Laguna Beach, CA Real Estate

Laguna Beach is the quintessential seaside resort town. That’s why artists have made it home since the 1920’s and continue to do so today. Seven miles of white sand beach and relatively gentle waves continue to attract beachgoers.

The land in and around Laguna Beach rises quickly from the shoreline to the town's highest point, at 1007 foot Temple Hill in the Top of the World neighborhood. Because of its hilly topography and surrounding parklands, there are few roads into or out of town: only the Pacific Coast Highway (State Highway 1) connecting to Newport Beach to the northwest and to Dana Point to the south, and State Route 133, Laguna Canyon Road, which connects to the 73 Tollroad, and Interstates 405 and 5 in Irvine.

Art festivals include the annual summertime Festival of Arts which is famous for its Pageant of the Masters, where locals are dressed up to stage magnificent tableaus of famous works of art. The Arts Festival became so successful and exclusive, that other artists moved up Laguna Canyon Road and established the Sawdust Art Festival and Art-A-Fair, which also run throughout the summer. Another major event is the Plein Air Painters Invitational.

The Laguna Playhouse, the oldest continually running playhouse on the West Coast, provides regular entertainment in an intimate theater atmosphere and is a must-see for theater aficionados. The Laguna Art Museum showcases unique exhibitions as well as the largest permanent collection of artworks by California artists.

As Orange County continued to develop in the 1980s and beyond, environmentalists worked to create a Greenbelt of preserved land around Laguna Beach, purchasing some acreage and getting other land donated from the Irvine Company.

Today, Laguna Beach has become a full-fledged resort town. Over three million flock to its seashore every year. Its newest addition is the Montage Resort & Spa, which draws its own Hollywood crowd.

Cottages and mansions are intermingled throughout Laguna. A current trend is the “teardown” where an older home is purchased more for its location and possible view, and then demolished and replaced, usually with a larger house. For a price, Laguna offers hilltop homes with magnificent views, ocean front homes steps from the crashing waves and the crashing waves and quaint cottages in the “village”.

But although the lifestyle can be laid-back, the housing market continues to be one of the most competitive in the Southland, due to an enduring demand for coastal property. Median housing prices for single-family homes grew from $779,000 in 2002 to $1,518,000 in March 2007, according to Data Quick Information Systems.

North Laguna includes the estate communities of Emerald Bay and Irvine Cove, where newly constructed mansions can command from $3 million to $20 million, depending on their size and location. Homes in the Village (Laguna’s downtown) are an older mix of cottages and duplexes as well as lots with new construction that sell in the $1 million and above range.

South Laguna is an older community as you head toward Dana Point. Many homes here were built in the 1920s when the first wave of Los Angeles refugees headed to Laguna. Prices in the South Laguna range from the $800,000 to $900,000 for homes without views to $28 million for view mansions.

The Laguna Beach school district has two elementary schools, a middle school and high school. The Laguna College of Art and Design is also located in the city.