Buyer Betting on Upside to Rosecrans Purchase

You could say that we were both surprised and impressed about 18 months ago, when a certain sale closed in the Tree Section.

Way high up on Rosecrans, in the last few blocks where it's still a residential street in Manhattan Beach, 908 Rosecrans (6br/7ba, 4112 sqft.) sold for $3.900M. That was late December 2023. (See our post from then, "Big Bet Pays Off on Rosecrans.")

It was by far the highest sale ever along Rosecrans in the Trees.

Recently, it was listed for resale almost $1.100M higher, although the price is now down to $4.790M.

As you can see from the current listing below, it's a modern-style home befitting almost any location from Encino down to West L.A., and, sure, even MB.

(908 Rosecrans is currently listed by Kevin Mitchell, Sotheby's International Realty.)

The size, style, Tree Section type location and (smallish) pool & spa would rank the home as a must-see – and maybe a must-have – in almost any location in Manhattan Beach. But it's on Rosecrans, which is what makes the story more complicated.

Even building it in this location was a "big bet," as we noted in a Sept. 2023 post:

It's a big, bold new home that is surely the most ambitious ever conceived on Rosecrans in the Tree Section.

At just over 4100 sqft., the home is a veritable giant among Rosecrans homes, second in size only to 652 Rosecrans, which features an oversized lot (7300 sqft.) and a home that's got more than 4700 sqft. of interior space.  

We can only find one more home in the Tree Section segment of Rosecrans that's more than 3200 sqft. – and only ever-so-slightly over.

The homes on Rosecrans are smaller because the lots are generally less than 4000 sqft., with just the occasional outliers. You can't build a big house without a big lot. 

908 Rosecrans has a lot that's almost 6000 sqft., hence the opportunity that builders saw to make a big new Manhattan Beach house here.  

The original developers launched the finished product almost 2 years ago at $4.995M in August 2023, but got the price down to $4.199M by early October.

The home sat in "active" status at that price for the next 3 months, but then, all of a sudden, it closed for $3.900M. (It never showed as pending on the MLS.)

You know how great it feels to get a discount, almost regardless of price. Perhaps this buyer was thinking they really put one over on the developer: $300K off list, $1.1M off the start price!

A blink of an eye later, now the buyer from late 2023 has the home on the market again, this time as a seller.

The listing began at $4.990M, in line with the builder's original start price. 

As noted, it's down $200K already to $4.790M, but that's still almost $900K over acquisition.  

The buyer seller seems to be viewing the home more like the original developer did: Look at that sizable, fancy new home, and don't focus so much on the street name.

Here's how 908 Rosecrans – for sale or sold – stacks up against all of the prior high sales along Rosecrans in the Tree Section:

• 716 Rosecrans (3br/2ba, 1500 sqft., 5162 sqft. lot) - $2.350M (Aug. 2022)
• 508 Rosecrans (4br/3ba, 3013 sqft., 3005 sqft. lot) - $2.340M (Oct. 2020)
• 940 Rosecrans (5br/4ba, 3239 sqft., 5975 sqft. lot) - $2.260M (May 2021)
• 652 Rosecrans (6br/6ba, 4730 sqft., 7300 sqft. lot) - $2.200M (Sept. 2016)
  

Yep, not a one was ever over $2.500M. So 908 Rosecrans already has its own section of the record book.

Now for some perspective.

It seems like yesterday, but in fact it was Fall 2015, when 652 Rosecrans first came to market – with its double-sized lot and 4700-odd sqft. house – asking $2.999M. (It did not sell close to that.) 

We said at the time, perhaps too definitively, that 652 was "lining up to become the knock-it-out-of-the-park, highest-priced single-family home sale ever on Rosecrans, maybe for as long as we'll all share this planet."

If 908 Rosecrans happens to resell around $4.400M, we'll have all been here together long enough to see that "highest price ever" doubled.