sand section

Sometimes, sellers make mistakes.

Especially in a market like this one, where sellers can look back at a few years' worth of upward pricing momentum, see underlying strength in the market and the buyer pool, and get fixated on nabbing that big number that they always hoped their home might be worth.

Then reality intervenes. If there are no buyers at your dream price, the question becomes: Are we really sellers?

At 200 38th St. (3br/4ba, 1800 sqft.), a modern-style TH with nice views in El Porto, it looks like the sellers are answering, "Yes, actually, we'd like to be sellers."

You'll see in the property details here on MBC that the CDOM ("combined days on market") count is 89 as of this morning, even while this is a "new" listing as of Friday.

But…

Oh, to have the problems of people on The Strand...

There are people walking and running by your window all the time. Dogs doing their business in your "front yard." Sometimes the ocean is just too darn loud. And the upkeep – oh, the upkeep! Maintaining clean windows, replacing metal fixtures corroded by the salt air...

All of that, plus: No one seems to be able to sell a Strand house these days.

Everything seemed normal and endlessly positive with the sale in July 2015 at 304 The Strand for a cool $14.000M.

That was where South End Strand lot sales had gotten after busts of excitement at the start of our current rising market. (Is it still rising? Discuss.)

And ever since the heady days of that heady sale, no full-sized house or lot on The Strand has…

Friday morning, a custom-built beach home with a basement and nice views at 3220 Alma (4br/5ba, 3350 sqft.) went into escrow.

The listing had run 100 days, dropping slightly from a start of $4.650M to the current price of $4.450M.

This could be just one line in our MB Property Ticker; one little note about a blip of action in the market.

But there was something more significant here.

3220 Alma is only the second home priced over $4M to make a deal in the past month.

The other deal was on much pricier new construction at 232 6th (5br/7ba, 4300 sqft.), a fairly spectacular achievement of a modern, with nice views (tiny neighbor helps) and a unique take on the "boxy modern" that you will sometimes see.

This one emerged in February asking... achem...

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…