Back in Summer 2021, as the local market was surging, a developer purchased a double lot in the northeast quadrant of the Tree Section.
The land underneath 3201 Maple Avenue, all 9261 sqft. of it, sold for $3.350M then, the equivalent of $1.675M each for two lots. (Lots that would have been sized at about 4630 sqft. each.)
Then they had a decision to make: Split it? Or build big?
Building big, they could go up to around 6000 sqft. of house without even needing a basement. That's a home size that simply never had been built in the Tree Section before then – outside of the ritzy Martyrs area, or some Martyrs-adjacent areas with larger lots.
This was the northeastern part of the Tree Section, east of Pacific, north of Valley, lacking some of the location benefits of other parts of the district.
While prices were trending upward, the safe bet would have been a lot split, with two homes, probably with basements, slated to sell somewhere in the $4-million range.
But no! They went big!
The new home at 3201 Maple Avenue would be 5br/6ba, 6137 sqft.
Less than 2 months ago, as the new home debuted, we called it "an enormous home that is really unlike anything you'll see in the Tree Section, and even mostly in the Hill Section or East Manhattan, where bigger lots exist. Where in MB do you find an 80' wide lot?"
They marked it at $7.250M, and (perhaps nervously) awaited the public reaction.
How many buyers would they need?
One! Who came quickly!
The property was under contract within 11 days, and now has closed near enough to that asking price, at $7.000M. (As a sweetener for the listing side, the buyers came unrepresented, hiring them, too. Happy holidays, indeed.)
So now we try to place the sale in context.
Big-dollar sales in the 6s have begun to happen in the Grand View district of the Trees, adjacent to the Sand Section and Sand Dune Park.
Huge-dollar sales up to and over $10M can be found in the Martyrs area.
You really don't find big prices east of Poinsettia south of Valley, or east of Pacific north of Valley, with one outlier.
That's 3301/3305 Pine, an unusual combination of what was once two separate homes, which a prior owner reconfigured into a "living house" and a "fun house" with tropical pool, a "compound" of sorts that we've noted here a few times (like in 2019's "Compound Rapture.") Yeah, it was the soccer guy that first converted the place.
That unusual two-house, two-lot compound sold for $6.750M in 2016, but "only" $6.000M in 2020.
By contrast, 3201 Maple was purpose-built as a single house, and while it may be sprawling, you don't have to leave one structure to get to another. (Alas, no tropical pool. Indeed, there isn't much yard.)
The $7.000M sale won't rank as tops for the Tree Section this year, as that honor goes to 604 14th St. (5br/8ba, 6114 sqft.), a 2019-built masterpiece with a basement, pool and cabana, which sold for $10.775M this August. (See "New High in Trees, with a Sidecar.")
But don't worry, 3201 Maple will have its place when we do our annual roundup of top sales across Manhattan Beach.
We're looking forward to that, and much more as the new year comes around!
Please see our blog disclaimer.
Listings presented above are supplied via the MLS and are brokered by a variety of agents and firms, not Dave Fratello or Edge Real Estate Agency, unless so stated with the listing. Images and links to properties above lead to a full MLS display of information, including home details, lot size, all photos, and listing broker and agent information and contact information.
