Strand Sales of 2009

During MBC's first 2 full years online, very few Strand properties changed hands.

In 2009, it was a minor flood. (And we use such a term cautiously in reference to our town's tony tsunami zone.)

Many Strand properties were offered, many were taken. Here's the list of sales, lowest-priced to highest (click any highlighted address for more pics & details via Redfin):

• 3216 The Strand almost certainly winds up as a lot sale, given that the duplex on site is deeply flawed. (The listing leads with "Best priced piece of land available on The Strand.") However, it's still occupied for the time being.
  

The pricing, also, wasn't so great, and took a while to work out. After a brief foray at $7.3m in 2008, the home returned at $5.9m in March, gradually winding down to $4.7m in August. That's probably a notch below what the conventional wisdom predicted for this 3500 sq. ft. patch of beach frontage.

• Nearby, 3404 The Strand, offering the same lot size, sold a few months before for more money – $5.350m – but with a structure worth saving. Well, a person can hope.

The custom, cool, 2-building Spanish could be brought around to 21st century standards with a little work and inspiration, and that seems such a better fate than razing a minor landmark in the northern part of town. 

As with 3216, this home was first offered for a price seemingly pulled from the very thin air of the stratosphere: $7.8m, before settling back almost $2.5m below that.

• The lone completed, ready-to-wear sale was at 1712 The Strand, (3br/4ba, 4500 sq. ft.) a new home first offered in 2008 but only officially on market in February this year.

Unofficially, the start price was first $12.5m, but in February it began at $10.5m. A quick offer came in and the sale closed for $9.0m in late March.

• Not new, but plenty spectacular, was 1800 The Strand (5br/6ba, 5325 sq. ft.), a south-facing corner-lot home that just happened to be at the base of one of the best walkstreets in town, winding 18th St. (see "Great Streets: 18th St. (Sand)").  

The home was offered in April at $13.5m, but when the sale closed in August, the price was kept private.

For the first time now, based on the county assessor's report, we can report the final price as $11.65m.

• We close with another lot sale, but what a lot sale in this case: 204 & 208 The Strand were offered separately, but purchased together. The lots will be combined for a new beachfront dream home. (The existing homes are rented out for the interim.)
  

Total value of the 2 lots: $12.8m ($6.1m for 204 and $6.7m for 208).

Worth noting: The, achem, "lesser" of those, 204, actually began at $8.2m, so it was ground down quite a bit, and quickly, to its eventual dirt price.

Some great properties there, but mainly a lot of potential. Did you notice that most of the offerings needed to adjust by $2m or so? Hey, what's $2m at the beach?

Thanks to those last 2 sales, the southernmost stretch of MB may be the premier section of LA-area oceanfront property by 2013-14, when all the construction down there is finally finished.

There's the triple-lot home at 212 The Strand (see "Big, Beautiful, Too Much?"), just completed this year, another new home at 2nd/The Strand which is nearly a wrap (well, maybe next Summer). Within a stone's throw are several other recent and nicely done homes.

Sure, nearly $13m is a lot to join that club, but it's good company. Even if $13m is just the price to get started.