High Sales of 2015 in Manhattan Beach: Tree Section

We'll now continue with our look back at Manhattan Beach real estate data from 2015.

Here are the highest sale prices in the suburban Tree Section last year.

Highest Sale of 2015

Tree Section (Martyrs Division)

621 13th (4br/5ba, 5650 sqft.) was something of a surprise when it swept onto the market in late March last year.

Occupying a 4200 sqft. lot – plus sized for the area, though not a double lot – the 3-story modern offers very good views in a downtown-adjacent location.

Closed Price: $6.150M in May 2015.

The layout is unusual, with several bedrooms in different places (more than the official 4br mentioned in the listing). As we said in our March 29 open-house post:

"There is a substantial custom-ness to the layout... The first level hosts 3 bedrooms. The middle level has the master and an adjoining room that could be a bedroom, but is currently more of a gym/office, connecting through to the master closet. Up front on the midlevel are 2 big office rooms with wondrous views. Since one is accessed through the other, it's not easy to see them as 2br on the same level as the master. It would take some work."

The views and location were the big draws, and if you had just the right family arrangement, the layout would be less important. Speaking of how easy the place could be to love, we said last year, "Upstairs, the common areas all open and have some extensive, panoramic views. The ocean-view al fresco deck would be a heckuva place to dine."

656 18th (6br/7ba, 6065 sqft.) is a traditional "coastal" style home boasting a nice location in the heart of the Martyrs hill area.

With its 6400 sqft. lot and basement, the home has a rather amazing amount of square footage for anywhere in the Tree Section: over 6000 sqft.

Closed Price: $5.200M in September 2015.

As big as that number is, it was a reduction from asking: $5.498M.

Tree Section (Non-Martyrs)

835 17th (6br/bba, 5900 sqft.) is another very large house with a lot that's almost without reference in the Trees: 8000 sqft!

Closed Price: $4.780M in December 2015.

The original Spanish was built in 2006 with the luxury of a basement and a wide-open, big kitchen/family room in back that flow nicely to the backyard.

The sellers had done something amazing with what was once a plain patch of grass in the backyard: Building out a fancy pool, bbq/bar area and an attractive pergola with a seating area. The home fairly screams "entertaining large numbers of people."

In Spring 2015, this home came out on the MLS asking $5.799M, so the eventual sale price was a drop by $1 million from those early ambitions.

We toured the home with clients and gamed out the pricing, and virtually any price from $4.8M-$5.3M seemed justifiable. The unusually wide gap in valuation came from the lack of true comps, the extra value in the land and the open question many buyers might have about the location, right across from the elementary school. How would you add or subtract for those different factors? In this case, the market settled close to $4.8M.

Runner-Up:

3311 Elm (6br/7ba, 5175 sqft.) was new construction built on another unusually huge lot, 8800 sqft. in this case.

A spec home this close to Sepulveda and Valley was a daring project, if we may speak frankly here. But it basically worked out.

Start price: $4.679M.

Closed Price: $4.569M in February 2015.

It didn't even hang around on the market long, finding a buyer with a sharply limited 8 total days on market.

Tree Section (Conventional Lot Size)

You may have noticed that all those top-billed sales had monster lot sizes or killer locations. 

We decided to find one more sale that would be the highest-priced public-market sale of a home built on a conventional-sized lot.

608 27th (5br/4ba, 4200 sqft.) is on a 5130 sqft. lot, a bit large for the Trees but not huge. The home is a pre-ZORP house built in the early 1980s and remodeled extensively since, largely in keeping with the Spanish conceits of the original design.

Closed Price: $3.295M in June 2015.

We'll continue this week and next with our look at 2015 sales all around Manhattan Beach.

Remember, you can see every single sale in Manhattan Beach at the link below, or any time, by pulling down "Sales Data" at the top of the front page to see "ALL 2015 Sales in MB." Here's the link:

Manhattan Beach Homes Sold in 2015