As the "housing recovery" continues to gain momentum, 2014 was a fairly strong year for new construction homes being completed listed and sold in Hermosa Beach CA. Fifteen properties built in 2014 closed escrow last year and one so far in 2015. As of this posting, there are 5 homes in escrow built in 2014 and one on the market. Including the 5 listing built in 2013 but sold in 2014 the tally for new construction in Hermosa Beach sold last year goes up to 20 homes. This is significant as new homes represented almost 10% of the total Hermosa Beach sales which closed escrow during 2014. (For those keeping track at home, there were 208 sales in Hermosa Beach 90254 during 2014.) Considering that most of these builders place shovel to ground prior to the housing recovery being on sound footing they are to be highly complimented for their vision. I'm sure they have already been highly compenstaed for their work.
As I have referenced previously on this site and elsewhere, presumably new construction wull sell for more than comparable resales which then also increase in price. So whether you are thinking of buying or selling in Hermosa Beach CA, understanding the new construction/builder market is crucial to understanding over all home values. Let's take a deeper dive.
To buy a newly built home over the past 13 months you had to be looking at investing at least $1.1M. At the high end, you could have spent $4.6M (reduced from $5.3M).
Twelve of the sales were in the Hermosa Beach Sand Section, one in Hermosa Valley, and eight in East Hermosa Beach.
HERMOSA SAND SECTION SALES MLS AREA 148
Of these my favorites are, no surprise here, the most expensive and most modern properties: 232 26th St at $3.45M and 2052 Manhattan Ave for $4.6M which was the highest priced non Strand Hermosa Beach sale last year. These two sales show both extremes of listing and pricing whether it is a new home or a resale.
2052 Manhattan Ave shows an inital list price of $5.3M and that it was on the market for 123 days. The last list price prior to contract was $4.995M. It is not uncommon to see longer DOM (days on market) for new homes because often either the listing agent or builder wil determine that it is best to have the home in the MLS considerably before completion and certificate of occupancy. There's 2 benefits to this approach. First, it is one of the few instances where it makes sense to "test the market". That is, to find out if there is interest at a certain price point (which is usually higher than the market will bear). More pragmatically, it also allows for some customization and/or modification for the buyer. Not a bad strategy on those counts.
At the other extreme is 232 26th St which was basically sold "off market" and entered into the MLS for comps. The zero days on market is a dead give away. In this instance, we (the agent community) and the public really have no visibility into whether this builder attampted to sell for more or if the buyer made the proverbial offer they couldn't refuse.
Another basically "off market" new construction deal was 1929 Ava Ave in Hermosa Valley. Also modern and contemporary but this one a single level house on a 4068 sq ft lot. Four bedrooms, 3 baths, 2280 sq ft per the builder, sold for $2.1M. That was the only new home sold in Hermosa Valley.
EAST HERMOSA BEACH NEW CONSTRUCTION
Here's the new homes sold in East Hermosa Beach last year. You can probably pick out my favorites!
Actually I was rather surprised that the homes on 9th St took so long to find buyers. Just shows that you can never tell how the public will respond which is once again while I applaud builders of spec homes in the Beach Cities for taking the risk and heloing to increase property values for the rest of us.
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