Seal Beach ranks in top 10 of affordable towns, thanks to LW
SEAL BEACH IS NO. 1
Sea breezes, pier walks, swaying palms and a peaceful pace are big draws to Seal Beach. Beach towns are always appealing, but many people are finding it impossible to afford real estate there.
Leisure World is apparently an exception and because of that, it has garnered national attention as a hidden gem where residents pay comparatively reasonable costs for sun and surf.
The National Association of Realtors named Seal Beach as one of the most affordable beach towns to buy a home in 2022.
According to realtor.com, Leisure World came in No. 6 in the Median Home List Price.
In contrast to Southern California’s sky high real estate prices, Leisure World offers far lower rates for people 55 and up to live in a gated community minutes from the beach. The realtor.com story showed listings for a two-bedroom condo with a patio for $299,000 and a one-bedroom condo for $175,000.
For context, those under 55 will probably need to spend close to $1 million for a house in Seal Beach, according to Realtor.com.
And prices continue to climb. As of last month, the median home price was $392,714, or $400 per square foot, up 19% since September 2021, according to rockethomes.com. Between August and September, prices of one-bedroom properties went up by 28.5%, and two-bedrooms, up by 31.3%.
Citywide, 119 homes were sold in Seal Beach in September, up from 50 last year.
As realtor.com notes, the U.S. has more than 95,000 miles of shoreline, but many seaside towns, like Seal Beach, are off the mainstream radar even though they can offer the best of beach living at a reasonable cost.
LW residents know this. They have found homes that combine “affordability with desirability,” according to realtor.com, which analyzed the median home list prices of more than 1,300 towns along U.S. coastlines over a year ending in April 2022. LW came in No. 6 at $400,338.
To be considered, the locations had to have homes available for sale, have at least one arts, entertainment or recreation venue and at least five restaurants or lodging locations per 1,000 households. Secondly, to ensure geographic diversity, the list only includes one beach town per state.
No. 1 on realtor.com’s 10 most affordable beach towns for homebuyers in the U.S. was Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a median home list price of $161,754. Atlantic City was deemed the country’s most affordable beach town.
