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Local Market Rolling with Increased Demand

The impact of the tragic L.A. county wildfires on the Manhattan Beach real estate market has been instant and profound.

Rentals just don't last. Our most recent rental listing (at over $14K/mo.) got its first application within 30 minutes.

More rentals are coming online, and still more are being prepared, by many of us.

Legal issues pertaining to the "price gouging" regulations are slowing the process for some, but we do believe that more properties are coming. (Criminal charges were filed this week against a Realtor in La Cañada, and yes, people have noticed.)

Sales are happening at a blistering pace for January.

It's not just displaced families rushing in to buy homes in Manhattan Beach and the South Bay – although they are certainly a factor. 

There are scores of buyers out there who have been contemplating a move, maybe for months, whose sense of urgency has increased. They know they have a lot more competition now, and will have even more competition later.

This means that impact on the purchase market is both direct (actual displaced families buying) and indirect (buyers by choice acting more quickly).

For instance, one of our local for-sale listings saw an uptick in traffic starting just a couple of days after the fires. The potential buyers were a mix of displaced families and discretionary buyers. The ones who got under contract on the property were relocating from out of state, and had accelerated their search and decision-making to "avoid the rush."

Now, it's hard to believe, but it was only 7 days ago that we published an update about pending sales in Manhattan Beach for the first 15 days of January. With more than $51M under contract, we reported, the first half of January 2025 beat the first half of the same month for each of the prior 4 years.

Since Jan. 15, there have been 16 new escrows in town, with a combined value based on list prices of $72.347M. (As of noon Friday.)

Yes, that's in addition to the $51M+ in the first half of January – we're at $123.629M so far for the month based on list prices alone, but really $124.429M because we know that one of the early-January pendings sold much higher than list.

440 8th Street, Manhattan Beach, That was 440 8th (5br/6ba, 3610 sqft.), which closed within 9 days, $800K over asking ($9.000M sale price vs. $8.200M asking).

And that was only one $8M+ walkstreet property to go under contract recently.

215 19th (4br/5ba, 4264 sqft.) had tried to sell from June 2024 till year-end, asking $8.595M down to $8.195M, and re-listed at that price January 9. It was under contract by Monday this week.

301 16th (6br/7ba, 6289 sqft.) is a quasi duplex that first listed in July last year at $9.499M. It re-listed at $8.425M on Jan. 1 and now has a deal.

757 35th Street, Manhattan Beach, It's hard to keep up, but among the many new deals, we did see that a Tree Section new construction home at 757 35th (5br/7ba, 4000 sqft.) is back under contract.

We had specifically noted that one in a post last week ("Pricing Expectations Rising on Leases and Sales") because the house had just fallen out of escrow, after months on market, but actually raised its price $200K to $5.399M.

That did not hurt the seller at all, as they're now under contract with a new buyer.

If you're looking to track market activity on your own, the simplest link to watch for new escrows is this new deals page, also easily accessed under the NOW menu at the top of the website, labeled "NEWEST DEALS." 

There's still a week left for January to make a historic mark for new sales and leases, and plenty of 2025 still to go.


Please see our blog disclaimer.

Listings presented above are supplied via the MLS and are brokered by a variety of agents and firms, not Dave Fratello or Edge Real Estate Agency, unless so stated with the listing. Images and links to properties above lead to a full MLS display of information, including home details, lot size, all photos, and listing broker and agent information and contact information.

Based on information from California Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. as of February 10th, 2025 at 5:57pm PST. This information is for your personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties you may be interested in purchasing. Display of MLS data is usually deemed reliable but is NOT guaranteed accurate by the MLS. Buyers are responsible for verifying the accuracy of all information and should investigate the data themselves or retain appropriate professionals. Information from sources other than the Listing Agent may have been included in the MLS data. Unless otherwise specified in writing, Broker/Agent has not and will not verify any information obtained from other sources. The Broker/Agent providing the information contained herein may or may not have been the Listing and/or Selling Agent.