By Keith Kyle

Every Monday I get together with some other agents and discuss the latest happenings in real estate and each week the news seems to become more discouraging for home buyers in Manhattan Beach.  Homes are selling well over asking, almost all sales involve multiple offers, often buyers are competing with all cash buyers or with builders, and not much that’s remotely priced close to market value lasts longer than a few days.

So how is a “regular” home buyer supposed to compete in this high end market.

The answer, unfortunately, is that until a significant increase in inventory starts to lessen the demand, a regular buyer with conventional financing just may have to wait it out.  What’s driving this is clear….absolutely record low inventory.  As of this article there are only 37 active homes for sale in Manhattan Beach.  Contrast that with the near peak of 284 homes for sale in February of 2009 and it’s not hard to see why each and every new listing is receiving so much interest. The chart below shows the active homes for sale in Manhattan Beach over the last 5 years and at this point…nobody is selling.

Why sellers aren’t listing their home in this market is an entirely different issue as everything from prices, to demand to terms, to interest rates favor them but that doesn’t seem to be making a difference.