MB Market Update for 1/31/18

We're starting the year out with a lower-inventory trend.

It's definitely too early to project that out across the year (no predictions here!), but it is notable.

At 53 listings for the last day of January, we're 21 lower than 2017 (74) and 12 lower than 2016 (65).

But that's where the comparison's kind of end, because 2013-2015 all began with less inventory than we do today, awaiting the kickoff of Eagles vs. Patriots. (Are there any other teams in the AFC, by the way?)

As you know well, we'll track this trend throughout the year.

From a seller's perspective, while the market might seem a bit uncertain today, it would be good news to see less competition in the form of medium-to-high inventory. Both 2016 and 2017 saw the highest inventory of the past 5-6 years.

For buyers, if lower inventory persists, it could be yet another year of fighting to get the right thing - or trying to buy pre-market/off-market before anyone else has a chance at a property.

Take a moment to learn something about MB Confidential's "Ticker" tool. You probably know that you can track new escrows in real time on the MB Dashboard, and you can even go from there to a full page of all the newest escrows.

But if you enjoy the Ticker's observations and commentary on listings, you might want to look at the new escrows through the prism of our microblog.

So try this: From the front page's "More Ticker Posts" button (or using this link), go to the main Ticker page. In the upper right, you'll see the option to "Search the Ticker by Category."

Looking for new escrows, you'd simply tick the box for "New Escrows" and activate the search with "Search Ticker." The resulting display is a brief, narrated history of the last month or so in new deals in Manhattan Beach.

This concludes our "tech support" section of the post.

Looking at some of the recent sales in Manhattan Beach, we're actually going to look at a couple of new escrows first.

That's because 757 and 759 Manhattan Beach Blvd. are the first 2 units to sell out of a new 5-unit complex at the "gateway" to Manhattan Beach (Laurel and MBB).

Both are 2br units fronting MBB with just under 2000 sqft. of living space. There's a third one of those also on offer (761 MB Blvd (2br/3ba, 1853 sqft.) at $2.145M).

757 MB Blvd was priced at $2.025M and 759 MB Blvd at $1.925M.

The more spacious and quiet back units at 760 Center Place (3br/3ba, 2265 sqft., $2.395M) and 756 Center Place (3br/3ba, 2180 sqft., $2.275M) are the big prizes, poised to make their deals perhaps early this year also.

With a walkable location, beachy style and that ever-sought character of being new, these new townhomes have now drawn the immediate interest and action for which they held promise.

Take a quick video tour of the new building by watching the first segment of our recent walkthrough video here.

People love new construction, and that's also one reason they got 420 31st sold.

The beachy new 5br/6ba, 4300 sqft. debuted in October 2017 and hung on through the holidays before making a deal just after Christmas.

Start price was $4.995M, and the sale came in at $4.637M (-$358K / -7%).

This is substantially the highest price ever on the plateau (aka "the flats"), the 400 blocks east of Alma and north of Grand View Elementary.

420 31st just stole the first-place trophy held for 6 months by beachy-darling and unique 445 33rd (4br/5ba, 3750 sqft.), which went over asking to $4.400M last July.

And we're guessing it's no coincidence, but the only 2 other $4M+ sales ever on the plateau also occurred in 2017: 421 32nd (4br/5ba, 4250 sqft., '03 build w/ major modernizations) at $4.025M (March 2017) and neighboring 440 32nd (5br/5ba, 4200 sqft., '06 build w/ slick updates) at $4.000M (June 2017).

So, flats, nice work! Never before a $4M sale, and now 4 x $4M.

Worth noting: The lot for 420 31st sold in Sept. 2015 for $2.050M.

Here's the rest of our local real estate market update report for the period ending 1/31/18:

• 53 active listings as of 1/31/18 (+5) 
• 41 SFRs (+1)
• 12 THs (+4)

See the inventory list as of 1/31/18 here, or see the MB Dashboard for up-to-the-minute data.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach in this report:

• Tree Section: 17 actives (+3)
• Sand Section: 27 actives (+6)
• Hill Section: 3 actives (-2)
• East MB: 6 actives (-2)

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 1/31/18."