MB Market Update for 7/15/18

The Manhattan Beach real estate market is warm and sticky. Like a morning in Florida, it's surprisingly hot and seems to get hotter with the slightest ray of sunshine.

Or, wait... that's just the weather, where 75 can feel oddly like 85.

But we do have real numbers for you here.

Inventory has jumped thanks to a massive mid-July cloudburst.

Fully 22 new listings hit in the week leading up to last week's open houses, and for the 2-week period we're tracking here, we saw an overall boost of 11 from 93 listings at month's start to 104 on July 15. (It's 109 as we write on Thursday.)

Last year at this time, there were 115 listings in Manhattan Beach.

The real question is whether we'll continue to see deals made at a decent pace over the dog days of Summer.

Sure, there are buyers who need to get themselves some keys before school starts. They're focused. They're ready.

In other ways, the market is heading toward its traditional humid, shady hammock nap for late July and August.

One hopeful sign: There were 12 new escrows from July 1-15, one better than in the same period in 2017.

Looking at the new closed sales in this period, most (10 sales) were in East Manhattan Beach.

One of those sales was Dave's listing of the "comfy classic cottage" at 1515 2nd (4br/3ba, 1900 sqft.) at $1.797M (+$98K over asking). We had multiple offers, notching a deal after 11 official DOM.

Most of the 10 East MB sales were on the smallish side: 9 were 2200 sqft. or smaller, while 5 were under 1500 sqft.

And pricewise, 6 sold between $1.3-$1.8M.

In the Sand Section, you saw a robust sale come in at 405 21st (3br/2ba, 1450 sqft.), a half-lot, 2-story SFR with a recent total makeover.

At $2.600M, it sold for full price plus $1K, a $350K markup over the late 2015 sale (in remodeled condition, but before the more beachy recent makeover).

Interestingly, for the exact same price, someone got a remodeled 90s TH at 95 Crest (3br/4ba, 2300 sqft.), meaning a whole extra story plus 850 sqft. more. (See "South End TH Remodel Paid for Itself.") You see at work here one illustration of the general principle that SFRs are more valuable thanks to the ownership of the land.

In the South Martyrs area, where the lots are carved like Sand Section plots and fairly new 3-story building height limits prevail, there is more of a building trend taking hold. The sale at 732 13th (3br/2ba, 1900 sqft.) could have been a land sale, as the home was very dated and small compared to what could be built.

Moreover, there was a land sale just 2 doors away at 724 13th recently ($2.115M in Feb. 2018). It's an active construction site now.

Even though 732 13th underpriced that neighboring comp, it hung around on the market at $2.000M for a couple of months.

Priced for dirt, it sold as a house. It's closed now at $1.875M and facing a remodel rather than a date with a 'dozer.

That sale is $240K and 11% lower than the neighboring land sale. Good buy at 732.

Here's the rest of our local real estate market update report for the period ending 7/15/18:

• 104 active listings as of 7/15/18 (+11 from 6/30/18) 
• 75 SFRs (+3)
• 29 THs (+8)

See the Inventory list as of 7/15/18 here, or see the MB Dashboard for up-to-the-minute data.

Active listings by region of Manhattan Beach in this report:

• Tree Section: 11 actives (-2)
• Sand Section: 58 actives (+6)
• Hill Section: 8 actives (-2)
• East MB: 27 (+9)

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 7/15/18."