That's the 3rd Hill Section Lot Price Record This Year

The inexorable climb of Hill Section land values continues this year.

Just now, a prime corner lot at 708 8th has closed for $12.500M, the highest-ever pure land sale ever posted to the MLS.

(The image at top is purely a rendering of what might be built – no formal plans were made or included. The image here is a drone view of the plot.)

We recently called the listing "arguably the last great view lot in the Hill Section available for redevelopment." 

We've also alluded to pre-market rumors that they'd be asking more like $14M, a number that did not seem real to us when we heard it. (Often, a big part of pre-market buzz is an inflated asking price, so it's not like we were in shock.)

Alas, they came to market at $12.500M – pretty much perfect, based on our own pre-market analysis for a potential buyer – and got exactly that. 

The roughly 10K sqft. corner lot benefits from a downslope heading south and west from the subject, and no power poles. While it may not be the highest location in the Hill Section, there's going to be great ocean, PV and Catalina views from a new home on site.

(This image was provided in the listing, and taken from a vantage point meant to simulate standing in the living room of a top floor with 11' ceilings. So, yeah, that's a nice view.)

This $12.500M list-price sale edges out the nearby corner lot at 611 8th (~8300 sqft.), which sold for $11.100M in February.

In that case, multiple offers chased the ocean-view location, driving the price up from $9.750M. 

How brief that moment at the top was...

Oh, no, wait. You are thinking that it was a "short" amount of time between February and now for 611 8th Street to hold that top position?  

No, no, it was even shorter. 

Actually, both of these 8th Street sales were exceeded by an off-market sale at 700 John Street in April. 

If 700 John looks familiar, that means you've been paying attention. (Gold star for you!)

700 John first traded in June 2021 at $8.700M.

In September 2024, it closed for $10.000M, in an off-market sale that came after two unsuccessful public listings that consumed most of 2023 (asking $10.475M and then $9.999M).

Well, this April it re-traded for $12.800M – not bad for a 9984 sqft. lot with view potential higher up the hill. (This view image is from a past listing; we have no idea how well it represents what you'd get from inside the house.)

We know that the first buyer (the $8.7M buyer) was looking to sell the lot with architectural plans for a mega-house (7200 sqft.), although some buyers familiar with the design found the build a bit spendy – and it promised to be a 3-year build. 

There's no telling why the next buyer held on just about 18 months before flipping it to the next guy. What is this, the Lakers?

To date, the home looks pretty much exactly like what you see above. No demo, no new build, just a home looking like an 80s or early-90s build that has somehow succeeded in staving off 5 years' worth of challenges to its very existence. 

700 John is now your unquestioned king of the hill, till perhaps next month. 

It's certainly the top price for a single lot of about 8K-10K sqft. That record is locked down for a while.

All three of the top lot sales in the Hill Section have closed within this year of our lord, 2026. 

The top sale to date in the Hill Section – and all of MB – is Luka Doncic's purchase of a mega/custom home in the Hill Section, $25.000M, just 370 days ago. (See "Sports Stars Make Biggest Sale in MB History.") 

And Hermosa resident/Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff laid down $19.075M in 2023 to buy two adjoining lots at 5th/John, totaling 20,604 sqft. of prime dirt, where his mega manse is under way today. 

Watch the market, though. We have this feeling something more is coming.