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.

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)

116 Terraza Place, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

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

My deals of the week are as follows:

455 35th st. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
listed by the Park Group with Shorewood Realtors MLS#S09112480 $1,599,000

This is a nice Cape Cod style house in the north section of Manhattan Sand.  It is over 3,000 sft. with 4 bedrooms 3 bathrooms and a roof top deck.
POSITIVES:  the size is good, having 4 bedrooms is good, condition is good not great.  It does have a nice master suite and an updated kitchen with nice appliances.
NEGATIVES:  the bedrooms are split 2 up and 2 down, it is pretty far North (close to Rosecrans) although it doesn’t bother me, the street is very nice. It does not show as well as it could.
Overall its current price is not bad but it could be lower, but I think they are close, it has a lot to offer for being in the sand section of Manhattan beach.  Its definitely one to consider.

332 30th st. in Hermosa Beach, CA

Listed by South Bay Brokers Chad Falbusch MLS #S09120660 $1,299,000

This is a flat walk street location in North Hermosa.  This is primarily land value but it is a very livable house for a couple or a small family.  This is a great buy for some one who wants to build a nice house and live in this great location for a long time.  I believe the owner has plans for a new house that may be negotiated into the deal.

It’s listed as a 3 bedroom 1 bath house with a 2 car garage, street to alley lot.  The zoning on this side of the street allows for a 3 story house (30ft high), on the opposite size of the street their height limits are lower as well as having smaller lots.  This makes the south side of the street more desirable from a land value point of view.

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.

2401 John st. Manhattan Beach is one of the last of the New construction home to come to market.  This is a brand new listing and a brand new house is a very good location.  After this house and about 3 or 4 others coming out of the ground there will be no more new construction homes in the trees for a couple years, at least as for as spec homes are concerned.

2401 John st Listed by South Bay Brokers Judy D’angelo
$2,499,000

This is a standard size Tree section house, nicely finished by Ken Johnson Development.
The house is 5 bedrooms 4.5 Baths and about 3,500 sft. it sits on a lot that is 5,080 with the Back yard facing west so you have the sun in the back in the afternoon which is nice.

The price does seem a little high for what it is.  The tree section has been hit the hardest as of this year because of a lot of new construction houses that could not sell and ended up going back to the bank or short selling.  This builder seems to be perfectly stable financially but he may be holding on to the this one for a little while based on comps.

This week 339 28th st. Hermosa Beach, closed at $1,800,000!!!

While the look of the house is not great and the overall finishes in the house we just OK, this house was a great deal at 1.8m!  3,400 square feet of new construction with a rooftop deck with great ocean views.  This house will be one that people look back on in a few years and say wow those people were smart to buy that.

This is a great neighborhood, close to the beach, close to the park, close to the schools.

Think about how much more this house would be if it was in south Manhattan that is just a few blocks away.  Compare it the listing at 333 3rd st. in Manhattan Beach, drive thru street just like 28th and its in escrow around $1.7m and its a remolded 1937 built house that is 2,700 square feet.

For only a $100,000 more I will take brand new, 700 sft larger and an ocean view!

This week there were 2 recorded sales on “The Strand” in Manhattan Beach.

First one was a lot sale at 204 The Strand, an old 1926 duplex that was sold for land value closed on the MLS for $6,100,000 last listed for $6,800,000.   They got 90% of there last listed price.  the lot was 3,332 square feet and I am told it was bought by the same buyer that is also buying 208 The Strand next door.  Word on the street is that he is going to tear them both down and put up one house.  If that happens that block will be a monster with a big corner lot home (single lot) being built on the north side of 2nd st. Then these 2 lots with one house, then the next 3 lots (which include the south corner of 3rd st.) have ONE huge house being built on it right now.  So 7 strand lots in the prime south end with only 3 houses on them, all brand new!
208 the strand should be closing soon for close to the same price as 204.

The second sale this week was 1712 the strand, a brand new custom home listed by Jack Gillespie of South bay brokers.  Sold in a very short time.  This was a 3 bedroom 4.5 bathroom Tuscan Villa with really nice finishes and an okay floor plan in a really good block.  It was originally listed for $10,500,000 and closed at $9,000,000 with an “all cash” buyer and a very short escrow.  The house was 4,500 square feet which means the buyer paid $2,000 a square foot.  This was not a spec home and did not have some of the features that the new generation of large strand homes have for example a Home Theater and more bedrooms.

Besides 208 the strand there is one other escrow at 3404 the strand last listed at $5,500,000 which should be closing soon.  For those that are not aware this is a lot of activity for the strand in Manhattan Beach, a few years ago there was not one single sale all year on the strand.

Below is a list of mostly February and some January sales that sold in 10 days or less, almost all of them with multiple offers and almost all of them for full price or more!  What does this mean?  Well I personally think it means that sellers are getting more realistic with their prices.  Why?  Because there has always been buyers out there, yes always, but now the sellers have realized in order to sell their house fast they have to price it right!

Most of these were brand new listings that came out at great prices and got rewarded with a quick sale and/or and over the asking price! 2 of these on the list were listed at much higher list prices and made a dramatic price reduction and then sold very quickly.  This is encouraging to see that even in these tough economic times with no real bottom in sight for the next 3-6 months (at least) people are willing to bet they got a good enough deal that they snapped up these properties in a hurry.

On an interesting note, one big observation I have noticed is the disconnect from the the sellers in North Redondo that use to become the low end buyers in Manhattan and Hermosa that are now just strictly sellers.  Even though prices have fallen in Manhattan and Hermosa Beach the Redondo Beach seller is not making that jump across Avaition Blvd like they use too.  This is actually hurting Manhattan Beach’s entry level values.  That Redondo Beach Seller seems to be just that, a seller and not a new buyer.  They are getting out and sitting out.  But their market is on fire!  Why? Because of its price range, buyers in that neighborhood are able to take advantage of the loan programs like FHA, Conforming and Jumbo-Conforming Loans.  (Listen to Dan and Dougs Radio show on February 19th to hear about those loans and tax breaks too!)

SALE SOLD IN 10 DAYS or LESS!

S09015062      405   21st ST        MB    1,149,000    7 days (sold with 7 offers, over the asking)
S09017865      2615  Crest DR    MB    1,175,000    0 days ( sold off market)
S09022669    133  17th ST           MB    3,450,000    0 days* was on the market but sold while of the market with Multiple offers
S08158166    3404 The Strand   MB    5,500,000    3 days* $1 million+ price reduction
S09014152    208 The Strand     MB    6,800,000    0 days* sold off market never hit MLS
S09018298    1540 MarineAV    MB    899,000    5 days
S09008764    129  1st ST             MB    1,199,000    9 days (Had 4 offers for over the asking price)
F1792864       432   24TH ST      MB    1,199,888    0 days (sold off market with multiple offers)
S09005138     505  Anderson    MB    799,900    3 days (sold with 7-8 offers will close near 900K)
S09016950    122 Manhattan Ave. MB 1,579,000 10 days (had 8 offers sold way over the asking price)
S09013956    714 N Irena AV #D     RB    579,000    9 days
S09015066    1915 Morgan LN #A   RB    559,000    7 days
V09020736    2115 Ripley AV           RB    629,000    6 days
S09019572    1908 Spreckels            RB    735,000    8 days
S09017842    2105 Mathews AV #12  RB    539,000    9 days
S09017876    2107 Plant AV #B           RB    789,000    9 days

Market recap (MB,HB,RB):

January escrows: 42

January Closings: 54

February Escrows: 30 (as of Feb. 24th.)

February sale: 42  (as of Feb. 24th.)