median prices

It's hard to say when Manhattan Beach real estate inventory began to feel permanently cramped. But it seems like supply has been too low for demand since roughly late 2012.

It's no coincidence that prices have shot up during the same 3-year span, though there are many factors beyond the simple supply/demand imbalance.

Now we see in the data that 2015 is going to close out with the fewest residential real estate sales since 2009-2010. 

But if that were bad news, it's not paired with any slippage in the median price for Manhattan Beach properties. Prices are still up.

What does it all mean for the state of the market heading into next year?

First, let's look at sales totals.

As you see from our chart below, we just took a snapshot of sales YTD for each…

We recently looked at the changing market for Manhattan Beach townhomes through the lens of just one recent deal. (See "How the Townhome Market Has Changed.")

That one deal was for 2301 Vista, a modern-style 3br TH with 2400+ interior square feet that's in escrow after listing about 75% higher than its 2011 purchase price.

But we also like to get away from anecdotes and look at a bit more data.

This time we're trying to get at two questions:

What's a typical price per square foot (PPSF) for a Sand Section townhome now?

What's are the recent trends?

To compare apples to apples, we looked at sales from the first half of each of the past 5 years. That is, Jan. 1-Jan. 30 of each year only (2011-2015).

As you'll see here in our chart, the uptrend is 3…

Last year, Manhattan Beach real estate saw a new high with a median home price of $1.900M.

So, what's a typical median-priced house in Manhattan Beach going to look like?

Turns out, we have 7 answers for you. 

That's because 7 homes sold in 2014 for exactly that new median price. This is an interesting way to get a picture of what that money buys in a few different areas of town.

For more on median prices in 2014 and past years, see our recent post: "MB Median Prices Rocket to New High in 2014."

Here's the full gallery of 7 homes:

3504 Palm (5br/4ba, 3450 sq. ft.) is a late-90s Mediterranean in the Tree Section with modest upgrades, but largely original.

It features the fairly open, great-room floorplan that's more or less standard for family homes…

From the department of unsurprising – and yet still shocking – news, we have this update.

Manhattan Beach real estate hit an all-time high for median home prices in 2014: $1,900,000.

Maybe you saw a new peak coming? Still, the data are pretty incredible.

The rocket-fueled jump from only the prior year, 2013, was an amazing 17%. (Well, 16.7% to be exact.)

That 17% year-over-year figure suggests monthly home price appreciation of 1.4%.

Some other angles to see in these data about our booming market:

• The MB median price is up 34% in just 2 years;

• The median price jumped exactly $500K since 2010;

• From recent trough (2009) to current peak, the median price is up 38%; and

• This new record high median price bests the prior, 2007 peak, by