Seal Beach, CA Real Estate

Seal Beach is an old fashioned California “beach town” tucked into the Northwest corner of Orange County, sitting next to Long Beach. Seal Beach is noted for its lively “downtown” adjacent to the pier, noted schools and the nation’s first planned retirement community.

The pier is the second longest wooden pier in California, with a Ruby’s restaurant at the end. Weekly summer concerts are held near the pier. Inland from the pier is a small downtown area with restaurants, pubs, snack bars, and shops. Its also home to a small, independent movie theatre, The Bay that features independent films. The waters around the pier are a well known surfing spot, as it “Ray Bay” – the mouth of the San Gabriel River (which separates Seal Beach from Long Beach). Rays are attracted by the warmer waters here. There are several well known surfboard builders here. An annual 5/10K run has been a community event for over 30 years. Memberships are available in the Seal Beach Yacht Club, overlooking Alamitos Bay and the Seal Beach Swim Club.

Boeing is the city’s major private employer. Their facility here was originally established to build sections of the Saturn V moon rocket. The older history of the area is highlighted by the Red Car Museum, which includes a restored Pacific Electric interurban car. The line once connected Seal Beach with Newport Beach and Long Beach. The Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station is also located here and about 90 acres of the station comprise a national wildlife refuge.

The first “housing” in Seal Beach were semi-permanent tents that could be rented along the beach. Bungalows began to be built in the 1920’s. Today, it includes the Leisure World gated retirement community – the first in the US. About 9000 call Leisure World home with a variety of housing types available. The small gated community of Surfside Colony, just south of the weapons station is also part of Seal Beach.

The Oldtown area sits between the beach and Pacific Coast Highway, surrounding the small downtown retail area. It is very much a pedestrian area with about 3600 homes in various styles of single family, condo and apartment. The major housing trend here in recent years have been teardown lots where small bungalows have given way to three story townhome style homes. With a deck on the third floor, many of these newer homes have some view of the beach, even though they may be blocks away.

“The Hill” area is located just North of Pacific Coast Highway and approximately 4 blocks from the beach. There are approximately 950 homes here; some homes are custom but most are single story tract homes built in the late 1950’s to early 60’s on lots approximately 50' X 100' .There are approximately 6 different tracts. Most have fireplaces and 2 car garages. Many of these homes have been upgraded, remodeled & enlarged. Homes located at the "Top of the Hill" can have distant ocean views. A new development, Herron Point, lies North of the Hill.

College Park East is located just North of the 405 freeway next to the Old Ranch Golf Course/Tennis Club. Approximately 1650 houses were built in the 1960’s and 70s with 1400 to over 3000 sq.ft. There are nice parks & shopping/restaurants nearby in the Rossmoor Shopping Center. A companion development, College Park West lies in Long Beach.

Seal Beach is in the Los Alamitos Unified School district. Los Alamitos High School is always one of the top athletic schools in the county, but is also known for sending a very high percentage of its grads to prestigious East Coast colleges.