I thought I would do a little diary type post with photos and notes about the local areas. It may surprise you to know how many little dedicated areas there are in these little beach towns. There are those who will argue their area of town is the best area to live in. I won’t do this. I will remain unbiased, except to state that ALL of the south bay is great! There is not one particular spot that has it all over another.

Just as we are all unique, so are the areas of town. I Hope you enjoy my review of the Tree Section in Manhattan Beach.

The Trees

The area known as the “Tree Section” is known for …well its trees. In fact, there is a city ordinance in this area regarding restrictions for removing trees and the fine for doing so. The majority of the trees fall into three types: Coral Tree, Carrotwood Tree and Eucalyptus Tree. This neighborhood is flanked by Pacific Coast Highway (PCH, Sepulveda Highway 1- All the same here) to the east, Manhattan Beach Boulevard to the south, Bell and Valley to the west and Rosecrans Blvd. to the north.

The Homes

Homes here vary in size from around 700sf cottages to huge 3400sf new construction. This neighborhood offers a variety of home styles because it is in transformation. In other words, most of the small cottages over the last few years have been purchased off the market by developers and builders, only to be torn down and rebuilt as a newer bigger home.  The style in this area for newer homes has been traditional, Cape Cod (Nantucket also works – see photo), Spanish and Tuscan (which vary on tile styles and fixtures mostly) and a couple of unique one-off custom homes. The prices can vary here from $680,000 to $4,000,000 plus. Mostly this depends upon location and house size and age.

The Land

The lots in the tree section can vary in size. A smaller lot is still more land than you will get closer to the beach in the sand section (we’ll talk about this area later). The smallest tree section lot size is 2,100sf. This would be in some smaller lots near downtown where the homes are tall and narrow. The largest lots are around 9,000sf and very rare. Most lots are either 4,480 or 4,640 or 4,800 sf. This means most newer homes will be in the 3,000 sf range.

The Neighborhood

The tree section is a well known family type neighborhood. This is the kind of place you would expect to see kids riding their bikes and families walking their dogs at night. Over holidays, it isn’t unusual to see streets blocked off from traffic for neighborhood parties. From this area, you can walk to downtown, the beach and many shopping destinations east of PCH within a mile or so. Unaffected by weekenders and holiday traffic, this is a quieter area of the city to live in and much less congested. There really isn’t commercial activity here until you get near to downtown. This is just one of the lovely areas we call home here in Manhattan Beach.