It's that time of year, as we continue our series recording the notable sales of 2023.
We began with the highest sales by the beach. (See "High Sales of 2023: Sand Section.")
Now let's take a look at the most luxurious homes in the city's biggest suburban area west of PCH, the Trees.
Martyrs Division
604 14th (5br/8ba, 6114 sqft.) is a 2019-built masterpiece with basement, pool and cabana.
It sold for $10.775M in August 2023, off-market but reported on the MLS. At the same time, the same buyer also acquire a property adjacent along a corner at 605 13th (3br/3ba, 1698 sqft.) for $2.600M, as we noted in "New High in Trees, With a Sidecar."
The price for the 14th St. house slightly exceeded the prior year's top sale, 528 15th Street (6br/6ba, 6483 sqft.), which sold off-market in March 2022 for $10.700M.
(Listed by Jennifer Caras, Vista Sotheby's International Realty.)
677 19th (6br/7ba, 5592 sqft.) is a warm, large custom build on an unusually large, 9600 sqft. "pie shaped" lot.
It sold for $8.770M in July 2023. For more discussion and photos, see this new-listings post from May 2023.
(Listed by Giovanni Altamura of SC Real Estate.)
Martyrs-Adjacent Division
2311 Laurel (6br/9ba, 6523 sqft.) boasts an oversized (8040 sqft.) corner lot, custom 2019 construction in a luxe, classic style, and a pool, among other sweeteners.
It became the second $10M+ sale of 2023, and the first outside the immediate area of the American Martyrs district. (Which certainly extends to 19th St. and arguably nearly 23rd on Agnes, but 2311 Laurel is "adjacent," in our view... which entitles the property to top billing in its own district.
It sold for $10.475M in August 2023. See more in "Second $10M Sale in the Trees This Year."
(Listed by June Emerson of Vista Sotheby's International Realty.)
826 18th Street (6br/5ba, 5530 sqft.) is an oversized late 90s home on an unusually large 10K sqft. lot
It opened at $7.250M but sold about $900K lower, as buyers recognized the amount of work that would be needed to update a 5,500+ sqft. house that seemed very stuck in the late 90s.
It sold for $6.355M in November 2023.
2300 John Street (5br/4ba, 4634 sqft.) sports a super-prime location and unusually large corner lot (7000 sqft.).
The house itself was 30 years old and not terribly updated from its early-90s condition, so buyers would theoretically price in some upgrades. This one did sell almost immediately and just $50K under asking.
Sold for $4.650M in May 2023.
New Construction Division
3201 Maple (5br/6ba, 6137 sqft.) represented one of the bigger gambles of the year, and an emphatic exclamation point to end 2023.
The ginormous house was built across two lots, giving it 80' of frontage and a feeling of space that is rare anywhere in Manhattan Beach, even on a large Hill Section lot (or two).
A developer acquired the double lot and could have split it to make two homes, but instead went big on one. The house sold for $7.000M in December 2023.
(Listed by Barry Host of Vista Sotheby's International Realty.)
644 29th Street (5br/7ba, 5077 sqft.) was a pleasantly stylish, warm modern with a basement.
Sold for $6.325M in April 2023.
2809 Oak Avenue (5br/6ba, 3130 sqft.) came out in the Spring looking for a record price for any home on Oak, the first street in off of Sepulveda, asking $4.640M.
When it sold for $4.300M in July 2023, it merely tied the record price for Oak.
The record was set in late 2020 with new construction at 1801 Oak (6br/5ba, 5370 sqft.), which coincidentally is now on the market at a $1M+ markup (asking $5.499M).
Since 1801 is soooooo much larger than 2809 Oak, we can at least say that 2809 wins the PPSF title hands-down. We find only one instance ever where an Oak property of 3000+ sqft. sold with a price per square foot of $1,000 or more. Here, we saw a PPSF of $1,374/PSF. Even 1801 Oak at its current $5M+ price would barely close over $1,000/PSF.
(Listed by Amir Amiri of Merit Real Estate.)
Resales Division
590 30th Street (5br/7ba, 5839 sqft.) is a custom 2020 build with a pool and basement.
They aimed hiiiiigh for $7.000M, but sold for $6.150M in November 2023.
(Listed by Jennifer Caskey of Compass.)
750 29th (7br/8ba, 4835 sqft.) sold new at the end of the pandemic party, in May 2022, for $5.985M.
It was a long road before it finally resold for $5.625M in November 2023.
We detailed key points of the long, long attempted resale process in "That Rarest Feat: A Loss on an MB House."
Mainly we were interested in asking whether the home's 6% loss in value from May '22-Nov. '23 reflected the market overall (seems like maybe yes?). But while looking into the circumstances – why would someone pay $6M for a house, never move in, and sell at a loss? – we wound up talking about 2 NFL teams and an apparently astonishingly lucrative business that involved reselling Pokemon cards. (We are still not making any of it up.)
566 35th (5br/5ba, 4732 sqft.) is just a warm, pretty, custom build with attractive East Coast-inspired, classical details.
Sold for $5.250M in December 2023.
31st Street Division
Hey, it's the street we love to love. There were a few notable sales this year...
570 31st (4br/4ba, 3412 sqft.) is very custom late-90s Spanish-inspired home on the lower part of one of the best streets in the Trees.
Its quirks and charms combined to keep it on market almost 2 months. When it sold for $4.080M in August 2023, that was $419K and 9% below the original asking.
653 31st Street (5br/4ba, 3301 sqft.) was built originally in the 70s, but has been extensively remodeled since, much closer to modern tastes.
Sold for $3.959M in August 2023.
571 31st Street (5br/5ba, 3511 sqft.) is an early-90s home that was sold off-market, in a deal put together in late 2022.
Sold for $3.950M in January 2023.
