No matter how much our local Beach Cities real estate market has changed in the last few years a number of things always remain the same when you have a declining real estate market. Sellers never want to accept how much prices have dropped and buyers never believe that they have dropped enough.

Sometimes it helps to see a larger survery of sale data. I've pulled the number of sales, median sale price and the price per square foot from January-June 2000-2009. Although sales have picked up in recent months they are still quite low when compared to prior years. I don't think there is much doubt that the drop in volume is closely related to the lack of jumbo financing since 2007.

Looking at the numbers there is no question that the median price and the price per square foot took a major dive this year... and seem to be hovering between 2004 and 2005 numbers. While this is slightly better then the figures for LA County as a whole it does show that values in Manhattan Beach have seen some major adjustments over the same period last year.

Manhattan Beach: January-June 2000-2006.. Sales by month(click on graph to enlarge)

Manhattan Beach: YOY...Sold January-June 2000-2009