All Blog Entries by Dave Fratello

It's early in the year, and there's a lot to work out here in 2019.

Still, we must note (again) that the level of inventory of homes for sale beginning the year is notably higher than it has been in recent years.

With 84 listings at mid-month, we are far over 3 of the prior 5 years, and still notably above mid-January 2016 (62) and 2017 (72).

In a way, there's another comparison to be made here to the "sugar high" boomlet year of 2017, versus the simply good year of 2018.

After 2017, 2018 began with 48 listings at mid-January.

After 2018, 2019 begins with 84 listings, a 75% increase over last year.

Trends like this will shape the market early and, particularly, once Spring has taken hold.

Now, let's see what has been selling early in…

Median prices are mere statistics.

What do they really tell you about homes in Manhattan Beach?

With news last week that the median price for homes in Manhattan Beach has just hit a new high of $2.400M, we have a better way to describe what that statistic means: Show you the houses.

In this case, there was not just one house that sold for $2.400M, nor were there only 2 or 3.

There were seven houses at the same price.

This allows for a really good picture of the "median" house for Manhattan Beach.

Remember, the median price is that point at which half the homes sold for more, and half sold for less. These were the 7 homes right smack in the middle of the diverse Manhattan Beach market.

Here they all are, ordered by areas of MB:

Tree…

We're getting this year off to a rolling start, it would appear.

Inventory's into the 80s and there are 34 listings holding open houses... in mid-January.

It'll be a busy year. Buyers will have choices. It starts now.

To plan your open-house tours for this week, use MB Confidential's online list of Manhattan Beach open houses (it's mobile-friendly!). Our open house link always appears in our weekly wrapups and on the main front page, under "Open Houses."

Below, click any address link to view all photos and property details. And don't forget, when previewing homes here on MB Confidential, you can click "Open All Images" right above the main listing photo to get immediate display of all the listing photos at once. 

Listings appearing here…

It looks like sellers are going to make their moves a bit early this year in Manhattan Beach.

In just a week, we've seen inventory go from the low 70s to the mid-80s.

From Thursday, Jan. 3-Thurs. Jan. 10, there were 14 new real estate listings in Manhattan Beach. (It's true, 2 of those 14 did have some market exposure also in 2018.)

Out of the dozen truly new listings, 8 emerged on Thursday. (One was this 2000-built Mediterranean at 700 36th in the Tree Section, starting Thurs. at $2.799M.)

Who's gonna wait for February to list?

Not everyone.

As we post to the blog here early on Friday, inventory is at 85 listings in Manhattan Beach.

That inventory level was not hit until mid-March in 2018. (See a 6-year inventory chart in our MB…