Hoppin' at Aviation Place

When you think of the "middle of the road" MB family house, that's usually a 4br+, 3000-ish sq. ft. house with a little yard, Trees or East MB. Average price: $1.4m-$1.9m.

That's "middle of the road" in context. Within MB, that's a median house in a safe, suburban neighborhood. No views, no extravagant frills. Yes, we know that's a great deal of money for housing almost anywhere else.

But there's another "middle of the road" family neighborhood at MB's far eastern edge, with prices half those of the Tree Section or the rest of East MB.

That'd be the urban townhomes at Aviation Place. It's the rare slice of MB east of Aviation Blvd.

This year, homes in the 10-year-old complex have been trading frequently. Sure, there's no comparing them to SFRs west of Aviation, but this is a great way for families to get into the 90266 (read: the schools) and not go overboard on a housing budget.

All the THs are 3br/2.5ba, and right in the narrow range of 1700-1800 sq. ft.

In contrast to the fantastically diverse housing stock in other parts of MB, these can be comped out pretty easily against one another. You have to be in the complex and inside a specific property to account for mild differences in location and finish/updates.

Whatever the differences, prices are all coming in about the same these days:

219 Aviation Place

219 Aviation Place sold most recently among the publicly offered properties, going for $738k in mid-September. That's a high.

209 Aviation Place sold just 2 weeks prior, in late August, at $720k. It had launched at $739k in May, so that's a little reduction.

303 Aviation Place sold off-market last week for $668k, a notable dip below recent listings and sales that owes partly to the absence of broker fees in the transaction, and partly to savvy buyers. (Disclosure: Dave's friendly with the new owners and urged them to make their best deal ASAP this Summer.)

311 Aviation Place is in "backup offer" status now, having listed for $735k in early August. They posted their deal Tuesday this week.

235 Aviation Place is the one active listing currently, at $735k. It came out Monday. Odds that it will be the 5th sale in the complex to close in 2012: 60-40. (If you need to close in 2012, you'd best find your buyer very soon.)

All of the $700k+ sales mark a return to a new high-water level for the complex. No Aviation Place TH had sold for more than $700k since 2008. All of the 2009-2011 sales were between $630k-$650k (including short pays).

The highest prices ever on these THs came in bubble years (did we need to say that?), specifically 2005-2007, with 3 trades over $800k – the highest $830k on a property mentioned above, 311 Aviation Place, the one with the newest pending deal. (Yes, that one's offered for less now, but a short sale in 2009 wiped out the inflated value on that one; the current owners priced it $90k more than their acquisition price.)

Turnover of 5 of these units would mark a busy year by anyone's standard.

But these have been offered and sold in half a year. That's hoppin'.