Inventory Leaps As Buyers Activate

Sellers are rushing properties to market amid signs that Manhattan Beach real estate is rolling hard and fast.

Whereas demand was outstripping supply for most of June, now supply is building up rapidly.

Our new chart compares where we stand with inventory as of the morning of July 11, compared against data for July 15 for 4 prior years.

The 134 listings active now is a figure higher than any other mid-July point in the data. (Although there are still 4 days left to make these numbers strictly comparable.)

You can see the remarkable bounceback as we zoom in.

The 2020 data (in gold) had shot up through April and May to nearly match last year's high-inventory pace by May 31.

June's incredible outburst of sales activity (most new contracts for any June of the past 8 years) cleared out lots of inventory and absorbed much of what came to market as it appeared.

Now, almost as quickly, an imbalance is opening up, with more listings than sales.

In the past 7 days, there have been 25 new listings, 3 failed escrows returning properties to market, 1 property going to active from "hold" status, plus 5 listings added and now sitting as "coming soon." (These "coming soon" listings do not count in inventory yet.)

Over the same period, 10 properties have newly gone into escrow. (We're excepting one property that fell out and went back into escrow.)

The rough count there, then, is a net addition of 19 listings to the market over 7 days. That's not all of the jump of 23 listings since July 1, but it's most.

Our guess is that the imbalance is temporary, as buyers remain very active, rates are attractive and there remains months' worth of pent-up demand to be worked out.

Yes, there's a risk of a high-inventory overhang, maybe later this Summer, maybe in the Fall.

We're on the lookout for that, but let's give people a chance to act on what's come to market.

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Newest Listings in Manhattan Beach

Here's a quick view on the latest homes to hit the market (automatically updated). Email subscribers may want to click on this link instead.