histories, don't they?
Finally, we come to the third of 3 Strand homes to earn top billing for 2025.
708 The Strand (4br/5ba, 4526 sqft.) sold in 2025 in its second tour of duty.
This 1987 build did not quite achieve the sellers' original ambitions, however.
The listing ran for 6 months starting late in 2024 at $16.595M.
When that didn't work, the sellers switched horses (meaning listing agents) and cut $1.1M, and another $500K soon after. (Couldn't they have done that with the first horse?)
But even that wasn't quite the ticket.
Four months after re-listing, the sellers cashed out, but for "only" $13.250M.
That was a discount of $3.345M from the first asking price, and, somehow, $100K less than the land-value proposition over at 304 The Strand, which had sold several months earlier.
Oh, and in a curious turn of events, the buyer rode in on that first "horse," using the first, original listing agent as a buyer's agent to acquire the property.
Turnabout is fair play, it seems.
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.
