216 7th st. Has been sold!
It showed up in the tax records as sold as of 7/14/10. The property sold to an individual. My understanding was that this was a “short pay” and the sales price was $5,025,000 (per tax records).
This is 125,000 more than the house up the street built by Maloney Development but this house had a basement.

216 7th st. was listed by Rob Freedman of ReMax.

Today it was recorded, 660 33rd st. Manhattan Beach was sold for $1,990,000 after being listed for $2,195,000.

The real story is that the house did have multiple offers in the range of $1,950,000 and $2,100,000 and this buyer got the house for over $2,000,000 but then backed out his own commission to reduce the price for himself (buyer/agent).
So Retail price on this house was $2,050,000.

Only a few “new construction homes” left there is one more that is not on the market from the “golden era” on Pine with a basement that is set to hit the market soon if it has not sold off market.

Speaking of off market there has been tons of activity off the market and if you are not working with an agent “in the know” then you are at a disadvantage for those good properties.  I smell another blog entry!

here are the specs on 660 33rd st…

“New Construction…Now Bank Owned REO. Stunning new rustic spanish home with over 4700 sq. ft. of living space. Beautiful travertine stone and stained walnut wide plank floors thru-out. Large cook’s kitchen with granite center island, vege sink, pantry, butler’s pantry and quality Thermador appliances. Large family room with hardwood floors and big stone fireplace, plus french doors opening to patio and outdoor fireplace. Large basement with rec. room and storage. All bedrooms have their own bath. Spacious master suite with vaulted ceiling, stone fireplace, walk-in closet, separate spa tub and shower. Excellent location, walk to parks, award winning Grandview Elementary School, restaurants and the beach.”

Also see my video blog entry on this property: http://www.oconnorproperty.com/blog/?p=206

So when we look back at 2009 we could definitely be looking at the bottom of this real estate cycle. I am not ready to call it yet but there is some strong evidence that we have hit it.
In general we have seen a large pick up in activity in the last 60 days and there are no signs of it slowing down. I want to be clear that I am not saying prices are going to go flying back up. on the other hand there does seem to be a floor that we have hit and prices are down (from the peak) but they do not seem to be continuing to drop. Not everything is flying off the shelf but the homes that are priced well sell quickly!

Here are some stats:
2009: 5 sales between 2,000,000-3,000,000
1825 Poinsettia,MB $2,000,000
1901 Walnut Ave., MB $2,150,000 (new)
700 35th St., MB $2,250,000
2401 John St., MB $2,275,000 (new)
1801 John St., MB $2,550,000
*2200 Palm Dr., MB $1,975,000

2010 thru March 10th
SOLD:
562 33rd St. $2,000,000
3113 Laurel Ave. $2,025,000
2100 Pine Ave., MB $2,100,000 (new)
1811 Agnes Ave., MB $2,150,000
PENDING:
2603 Palm Dr. MB, listed for 3,000,000 in escrow for under full price.
1900 Walnut Ave., MB Listed for 2,025,000 in escrow for close to full price, sold in one day!

If those two “pending sales” close we will have already pasted the number of $2,000,000+ sales for last year, in March!
There is also an off market sale that will record over $2,000,000 soon that I will share once its official.

Well we have had a lot of activity in last week or two and I thought I would briefly discuss the highlights of the last few weeks.

First off, 432 9th st. Manhattan Beach CA
This was our new listing last week, on the market for 7 days and is now in escrow.  This house showed really well, it had a lot of style and a very functional floor plan.  We had lots of activity and ended up with multiple offers by the time we sold it.  The price was questioned by a lot of people inside and outside the industry, I felt like it was priced right with the intention that someone would fall in love with the house and the street and not mind paying top dollar because they would be living there for a long time.  I will tell you that if I listed the house at 2,499,000 I would of had 10 offers! I feel like the buyers are getting a great house in a great location! I should know I grew up on that street.

Also to come and go very quickly is 1900 Walnut Ave., Manhattan Beach
This a very charming tree section home with lots natural light and a good floor plan.  It sits on the south-east corner of 19th St. and Walnut which allows it to get great sun light all day long, it also allows them to have a a front and back yard, each of which are off of a living space in the house.  This house went on the market this weekend and I am told is already sold with multiple offers as well.  No word on price or terms but sounds like it must have been a good deal for them to take it after one day on the market.

Other notable sales in the last week are:

225 Moonstone, Manhattan Beach: This was a half lot single family home in “el porto” that was listed for 1,125,000 sold right away.  It was for sale a year ago and could not sell.

908 The Strand, Manhattan Beach: This is a prime location in south Manhattan, this also sold for basically land value, multiple offers over the asking price.

645 36th st. Manhattan Beach: This tree section home was on the market for a very short time as well, listed as 4 bed. 2.5 bath 2,066 sft., $1,339,000 sold with multiple offers.

Hello All!

Well it is 2010 and there is a new feeling in the market…I can already feel the activity picking up.  Buyers are looking and sellers are thinking about coming on the market earlier in the year then what is the “norm”.  Waiting until after the superbowl use to be when everyone would wait to bring out their new listings but this year it’s different, there is a real electricity in the market.  I am not going to sit here and tell you that prices are going to start going up but what I do believe transactions are going to go up and there will be a continued shortage of inventory, especially of quality inventory.

It is going to be interesting what values do when inventory has sold off dramatically and there are a lot of motivated buyers out there.  What is important is to hope that sellers realize that the market is still down and that pricing the property right is still critical!

One thing to watch in the beach area is to see what happens with new homes and homes that are only a few years old.  There have been very few “lots” sold in the last year and half and almost all of the “new construction” inventory has been completely sold off.  What is that going to do to the Tree Section (MB) or the Hill Section (MB)????

If I am a buyer I am motivated to buy something this year for two reasons:
1) prices are low and we have seemed to hit a bottom ( as well as the stock market seems to be holding strong above DOW 10,000).
2) Interest rates, there is no where to go but up! Even if prices come down further rates are going to go up and that will make your payments go up.

If I am a seller I am motivated to sell for two reasons:
1) Its a great time to trade up your property.  Even if your property is not worth what it use to be, neither is the bigger house, or the neighborhood you want to get into.  If you are realistic with the price of your current house and your finances allow you to move and improve your home situation, I feel now is the time.
2) Buyers are out there and they have never been more qualified!  There are a lot of Cash buyers out there as well as large down payment buyers qualified through large tough banks.  This allows sellers to sell their home ( assuming its price right) and move on to do what ever it is they want.

LOOK OUT FOR MY NEW AND IMPROVED BLOG COMING SOON WITH MORE POSTS AND VIDEO POSTS ABOUT THE MARKET PLACE!

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.

Below is a list of new listings that have come out this month and sold in less then 10 days!

1456 19th st. listed for 775,000, 2 bed 1 bath house on a 7,000 sft. lot, sold very quickly in 7 days!

1708 Magnolia listed at $699,000 3 bedroom 1 bath 1,236 sft. 4,870 sft lot very charming sold in 8 days with 22 OFFERS!!!  They have since raised the price on the house to $825,000.

1904 Manzanita listed at 949,000 3 bedroom 2 bath remodeled “liberty village” home, 1722 sft. 5,346 sft lot. it had 4 offer in total and supposedly went over the asking price as well.

1509 Manzanita (my listing) listed at $749,000 an original 3 bed room 1 bath house, 1,100 sft. on a 5,300 sft lot.  Also received multiple offers and was bid up. The price on this property has also been raised to $799,000.  This house sold very quickly.

Finally a large house at 1531 9th st. listed at 1,995,000 5 bedroom 4 baths 4,080 sft. sold in one week as well, this one did not go over the asking price but was sold quickly to a strong buyer.  Also this house is interesting because it was a house that was bought by an investor at a foreclosure auction, he paid all cash somewhere well below $1,995,000 and then turned around and put it on the market for a quick sale and some quick profits.  We are seeing more of this as the year goes on.

Active listings:

1812 Lynngrove Manhattan Beach, CA listed by shorewood realtors Steve Heavrin $849,000
3 bedroom 2 baths with a living room and dining area, also over the detached garage is studio apartment.  Its a great property with lots of options.  It needs a little bit of work, but has a great yard on a corner lot in Liberty Village.

1904 Manzanita lane, Manhattan Beach, CA listed by Shorewood Realtors Karynne Thim $949,000
This house is a perfect example of what the house at 1812 Lynnegrove could be like.  This house is nicely upgraded with 3 bedrooms 2 baths with a living room and family room and a really nice back yard.

 
1181 Tennyson Manhattan Beach, CA listed by Shorewood Realtors Stan Liosis and Daryl Rosen $999,000
This house is on the list because it just dropped its price and for under $1 million this house is good size (2,337 sft.) and in great condition with updated baths and kitchen, family room, living room and a nice back yard.  The location is not great but it is good at this price and for this size of property.

An estimated 37,967 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That was up 4.8 percent from 36,215 in March and up 21.9 percent from 31,150 in April 2008. Sales have increased on a year-over-year basis the last 10 months. California sales for the month of April have varied from a low of 27,625 in 1995 to a peak of 71,638 in 2004, while the average is 45,088 sales. MDA DataQuick’s statistics go back to 1988.

The median price paid for a home last month was $221,000, down 0.9 percent from $223,000 in March, and down 37.6 percent from $354,000 in April a year ago. The month-to-month decline in the median has been less than 1 percent for the past three months, compared with an average month-to-month decline of 4.3 percent in the 12 months ending this January. April’s median was 54.3 percent lower than the peak $484,000 median reached during several months in the spring of 2007.

The sharp decline in the median is mainly the result of two factors: home price depreciation, and a shift toward a higher portion of the state’s sales occurring in relatively affordable, foreclosure-heavy inland markets. For more than a year, sales have been extremely low in many higher-end markets, especially along the coast, which means those higher sale prices are missing from today’s statistics. The median is the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less.

Of the existing homes sold last month, 55.1 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months. That compares with 56.7 percent in March and 37.6 percent a year ago. The peak: 58.8 percent in February this year.

The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $929. That was down from $958 in March, and down from $1,683 for April a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, last month’s mortgage payment was the lowest in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. The payment was 55.9 percent below the spring 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle. It was 64.3 percent below the current cycle’s peak in June 2006.

MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains at historically high levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is at an all-time low, as is financing with multiple mortgages. Down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and non-owner occupied buying activity is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.

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