Manhattan Beach is considered the crown jewel in the “Queen's Necklace” of the South Bay. Manhattan Beach is home to the AVP professional volleyball tournaments every summer and has been chosen by many athletes and movie stars as their home. You never know who you'll see having lunch at the Kettle or browsing the boutiques at Barbie K's or Diane's. The cute downtown area is a unique blend of shops and restaurants, from the vintage pool hall Ercole's to the latest in trendy dining at Michi , Rock N' Fish, or the family friendly and always packed Mama D's.
The Manhattan Beach school system has long been a model for other cities to emulate, with all five grammar schools being designated as California Distinguished Schools and one grammar school and the middle school also designated National Blue Ribbon Schools (all of them would qualify, but the schools have wisely decided to spend the time and effort it would take to go through the rigorous testing on the students instead!) The still relatively new Manhattan Beach Middle School was built at a cost of nearly $6 Million and has advanced language, mathematics, and video production courses among other novel offerings. Mira Costa High School was given a Silver Medal and rated in the top 1 percent of ALL of the nation's thousands of high schools by U.S. News and World Reports and is well known for both academics, athletics, and performing arts.
For location, Manhattan Beach offers the best combination for many people who live in the Los Angeles basin. Close (but not TOO close!) to Los Angeles International Airport, it is convenient for "road-warriors" who must travel frequently and also for the many professional athletes who call it home. It is also the closest of the three beach cities to the freeways, which makes it ideal for those who work in downtown financial markets or the Burbank/Hollywood studio arenas.
Manhattan Beach has used its unique geography and topography, which was originally comprised of sand dunes, to create several very unique housing districts. Each of these areas has a fairly distinctive type of housing, lot size, and different price point and dollar per square foot average. The six areas are: The Sand Section, The Tree Section, The Hill Section, and then the areas of East Manhattan Beach east of Sepulveda Boulevard including Manhattan Village, Manhattan Beach Heights/Liberty Village, and the Mira Costa areas. You can read more about these areas on their individual pages.
Due to it's high value, in recent years developers have moved into Manhattan Beach and there is a very good selection of brand new or nearly new homes as well as older post-war housing stock to choose from. Manhattan Beach has a slightly more settled and family feel than its Southern neighbor Hermosa Beach, but it is still a lively little piece of paradise in the middle of Los Angeles. We've lived here for over 20 years - let us show you around!
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