MB Market Update for 5/31/17

New new new. People want new.

New homes. New styles. That "new house smell."

Several of the last few homes to go into escrow in MB have been new construction.

There are 9 new builds under contract now, with 4 of them making deals in just the past week:

1450 23rd (5br/7ba, 4750 sqft.) is a big new beauty that they don't exactly call "Plantation" style (there's some chatter that the style name is on the way out, even if the style isn't).

The description does draw in buzzwords like "coastal" and "contemporary," which is to say: Very now.

Asking $3.535M, this one lasted a whole week. That price puts it up in the very top tier of East Manhattan sales.

3401 Pacific (5br/5ba, 3550 sqft.) lasted a lot more than a week. It began in early June 2016 at $2.999M, and has made cuts along the way (and raised its price, too).

Last at $2.699M, it stood almost alone in the Tree Section as new construction wanting a buyer.

Now they've got one.

Worth noting: Late last week, neighboring, long-running new construction at 2602 Pacific (4br/5ba, 3200 sqft.) finally sold, closing for $2.750M.

1747 Gates (5br/6ba, 4425 sqft.) (pictured) is another large East MB build, this one really, really east. Listed for $3.199M, this one needed a couple months, but now has a deal.

724 30th (5br/6ba, 4750 sqft.) is huge by Tree Section standards, thanks to a large (1400+ sqft.) basement. 

And the $4.500M asking price?

Well, it's the same as another already in escrow at 605 29th (5br/6ba, 4710 sqft.).

Both made deals before coming all the way to market.

Those are all suburban homes, but new and newer homes have been the rage in the Sand Section this year.

It's not even clear which is the biggest sale among newly built townhomes, for instance.

100 Manhattan Ave. (3br/4ba, 2615 sqft.) is a new modern landmark at the southern tip of MB.

And at $4.900M, it set a new bar of sorts. How do you like your PPSF? Near $1,900/PSF? (In this case, $1,874/PSF, to be specific.)

Larger, with an extra bedroom and pulled up off Manhattan Ave., 703 Bayview (4br/5ba, 2950 sqft.) cleared out new space above the clouds this year with a sale at $5.575M. (And $1,894/PSF.)

Those kinds of sales have reset expectations and ideas of what's possible for an elite new build by the beach.

Then again, it's possible to overstate the role or importance of new construction to our local real estate market. 

As we put pen to paper (!?) here today for our twice-monthly update, there have been 156 sales in Manhattan Beach year to date.

Only 31 were new construction, making for 20% of the market. 

Hmmm. So, for all the sexy headlines that the new builds get, 4 out of 5 homes selling in Manhattan Beach aren't new, and people seem to like those just fine, too.

As we look to our report, there's a slight dropoff in inventory. Surely, sellers mostly avoided listing last week with the Memorial Day holiday. But time is ticking if you want to get on the market before school lets out and the market quiets down. Wonder where we'll be mid-June?

Here's the rest of our local real estate market update report for the period ending 5/31/17:

• 103 active listings as of 5/31/17 (-6 from 5/15/17)
• 88 SFRs (-8)
• 15 THs (-2)

See the inventory list as of 5/31/17  here, or see the MB Dashboard for up-to-the-minute data.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach in this report:

• Tree Section: 21 actives (+2)
• Sand Section: 53 actives (-2)
• Hill Section: 13 actives 
• East MB: 16 actives (-6)

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 5/31/17."