New Construx in the Sand: Rare

New spec construction in the Sand Section doesn't happen often. The spec market focuses on the suburban Tree Section and East Manhattan.

[Side note: Sand Castle construction for prizes happens this Sunday. See this DigMB story or the end of this post for more.]

In the past year, we count only 4 closed sales of new construction in the Sand Section. (It's 11-12 in the Trees over the same span.)

This week, we saw 2 of those 4 new homes close on the same day:

516 4th (5br/6ba, 4300 sqft.) is a spacious, fairly glamorous, white, bright and open "Plantation Chic" home in the quiet South End.

There's a welcoming, open living room on the entry level, opening to a covered patio and picket-fenced yard. The middle level has no walls except those surrounding a powder room – a dramatically open space. 4 of the 5br are upstairs, including a delightful master. There's good attention to detail throughout.

Launched in April at $5.250M, it hung around for a while.

It seems that buyers who liked it didn't quite believe in the asking price. (That's no specific slight to this house; it's an epidemic spanning all of Manhattan Beach real estate... buyers are more skeptical these days.)

Once there was action, though, there were 3 offers at once. As it all shook out, the seller got full asking price, $5.250M. That's a bit over $1,200/PSF.

There is talk of 4th Street being converted into a walkstreet. (The segment east of Ingleside here currently has a street, while the same stretch of 5th and 6th east of Ingleside are walkstreets.) You can say, "talk is cheap," but there is actually a process under way. We'll see where that goes. If it pans out, the inherent desirability of the location rockets ahead.

Very nearby, a comparably sized, if different, new construction home along Ingleside at 441 3rd is in escrow. Last at $5.399M.

221 Homer (4br/4ba, 2500 sqft.) is not an example of spec construction.

The homeowners bought the lot a couple years ago and custom-built a home for themselves. Later, though, they chose to sell.

The listing first launched at $4.950M in early March, then corrected down by $100K soon thereafter.

After a deal that didn't wrap up, 221 Homer re-listed at $4.750M and cut down to $4.625M this Summer. 

The closed price: $4.467M per the MLS, quite nearly $1,800/PSF.

The other new construction homes in the Sand to close in the past year:

814 Highland (TH, 4br/4ba, 2500 sqft.) at $3.800M

4101 Crest (3br/4ba, 2670 sqft.) at $2.800M

Here we do not count homes where there was a major remodel or semi-faked new "build date." It has to be 100% a new home to make our (short) list.

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SUNDAY FUNDAY: Come to the beach this Sunday morning, Aug. 7, between 8:00am and 10:00am for the 56th Annual Sand Castle Design Competition.

Build build build! And you might win a prize.

The competition is organized as part of the International Surf Festival by the MB City Dept. of Parks & Recreation, with prizes from local merchants organized by DigMB.com and Dave Fratello of MB Confidential.

We currently have prizes pledged by Pitfire Pizza, Manhattan Beach Creamery and pages: a bookstore. More to come!

See DigMB's post about the competition here on DigMB.com.