What Sold Over Asking in Early March - Manhattan Beach Market Update for 3/15/25

The first half of March saw what might be the last "wave" of closings of sales from the market's fire-impacted frenzy early this year.

That's not to say that all the closings looked like, or were, fire-impacted families relocating to Manhattan Beach.

Indeed, some of the sales don't seem to fit a "profile" for, say, a Pacific Palisades family relocating to a big house here.

Here's a selection of some of the over-asking sales that got our attention, closing between March 1-15:

4020 Ocean Drive (3br/2ba, 1530 sqft.), which in its current state is a fairly typical El Porto duplex.

The favorable corner location on Ocean Drive, with unobstructed views down 41st St. to the water, might mark this as a good development play, especially as the Porto poles are coming down. The lot is a bit bigger than a typical half lot, at 1529 sqft.

Asking a robust $2.629M, this one came in at $3.350M (+$721K / +27%). (Yowza!)

428 21st Place (3br/4ba, 1880 sqft.), a 2009-built contemporary townhome on an alley street. 

You could try to make assumptions about value from its Aug. 2023 sale at $3.315M, which was, itself, a substantial markup from an asking of $2.900M then.

For this fairly quick resale attempt, they only sought $3.450M, barely enough to break even.

But there were 250K more dollars to be had, with a close at $3.700M.

If that's going to be the going rate for non-view Sand Section townhomes, watch out. But then, maybe this price was only possible for this property at the moment it was on the market.

One thing's for sure: Local owners are very curious as to what this sale means. Some will soon find out.

656 MB Blvd. (2br/2ba, 1140 sqft.) is a boxy mid-60s tall-and-skinny on a busy (!) street, although, of course, walkable to town.

They put this one up at a sensible offering price of $1.599M, but the market wouldn't bear that.

Nope, it bore more: $1.835M (+$236K).

1241 11th (3br/4ba, 2354 sqft.), in East Manhattan, offers more than the exterior suggests. 

What looks like a traditional 60s ranch house actually had some additions, cathedral ceilings and nice remodeling going for it.

Still, it backs up to the MB Blvd. side, and isn't so far from Sepulveda.

Asking $2.695M, this one went up to $2.850M (+$155K).

2500 Pine (3br/2ba, 1299 sqft.) is a home we previously called "a remarkable transformation of a 1950 adobe home, on a corner along Marine Ave."

The home ran only a month last year before going into a deep freeze (a long period "on hold"), but re-emerged in January this year and found a buyer right away.

Asking $2.499M, it got $2.600M (+$101K).

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Now, of course, we're not saying that any of these homes did not "deserve" to get the higher prices they fetched. 

The market's been running, and a rising tide lifts all boats.

We were most intrigued by these specific examples because they don't "look like" the headline-grabbing sales that shocked the market early this year, in the first burst of relocation sales.

We did capture many more eye-popping over-asking sales in a different recent update a couple weeks ago (here). That batch certainly included some relocation purchases by displaced families. Check those out for an even bigger picture.

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Here's the rest of our local real estate market update report for the period ending 3/15/25:

> 54 active listings as of 3/15/25 (-13 from 2/28/25) 

> 40 SFRs (-8)

> 14 THs (-5)

See the Inventory list as of 3/15/25 here, or see the MB Dashboard for up-to-the-minute data.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach in this report:

> Tree Section: 10 actives (-4)

> Sand Section: 31 actives (-2)

> Hill Section: 4 actives (-1)

> East MB: 9 actives (-14)

We're also providing a report on closed sales by region of MB.

Sales data, including PPSF for all properties, are organized by sub-region of Manhattan Beach.

Here's a link to the spreadsheet: "MB Pending/Sold as of 3/15/25".