MB Market Update for 3/15/08, Sand

As we noted in the first post, as of March 15, inventory was the highest MBC has yet reported in one year of public tracking, with 89 active SFRs. (Note, we've revised down by 1 due to an error – our apologies.) Click here to download the complete 3/15/08 MB Market Update. Below we cover the Sand Section.

Sand Section

There are 29 active SFRs.

We had 5 new listings come on in the Sand in this 2-week period, including:

3200 Alma (first pic), a 1930s-vintage Spanish-style home offering 3br/2ba and 1500 sq. ft. It's as cute and charming as you might hope, but with lots of compromises that will turn off the average buyer – a small kitchen, limited living spaces, small bedrooms and, especially, period details like the tile work in the bathrooms. We love a sweet old home like this – with an ocean-view master closet, no less – but for $1.899m, people will generally want more.

445 30th is another older Spanish (1950s) asking just $100k more that has got many more updates and greater square footage. This one offers 3br/3ba, 2600 sq. ft. and a modern kitchen, with two living rooms and a separate dining area downstairs. The sellers also own the home next door to the west and might sell that, too. Start price for 445 30th is $1.999m.

465 30th (second pic) is unlike the others, a very large-feeling newer home offering 5br/6ba and 3600 sq. ft. on 3 levels. Plenty of living space including the third-floor deck and, as the current owners show, the front bedroom makes for a great rec room. Starts at $2.799m.

Also new is 472 35th, a teardown on a full lot (2700 sq. ft.) offered at $1.199m. A purchase just closed on this property for $1m on Feb. 29 – the day this listing began – and someone has already applied for a permit to build a new SFR. That's a quick $200k or so if they can pull off the flip rather than go through the process of building.

We saw the return of 337 16th, which came on last year at$4.095m and returns anew at $3.850m after significant time off the MLS. (We're treating it as a "new" listing due to the time off.) It's a huge (4br/5ba, 4550 sq. ft.) and very nice home with sweeping ocean views, perched at the peak of 16th St. The 4-car garage is both generous and essential in this area. The home is decorated now with an overbearing "Safari" theme throughout that you might love. Might.

There were 2 sales (new escrows) in the Sand in this period:

• 523 Marine, a cute cottage that had been held for less than 18 months by the sellers; they paid $1.310m and were asking $1.379m.

• 428 27th, the unique Brownstone of which we took note just a few weeks ago, and which was offered at $2.899m to start. There were a couple of offers but not, as we hear it, overbids.

There were a few price cuts in the region worth noting:

• 516 24th (pictured), a very crisp and spacious, beachy home, made its first $100k cut, now $2.395m.

• 305 Gull, a duplex-cum-SFR in a highly challenged location in El Norte ("North Manhattan Beach") on Highland, is $1k under $1m now.

• 4419 Highland is down almost $400k from its lofty heights, a start at $1.695m – another $50k came off and it's now at $1.299m.

And finally, there were 4 sales that closed in this period:

• 3617 Vista, new construction on Rosecrans (see "As Good As It Gets on Rosecrans"), closed at $1.840m, -$309k/-14% from its start. (MBC had guessed "nearer to $1.9m" for a final price back in September.)
  

• 420 30th, on the same block as the two new listings mentioned above, fetched $2.275m, -$304k/-12% from its initial price.

• 224 31st Place got $1.550m, down just a bit (-$89k/-5%) from its longtime price of $1.639m.

• 232 30th Place, one of the longest-running listings covered by MBC (nearly 10 months on the market in 2007), closed for $1.271m, down $98k/-7% from its start, and up just $46k (+3%) over its July 2005 purchase price.