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2020 South Bay Home Numbers Give Clarity to Unprecedented Market

Richard Haynes
2020 South Bay Home Numbers Give Clarity to Unprecedented Market

The full 2020 South Bay home market data is in!

On today’s blog, we will be comparing data from the full year of 2020 over the full year of 2019. My hope is that the information will bring clarity to a wild market during an unprecedented year. And, I hope you use this information to plan your upcoming real estate moves in 2021.

Let’s get to the numbers…

Manhattan Beach

Manhattan Beach sales steadily grew in 2020, while median prices rose to all-time record highs.

Every day, national news talks about an inventory squeeze (and yes, there is more demand than supply), however, Manhattan Beach was able to complete more sales in 2020 than the year prior with 430 transactions versus the 391 seen in 2019.

As noted over and over, prices jumped to a record high thanks to not only the pandemic, but also historically low interest rates and high-net-worth borrowers obtaining loans around 2%.

From a price standpoint, the Sand Section was the worst performing submarket in the coveted beach city, up only 1.69% in 2020 when compared to 2019. This can be attributed to a high number of condos/townhomes where buyers are more hesitant to share walls during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Tree and Hill Section were solid performers rising in 2020 by 5.15% and 6.87%, respectively, thanks to their abundant single-family home options.

The strongest performing Manhattan Beach submarkets in 2020 was by far those East of Sepulveda. As noted, in my final blog of 2020 titled, “The Best (and Worst) Performing South Bay Home Markets of 2020,” Manhattan Heights/Liberty Village and the Mira Costa submarkets saw price growth well over 20% year-over-year. These numbers include the heavily numbered condo market in Manhattan Village that saw its prices struggle in 2020.

East Manhattan Beach’s properties that offer bigger homes, larger lots, and “affordable” prices for this expensive beach city, drove this sub-market to a record-setting year.

Palos Verdes Peninsula

Since Palos Verdes is a massive market, I will break it down by two zip codes, and then the four incorporated cities for more detail.

Both PV zip codes performed extremely well with the higher-priced 90274 market matching the performance of Manhattan Beach, up 10.44%.

“Affordable” homes with backyards were the trend of 2020, and 90275 delivers that type of housing product in a big way. Palos Verdes’ 90275 zip flexed its price muscles this past year with year-over-year median price growth over 18%. Wow!

All four submarkets in Palos Verdes Estates were up in 2020. Valmonte prices grew by double-digits, while Malaga Cove prices lagged and actually was in the red until he final month of the year.

Rolling Hills Estates had a great 2020 and much of the growth can be attributed to the luxury home development at the Rolling Hills Country Club selling faster and higher than ever, with final prices settling for $5 million on the regular.

Every year seems like a wild ride Behind the Gates. Last year, prices were down $200,000, but in 2020, Rolling Hills saw prices increase by almost $600,000. That is a crazy 22.49% jump higher and one of the best submarket performances in the entire South Bay.

Rancho Palos Verdes did not disappoint this year. After a falling in 2019, RPV got its groove back and saw its prices jump $150,000 thanks to affordable single-family home offerings.

Hermosa Beach

As always, the smallest city on the list, Hermosa Beach had a very nice 2020, keeping pace with Manhattan Beach and Palos Verdes’ 90274 zip. Small, but mighty!

The 10% jump was a sharp reversal from a disappointing 2019 where prices fell 3.34%.

That said, the city’s price gains were not spread out evenly due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, only half the market benefited, while the other market struggled.

Driving all of Hermosa’s price growth were single-family residences. For obvious reasons, single-family homes were in demand by eager home buyers looking for more space by the beach.

Just as obvious, condos and townhomes were out of favor in 2020 with prices actually falling ever so slightly.

Redondo Beach

With Redondo Beach being such a large beach city and offering an array of housing options, I am going to break it down in a few different ways.

Just like the 3rd quarter report, Redondo Beach continued to be the “weakest” performer of the areas I cover in this blog. While Manhattan, Hermosa, and The Hill were all up over 10% for 2020, Redondo grew only 2.80%, which is about as disappointing as it gets in an extremely hot real estate market throughout the state.

Surprisingly, as you see below, North Redondo single-family homes were barely up. Condos and townhomes ripped higher likely due to affordability and historically low interest rates being undeniable. Buyers unafraid of Coronavirus risks and sharing walls with neighbors sought this extremely affordable beach condo/townhome market, which drove pricing higher.

South Redondo performed inversely to North Redondo.

Expensive beach homes on the Avenues and near the Esplanade surged higher thanks to the pandemic. That said, the city was crushed by the sheer volume of expensive condos/townhomes in this market. The drop in prices put a chill on the city’s median price as a whole.

Conclusion

Despite the stay-at-home orders and the Coronavirus scare in 2020, the market completely outperformed expectations amidst the unprecedented volatility.

The path of least resistance is still higher in the single-family home market going into 2021.

And, if you look at the condo/townhome underperformance in Hermosa and Redondo Beach, there will likely be some great value plays for buyers to pick up as the vaccine rolls out. Those asset types are my top picks to go higher in the second half of 2021. If you missed my “fearless predictions” for 2021, you can find them here.

Stay well, and I am wishing you the best in 2021.

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