Address                 Sqft        YrBt      S/Price
229  24th ST            4,230    2009      $ 4,200,000
3216  The Strand    3,600    1946       $ 4,700,000
128  9th ST              4,100     2009      $ 4,900,000
224  7th ST              4,200     2009      $ 4,900,000
3404  The Strand   5,200    1974        $ 5,350,000
612  John St            7,398     2000      $ 5,450,000
218  Anderson ST   8,500     2001       $ 6,525,000
208  The Strand     3,575      1955        $ 6,700,000*
204   The Strand    3,568      1926       $ 6,100,000*
1712  The Strand    4,500      2008      $ 9,000,000

Break down:
3 sand section, walk street homes. Avg price: $4,667,000
2 Hill section homes with views. Avg. Price: $5,987,500
5 Strand homes. Avg Price: $ 6,370,000
It should be noted that only one of these Strand sales was a newer home, so in 2 years only one new home in the Manhattan Strand has sold.

*The 2 Strand sales at 204 and 208 The Strand were bought by the same owner and will be developed into one house which will be right next to the new house on 3 lots at 3rd and The Strand.  The corner of 2nd and The Strand is new construction currently being built on a single corner lot, but if you think about it, the block between 2nd St. and 3rd St. on the strand is 6 lots and will have 3 new houses on it (3 houses TOTAL).

In 2008 there were 10 sales over $4,000,000 but no strand sales!

2 Hill section homes
3 in the American Martyrs section
5 in the Sand Section
0 Strand Homes!!!!!

There have been 4 sales  in the last 2+ months on 8th St. in the Manhattan Hill section all of which sold in the low $3,000,000 range.

(going oldest to newest sale)
864 8th St. Manhattan Beach, sold in October for $3,150,000 by Vintage Real Estate (Stroyke Brothers)
This house was a nice cape cod style house, 4 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, built in 2007. 3,882 square feet of house and 5,680 square feet of land.

717 N. Poinsettia, Manhattan Beach, sold in late November for $3,110,000.
This house was on the corner of 8th St. and Poinsettia Ave., it has great curb appeal.  The inside was a little dated since it was built in 1987, the house was 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4,180 square feet, and the lot was 11,423.  This is a great looking home on a large lot but definitely needs to be updated which I am told the new owners are doing.

 718 N. Poinsettia, Manhattan Beach is currently in escrow, it was a brand new house, never been lived in.  It is very large at 5,725 square feet on a 6,495 square foot lot.  This house is a 6 bedroom, 6 bathroom house designed by Louie Tomaro and built by a local builder.  It was last listed at $3,485,000 and I was told it sold in the low $3,000,000 range on par with the other 3 sales.

877 8th Street, Manhattan Beach was last listed at $ 3,299,000 and is currently in escrow supposedly close to that price. This home is listed by South Bay Brokers and has been on the market for 209 days.
This home was built in 2006 with 4,658 square feet of house and 5,760 square feet of land.  It features 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms with lots of nice features.

It is interesting that all for of these sales literally happened with in 50 ft of each other…

I think it does prove a “base line” of what a nice 5,000 +/- square foot house  on 8th Street will sell for, it also shows that there are  buyers out there that can and will buy high end homes in this market, as well as the fact that banks are lending in this price range, I do know that at least 3 of these properties had to get financing in order to buy these homes.  Also it should be mentioned that none of these homes had an ocean view!

Why would these buyers not just go buy a nice tree section house and save themselves $1,000,000 in mortgage?  The answer is the size of the house, these homes are much bigger then your average newer home in the tree section and honestly people also like the idea that they live in the “Hill Section” as well.  There are a lot of families with 3 and 4 kids and there is a need for houses of this size.

2 other notable sales in this price range:
1019 Duncan sold for $2,900,000; new house, 4,800 sft. (this did have an ocean view)
502 Anderson sold for $3,150,000; built in 2004, 4,200 sft. (no view)

This is a quick entry about a few sales in the tree section that have sold over 2,000,000! (in the last 6 months)

2401 John St. Manhattan Beach closed today for $2,275,000
This was talked about in one of my older entries “a dying breed”

2705 Palm Dr. Manhattan Beach, closed last month off market for $2,250,000
This is a Matt Morris re-sale that was built in 2008, sold as it was being finished.  The sellers paid $2,550,000 back then.
10% loss, not bad considering what some other people had sold for.

700 35th St. Manhattan Beach, sold $ 2,250,00  8/11/09

1805 N. Pointsettia Ave. Manhattan Beach sold $2,000,000  6/16/09

What does this mean?  Are we at a bottom?
No one knows but this is a sign that prices have stopped falling for the time being. I feel strongly that idea of buying a 1-4 year old house in the tree section for $1,600,000 to $1,800,000 is off the table for now.

The only real listings left like the ones above are:

562 33rd St. Shorewood Realtors Lynne Lear $2,150,000, MLS#  S09096536

2100 Pine Ave. Shorewood Realtors Marilee Dolan $2,149,000  MLS# S09127283

The other listings out there are not worth mentioning at this time due to price and/or location.

116 Terraza Place, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

http://www.oconnorproperty.com/property-detail-property-98.php