After an amazing year in local real estate across the board, let's take stock of the market's activity by looking at a few of the more intriguing top sales.
We'll start with East Manhattan for now, and come back soon to round up sales in other areas of Manhattan Beach.
Large Homes Division
1221 11th St. (6br/6ba, 5636 sqft.) was the highest-priced sale in all of East Manhattan for the year, closing in late November at $5.705M.
The home was in the top 4 for interior square footage and top 2 for lot square footage among move-in-ready homes, with its 9450 sqft. lot.
That lot was basically one-and-a-half wide at 75 feet, and 126 feed deep.
What do you get with an ultra-wide, oversized lot like that?
First, you got an oversized house (obviously), where you mostly feel it in the incredible width of the flowing first floor. Compared to most other Manhattan Beach houses, it just keeps going and going, with living spaces opening to more living spaces, a private office, a bedroom, and minimal impact from the 3-car garage.
In the backyard, you don't have to choose between a pool or outdoor room or grassy space... you get them all.
And this home stood out for us in one other (large) respect - the extra space enabled the creation of one of the largest master primary suites we've seen, with its own full, covered outdoor room, featuring a coffee setup and wet bar (going up, going down), fireplace, sofa and giant TV. Why even go downstairs?
There was basically no recent precedent for this house, and it would not be obvious how to price it. They launched at $5.675M, which seemed possibly steep given that the home does back up to MB Blvd. and gets a bit of noise from there. Hahaha, did we say "possibly steep?" Not according to the market. It sold $30K higher, in a week.
At this time you can still find extra photos, video and a 3D tour (a bit clunky, using Zillow's 3D service) on this dedicated property website.
1757 8th (6br/7ba, 5738 sqft.) was the runner-up for high sale at $5.600M, in a sale that closed in June.
It was the third of three new homes built along a former triple-lot along a once-unremarkable stretch of eastern 8th St.
The first sale among this bunch of new homes was in 2019 at the smaller "middle" home at 1755 8th (5br/8ba, 4836 sqft.), which sold for $4.465M. Then, last year, 1751 8th (6br/6ba, 5826 sqft.) at $4.825M. This year's sale of the final unit came in $775K and 16% higher.
Standard Home Size Division
1226 3rd (6br/5ba, 4000 sqft.) is a newer home (2019 build) that traded for $3.900M upon its resale in September.
That was a significant step up from $3.550M, the sale price in early 2020 when the home was new.
It's a unique build with a great deal of covered outdoor space, but minimal yard on its ~6200 sqft., downsloping lot.
1226 9th (5br/5ba, 3583 sqft.) oddly had the same numerical address, but it was brand new construction with a different proposition entirely. It sold for $3.775M after beginning at $3.850M.
Here, the fashionable new home has an outdoor room and decent-sized yard on a ~6250 sqft. lot, but that yard backs up to some county land at a low point for the area that functions as a wash in heavy rain conditions. The area is fenced off and mainly serves to create extraordinary distance between the neighbors' backyards, a sense of space that is fairly rare in our densely built town.
1307 Voorhees (5br/5ba, 3638 sqft.) wasn't far behind at $3.750M.
This home, however, is on a standard 5000 sqft. lot, with very little backyard space. This sale was $200-$250K higher than any comparable sale on a 5K lot this year. (See "Rapid Inflation for East MB 5K Lot Homes.")
The difference was the high-fashion, ultra-quality build. Profound staging emphasized the home's special qualities.
We were told that the sellers re-priced the home to $3.499M to begin after reading MBC's rundown of recent 5K lot sales in May: "Middle-3s for East MB New Construx." (No one ever told us what the original, planned list price was going to be.) The market drove the sale $250K higher.
Cottages Division
Here we focus on updated versions of original housing stock. We exclude larger homes or those with substantial additions.
1220 Keats (3br/2ba, 1262 sqft.) at $1.866M.
This remodel on a slightly larger-than-typical ~5700 sqft. corner lot was listed at $1.699M, arguably below comps and looking to get bid up. And that happened.
The PPSF on this sale came in at $1,479/PSF.
1631 22nd (3br/2ba, 1224 sqft.) came in at $1.775M.
This was a nicely remodeled unit with open(ed) kitchen, but original hardwood flooring. Notably, the out-of-area agent said the home was "in the heart of Manhattan Village." It is not. It is in Manhattan Heights.
1642 2nd (3br/2ba, 1207 sqft.) at $1.750M.
This was a fully re-engineered and rebuilt cottage, radically reconfigured within the original 4 outer walls.
It was essentially a new house with an old footprint.
Dave's clients did the work for themselves, but decided to sell. We ended up at $1,450/PSF.
Manhattan Village Division
There was no 1980s to be found in 10 Westport (4br/3ba, 3370 sqft.).
The original SFR had been razed and replaced.
You can do that in the Village? You can. They did, in 2017.
The largely new home sold for $3.500M in April.
It was the first home behind the gates in Manhattan Village ever to sell higher than $3.000M. A second unit gained that distinction in July, 24 Westport, closing for $3.100M. It was a 1983 build with updates.
22 Fairway (3br/3ba, 2400 sqft.) was the high sale among townhomes in the Village, as distinguished from the 5 "estate homes" (SFR-style properties) that typically sell higher.
Fairway is a Plan 8F, a rare, expanded version of the popular Plan 8 with master primary suite on the first floor.
It sold for $2.230M, or $30K over asking.
A nearby Plan 6 TH at 38 Fairway (3br/3ba, 1820 sqft.) sold more than $200K lower at $2.005M, but that was still good enough for the second-highest townhome sale in the Village for the year. No other townhome cracked $2M.
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Watch for more roundups of high sales in coming days and into the new year.
Hey, Happy New Year!