Business and beaches: Manhattan Beach developer Matt Morris
Matt Morris, Matt Morris Development. Photo (CivicCouch.com) The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University tracks leading indicators in the remodeling industry. In just the past two years, national spending on improvements and repairs have increased 19 percent and are projected to increase another 6 percent over the next year. Drive down any street in Manhattan Beach and you can see this trend of personalization playing out in a significant way. This year the Manhattan Beach Community Development Department will issue about 170 new housing permits and an additional 980 remodel permits. They handle about 80 visits to their counter daily. Some of these visits are from architects and developers who team up to build spec homes,, a trend we have seen here for several years but that has been recently slowing down. The number of full build-outs peaked in 2007, when 27 percent of all homes sold in Manhattan were developed within the previous two years, compared to just 18 percent of homes sold in 2000. Last year the number dropped off to 12 percent. Matt Morris of Christie’s Strand Hill Properties and Matt Morris Development has had an impact on local custom-building for over…
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