Last week I wrote about $169 million in canceled listings and what pricing discipline means on the Westside. The response was significant — more replies than any piece I’ve written. The question I kept getting was some version of: “That’s helpful, but what does it mean for my specific neighborhood?”
Fair question. Here’s the answer — with 90 days of CLAW MLS data broken out by neighborhood, so you can read exactly where your market sits.
The date range is December 18, 2025 through March 18, 2026. Single family homes. Brentwood, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, and Malibu. Here’s what the data shows.
SANTA MONICA: THE MOST COMPETITIVE MARKET ON THE CORRIDOR
Of the four neighborhoods, Santa Monica is where buyers face the stiffest competition right now — and where sellers, if properly positioned, have the clearest advantage.
40 homes sold in 90 days. Median sold price: $3,207,500. Median days on market: 16 days.
The number that defines Santa Monica right now is this: 68% of homes that sold did so within 30 days — at an average of 107.22% of list price. Buyers in Santa Monica are not negotiating. They’re competing. The properties priced to attract the market are regularly selling over asking.
The flip side: 44 listings were canceled, with a median list price of $4,945,000 and 70 days on market before the seller walked away. The gap between the 16-day solds and the 70-day cancellations is pricing. It is always pricing.
For sellers: Santa Monica is your market. Price it right and you will likely have multiple offers within two weeks. Price it optimistically and you will become a cancellation statistic.
For buyers: Come prepared. Pre-approval in hand, agent briefed, and be ready to move quickly on correctly priced properties. The 107% average is not an outlier — it’s the market telling you something.
PACIFIC PALISADES: THE TIGHTEST MARKET ON THE CORRIDOR
Median days on market for sold properties in Pacific Palisades: 10 days.
That is the fastest turnover of any neighborhood on the corridor. 43 homes sold at a median of $3,400,000 — with 78 active listings currently showing a median list price of $7,198,000.
That gap between a $7.2M median list and a $3.4M median sold is not a contradiction — it’s a reflection of two things happening simultaneously. First, post-fire displacement has introduced a significant volume of high-priced inventory from sellers testing the market. Second, correctly priced properties — those aligned with where buyers are actually transacting — are moving in 10 days.
The Palisades data requires careful reading. The headline numbers can mislead. What it actually shows is a market with two parallel realities: properties priced at or below the transaction range move faster than anywhere else on the corridor; properties priced in the aspirational range above it sit alongside fire-affected inventory and wait.
For sellers: The 10-day median is real — but it belongs to a specific pricing tier. Know which tier your property is in before you list.
For buyers: The Palisades has more inventory than the headline suggests. The disruption from the fire has created opportunities that weren’t available 18 months ago, particularly in the $3M–$5M range.
BRENTWOOD: THE DISCIPLINED MARKET
Brentwood tells the clearest story of the four neighborhoods because the data is the most internally consistent.
46 homes sold in 90 days. Median sold price: $3,606,296. Median DOM: 38 days. Properties that sold in the first 30 days averaged 98.21% of list price. The market is functioning exactly as a healthy, mature market should.
The canceled listings tell the cautionary half: 49 cancellations, median list price $6,950,000, median 98 days on market before withdrawal. Sellers listing in the $7M–$12M range without strong recent comp support are finding a patient, skeptical buyer pool that will not stretch beyond what the data supports.
Average SP/OLP in Brentwood: 89.83%. That means the average sold property in Brentwood sold for nearly 10% below its original asking price. For the properties that had to reduce before finding a buyer, the cost of that reduction — in time, carrying costs, and perception — was significant.
For sellers: Brentwood rewards precision. The buyers here are sophisticated and well-advised. They have seen every comp. Price to where the transactions are happening, not where you hope they’ll happen.
For buyers: 97 active listings at a median of $5,995,000 means real selection. The negotiating room is in the properties that have been sitting — and Brentwood has plenty of those.
MALIBU: THE PATIENT BUYER’S MARKET
Malibu is a different conversation entirely — and arguably the most interesting opportunity on the full corridor for a specific kind of buyer.
230 active listings. 17.69 months of housing supply. Median DOM for sold properties: 83 days. Average SP/OLP: 79.66%.
That last number is the one. Sellers in Malibu are accepting, on average, 20% below their original asking price. For a property originally listed at $10 million, that’s a $2 million negotiated reduction before close.
Only 28% of Malibu sales happened within 30 days — compared to 68% in Santa Monica. The buyers who found the best value were the ones who stayed patient: the 33% of sales that took 120+ days closed at 89.88% of list, meaning even the longest-running negotiations produced reasonable outcomes.
61 listings were canceled in 90 days at a median of $6,975,000 and 154 days on market. Malibu has the most inventory, the longest time to sale, and the widest negotiating spread of any neighborhood on the corridor.
For sellers: Malibu is not where you test a price. It is where you price strategically from day one or you will be absorbed into the 230-listing active inventory and forgotten. The canceled listings in Malibu averaged 154 days — that is five months of carrying costs, market perception damage, and lost opportunity.
For buyers: If you have been waiting for the right moment to buy in Malibu — a Sonic Sanctuary with privacy, land, and the kind of space that creative work requires — this is the most favorable negotiating environment on the corridor. The data supports a patient, well-informed approach. The inventory is there. The sellers who remain after 90+ days are motivated.
THE BOTTOM LINE: KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
The Westside is not one market. It is four markets with four different buyer-seller dynamics, four different negotiating environments, and four different strategies for anyone transacting right now.
| Neighborhood | Median Sold Price | Median DOM | SP/OLP | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Monica | $3,207,500 | 16 days | 84.50% | Sellers — move fast, price right |
| Pacific Palisades | $3,400,000 | 10 days | n/a | Buyers in $3M–$5M range |
| Brentwood | $3,606,296 | 38 days | 89.83% | Disciplined sellers and buyers |
| Malibu | $3,750,000 | 83 days | 79.66% | Patient buyers — most negotiating room |
Knowing which market you’re in — and what the data actually supports in that specific neighborhood — is the difference between a 16-day sale at 107% of list and a 154-day cancellation.
If you want to know where your property or your target property sits in this data, comment below this post or call me directly. I’ll give you the real picture.
Greg Dahl · #02133454 · Coldwell Banker Realty · Santa Monica · dahlrealtors.com · 310.963.9689