A Blip or Slowing? - Manhattan Beach Market Update for 5/15/26

The first part of May had a modest 10 new deals, an exact tie with last year – although last year, the conversation by this point in the year was literally about "Who Hit the Brakes?" on the market. 

Right now, we are willing to look at a single 2-week period as a blip rather than market deceleration, but let's all keep track, ok? 

During this period, our Edge office closed a Tree Section sale on our listing at 3211 N. Valley (4br/2ba, 1461 sqft.). 

Some of the aspects of the sale might be interesting to you. For one thing, our clients were in the market as buyers, looking for a larger home. As their search process (and even offers) took on urgency, we knew they'd be selling Valley at some point.

Rather than wait and end up in a rush, we got the property ready and photos done weeks in advance. This way, once they got an upleg under contract, we'd be in position to list Valley with no ramp-up. That worked out great, as we were on market within 2 days of having an offer accepted on a new home. 

When we had mapped out the potential market value, we pegged it as $2.500-$2.600M, with the greatest likelihood of a sale right between. Although it's always tempting to list at the high end of a range like that, our clients took the opposite tack, starting at $2.499M. We all hoped this might inspire quick, multiple offers. It did. The sale price: $2.550M. (Yeah, we love being right.)

There were two unrelated sales that closed on the same day in this period (May 12) which presented an astonishing contrast.

94 Highland Ave. is described as a "Duplex sold for land value. Entered for comp purposes."

The South End lot is 3384 sqft. It sold for $3.800M. 

Look at that photo for a moment, where 94 Highland is framed in white. Just down and to the left two plots over, you can see a corner lot, can't you?

That's 98 Highland. 

It's also an old little duplex with high land value. Lot size: 3382 sqft. (call it identical). 

You might recognize this one, because it was publicly listed in February, asking $5.500M. 

By early March, they had a deal. And it closed May 12 for more: $5.800M. 

That's a $2M difference, and it can't all be about the corner versus interior lot. Nor can it be fully explained by the difference between a public listing and one sold off-market (like 94).

If you were comping out a property in the area, you'd need to know more, right? 

We'll come back to this one...  

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Here's the rest of our local real estate market update report for the period ending 5/15/26:

> 72 active listings as of 5/15/26 (+13 from 4/30/26) 

> 54 SFRs (+10)

> 18 THs (+3)

See the Inventory list as of 5/15/26 here, or see the MB Dashboard for up-to-the-minute data.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach in this report:

> Tree Section: 12 actives (+1)

> Sand Section: 39 actives (+11)

> Hill Section: 5 actives (flat)

> East MB: 16 actives (+1)

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 5/15/26".