It's impossible to talk about the history of Manhattan Beach without including the history of the Neptunian Woman's Club of Manhattan Beach.  Rumor has it that if  The Ladies of Manhattan Beach, as they were called by the local population, hadn't strongly whispered in their husbands ears  it would have taken much longer for the city to incorporate.  As it was Manhattan Beach was far behind their sister cities of Redondo and Hermosa in establishing a city.  The Neptunian Woman's Club of Manhattan Beach was formed in 1909 by 10 local women.  At that time the population was about 600 and there was not much in the way of social life.  The women got together to promote a library , a social group to improve life in Manhattan Beach and to get the city incorporated.  It wasn't until September 1... 03/20/2007

    Hermosa Beach tour February is not only a short month but usually also a slow one. There is a lot of property currently in escrow ( sale pending). We should see more action as properties close in March reflecting a 45-60 day escrow period. Here's a quick snapshot of home sales in the beach cities of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and El Segundo for February 1-28, 2007.  Keep your eye on next month's figures as inventory continues to declineand sales increase.  Here's an example... last year you couldn't give away a townhome in Manhattan Village and this year they are selling as soon as they hit the market.To find out how we did go to: Manhattan Beach and all South Bay Beach Cities Real Estate InfoAll content copyright © 2007   Kaye Thomas   03/19/2007

 Inventory is still low in Manahttan Beach compared to last year. Currently there are 93 homes for sale.  Well priced homes are selling within a week. Buyers are being choosy and if a home is not in good condition or is overpriced then buyers will continue to pass.  Here is how they break out based on price:$0-$1,000,000 ( 7 properties for sale )$1,000,000-$2,000,000 ( 36 properties for sale )$2,000,000-$3,000,000 ( 35 properties for sale )$3,000,000-$4,000,000 (13 properties for sale )$4,000,000 or more (2 properties for sale ) This is the break out by area:Sand Section ( Area 42) 19 homesTree Section (Area 43) 31 homesHill Section ( Area 44) 12 homesManhattan Village (Area 45) 1 homeManhattan Heights (Area 46) 8 homesMira Costa ( Area 47) 22 homes For more information on Manhattan Bea... 03/16/2007

  So far 2007 is a lot different from 2006. If you want to buy in Manhattan Beach you know that inventory is very low particularly  in the $2,000,000 or less range. There are only  87 single family homes for sale in Manhattan Beach and less then 20 condos. These are the stats for price for single family homes in Manhattan Beach:         $0-$1,000,000 ( 5 properties for sale )$1,000,000-$2,000,000 ( 31 properties for sale )$2,000,000-$3,000,000 ( 35 properties for sale )$3,000,000-$4,000,000 (13 properties for sale )$5,000,000 or more (3 properties for sale )  This is what is available in each neighborhood:Sand Section ( Area 42) 20 homesTree Section (Area 43) 29 homesHill Section ( Area 44) 9 homesManhattan Village (Area 45) 1 homeManhattan Heights (Area 46) 11 homesMira Costa ( Area 47... 03/05/2007

  On those mornings when I have way too much coffee my brain seems to turn in strange directions. Today is no exception. Inventory has really declined in Manhattan Beach  and in fact in all the Beach Cities.  So it occurred to me that maybe the reason inventory has gone down and people appear to be  buying is that there have been almost no negative articles on real estate in the last few months.  In fact when looking at the archives for our local South Bay newspaper.. The Daily Breeze the last really negative feature was on October 27, 2006.  In 45 articles on California home prices in The LA Times the last dismal  real estate sucks article  was October 12, 2006.  So I'm thinking that perhaps people pay a whole lot more attention to media news then we think and especially to negative me... 03/03/2007

Brian Brady  wrote a terrific piece You Can't Miss with this Real Estate(if you can afford it) about why some markets will always be high priced.  I think the South Bay Beach cities.... Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula should be added to his list.   The Donald has built a golf course on the hill and is selling luxury homes to his friends.  Can the beautiful people be far behind?   What's Malibu have that we don't?  Las Vegas... oh come on Brian.. all they have is money and showgirls.. We'll match our beach beauties with the best of them!  Why should Brian add us to his list?Well to find the answer to that question take a little stroll over to: Manhattan Beach and all South Bay Beach Cities   I think you will agree that the South Bay is a very ... 02/26/2007

The Sand Section of Manhattan Beach saw a decrease in the price per square foot of properties sold in January 2007 compared to a year ago. In January 2007, the Sand Section posted six sales of single family homes ranging in price from $1,100,000 for a 974 square foot home on the busy street of Highland, to $3,650,000 for a 4,160 square foot home on 26th Street. The average price per square foot for these sales was $1,002, a 14.3% decrease over January 2006 which posted a $1,169 average price to per square foot.JanuaryAverage Price Per SQFT2006$1,169.772007$1,002.52The average days on market was also significantly higher in the Sand Section for January 2007.  In 2006, the average days on the market for the seven sales of single family homes was 41 days, compared to 71 days on the market ... 02/26/2007

The Tree section of Manhattan Beach posted eight single family home sales in January 2006, with a low of $830,000 to a high of $4,299,000. Excluding these highest and lowest sale numbers we arrive at the median price for the area of $1,722,650. The tree section is desirable area considered to be south of Rosecrans, West of Sepulveda, North of Manhattan Beach Blvd, till you reach the top of the hill crest at Bell Ave. and down through the valley at Ardmore.This January 2007 the Tree Section posted seven sales of single family homes with a median price of $1,701,200, a 9.87% drop. The biggest change was days on the market from a little more than a week in 2006 (8.5 days to be exact) to an average of 54 days in January 2007. The Tree Section has some award winning schools including Califor... 02/24/2007

  Since January 2007 the real estate market has really taken off. I pulled some stats directly from the multiple listings  1/07- 2/20/07.  265 homes (in the South Bay beach cities)  sold in 25 days or less.  Many other homes sold in Jan, but they were on the market longer.  It is an active market - good for both buyers and sellers. Click the following URL to see the listings:  http://matrix.gsbrmls.net/matrix/public/email.aspx?ID=698897350 Lynn O'Donnell  310 283-8615 02/22/2007

        If you have lived in the same town for a number of years you have seen places come and go.. some were favorites and some you barely noticed.   I've been in Manhattan Beach since 1969 and have seen many changes in the downtown scene over the years.  A few weeks ago I was  walking in downtown with a friend and we were talking about how sad it was to lose Old Venice , El Sombrero and the other stores that caught fire at Christmas. We wondered when they would rebuild and how different the new places would be from the originals. Across the street was a big hole in the ground where Pete's had been. As we walked through town we noticed the old  Good Stuff was another hole in the ground that will soon be office condos. We both started reminiscing about the places we missed that had been... 02/20/2007

So far this year seems to be a different story when compared to last year.. Inventory is down by 50% from last year for single family homes in Manhattan Beach and townhomes in North Redondo. I use these two areas as they seem to reflect the market as a whole.... that is upper end and entry level for the beach cities. Last year they both maintained large inventories for most of the year and the market remained very slow. The decline in inventory appears to be because property is selling not being withdrawn from the market. Prices are still negotiable which is good news for buyers. The market is approaching normal something we haven't seen in years. To see how we did  go to: Manhattan Beach and all South Bay Beach Cities Real Estate InfoFor more information on the beach Cities go to Kaye ... 02/17/2007

  In 1888 Manhattan Beach was a pile of sand along the tracks the Santa Fe  RR laid to Redondo Beach. Our city got it's name when John Merrill and George Peck flipped a coin...  Merrill won and we became Manhattan Beach.   By 1902 Merrill, Peck and Frank Daugherty were selling selling lots in the area for $350.00 with $50 down and payments of $10 per month.   Around 1909 eleven women formed a club called the Neptunian Woman's Club of Manhattan Beach.  These women not only started the first school and library in our town but rumor has it they pushed their husbands to incorporate the small beach community into a town in 1912.   Manhattan Beach was almost entirely sand dunes.  The blowing sand caused huge problems for the residents. Sometime in the early 1920's  the developers who were bui... 02/05/2007

  Everyone loves the beach lifestyle!   These are sales for 2006 in Manhattan beach compared to 2005... While the volume was down and the days on market was significantly longer... overall sale prices were fairly stable.  Manhattan Beach is still one of the most expensive cities in California.  ** Data is from the Greater South Bay MLS and does not include sales that were not part of data submitted to the MLS For more articles on Manhattan Beach and the beach cities vistit  Beach City Real Estate InfoAlso visit Kaye Thomas 4 Homes and Move 2 Manhattan BeachAll content copyright © 2007   Kaye Thomas   01/30/2007

 This morning I caught this on Realtor.org  online news update.  After clicking on the link BlockShopper.com I went to the article in the Chicago Tribune and frankly I am stunned.  While most newspapers have their Local VIP Home Sales  articles I think this site goes too far. The site not only provides the name and occupation of the buyer and seller, prior and current sale information and pictures of the properties but they want to add pictures of the principals as well.  When faced with complaints,  the website owner, Brian Timpone, was aghast..  stating "If we take one down, we have to take everyone down."  Gee , that would be a shame Brian. Countless web sites have materialized  in the last few years giving property information to anyone willing to give their name and a fake phone nu... 01/23/2007

In October Gina Doughtery posted a terrific piece called  Buy/Sell Now - Avoid the Rush about buying during the slower holiday time when fewer people were actively looking for homes.  On my other blog I wrote a post October 27, 2006 about Headline News Making Your Housing Decisions that ended with a challenge about what would happen if people did as Gina suggested and bought property during the holidays to avoid the rush?Here was the Challenge:So here's a thought... In Manhattan Beach there are currently 215 single family homes on the market. 70 have been listed since October First. 23   properties have gone into escrow since October First and  18 have closed escrow in the same period.  What would happen if inventory dropped to 136 available listings? That's about a 35% change in invent... 01/19/2007

   Winter:    Not in  Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach CA Winter:   January 2007 in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa BeachPictures taken January 7, 2007 at 9:00 am   What more can I say......... For more articles on Manhattan Beach and the beach cities vistit  Beach City Real Estate Info Also visit Kaye Thomas 4 Homes and Move 2 Manhattan BeachAll content copyright © 2007   Kaye Thomas    01/08/2007

Every now and then I check out the local Bubble Bloggers for my area   After all you should keep an eye on the opposition.  I continue to wonder why they spend so much time on something they feel is worthless.  Seems like a lot of work to try to steer people away from a product.After all the doom and gloom I checked out what the numbers are from the MLS for my market ( LA County, Manhattan Beach CA) foor 2005 Vs 2006.  Amazing... Overall the market didn't tank.( Must be some sleight of hand by a tricky REALTOR)  Some areas saw small price increases while some  declined in value.  The major changes were in sales volume and  days on market .    Now I realize that there were homes sold without an agent and some were handled by agents outside of any participating MLS so the figures aren't 1... 01/03/2007

The Real Estate Market must be improving as the local papers and TV news have not had a feature article on the decline of real estate for several weeks.  I've noticed that many recent articles on housing are guardly optimistic  instead of decidely negative.  So I'm thinking the market must be improving.From the Bloomberg News there is an article quoting Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer Richard Kovacevich. He says,  that only 20 percent of the 375 metropolitan statistical areas in the country are experiencing 20 percent declines in home prices. 20% out of 375 major areas is not very high... unless of course you are in one of those areas. Kovacevich thinks next year is going to be better. "There's no way that the housing market is going to be bad if you have 4.4 percent unemploym... 12/19/2006

If you are completely confused about the housing market in California you have lots of company. While prices seem to have dropped on some properties others are maintaining prices and in some cases going up in value. This is especially true in the cities along the coast in Southern California. Properties in coastal cities that are on the beach have seen increases on prime location properties. Builders are not ready to drastically drop prices on new construction. New home sales in many Beach  Cities are slow but prices are about what they were last year.The real estate market has slowed down yet only 24% of buyers in California can afford a home today compared to 28% a year ago. According to several articles in The LA Times, in San Francisco, the highest home price market in the United St... 11/28/2006

I think it's safe to say that the real estate market of 2002-2005 was an  anomaly. Rather like Halley's Comet, that only shows up once every 76 years, it will be a long time before we see something similar.  While this was not the first market to see multiple offers and prices in excess of the asking price I think it was the first that fundamentally changed people's views about real estate.The basic expectations of buyers and sellers appear to have changed rather drastically from a few years ago. Ten years ago you bought a home as a place to live. People bought homes because they didn't want to pay money to a landlord. Your first home was a starter home; something small until you could afford to buy a larger one. You hoped to make some money along the way as an added bonus. It made sens... 11/10/2006