Victoria Beach Laguna Beach

The 2020 year has almost come to an end and it's been a year like no other.  With all the ups and downs to everything that has happened this year the Laguna Beach Real Estate market continued to have a strong pool of buyers who were ready to make a purchase this year.  Although we have seen much higher sales in previous years there were still many homes in Laguna Beach that sold for over $10 million dollars which is amazing considering what 2020 has thrown at us.  There were actually two properties that sold for the exact same amount so we have included the top 4 sales this year.

2661 Victoria Drive was one of the third highest sales that occurred in Laguna Beach this year and was truly an amazing home.  The three level property sold for $12,500,0000

One of the best places to find rental homes in the Laguna Beach area is a neighborhood called Victoria Beach.  This is especially true for those looking for a short term rental as many of the homes are being rented on a monthly basis.  We did a quick search and did find some that were wanting a 12 month lease but the vast majority were looking for lease terms much shorter than that.  Victoria Beach has a unique location that offers beach front and ocean views homes that are within a short distance to the beach.  One of the biggest tourist attractions in this neighborhood is the historic lighthouse that is pictured below that brings a lot of people to this area.  It's also one of the fewest places in Laguna Beach where you will find homes located directly

One of the newest features added to our MLS is being able to view coming soon listings.  These properties are technically not active on the market and are in the pre-marketing stage of being put on the market.  The coming soon feature was added so agents can get there home available to other real estate agents and potential clients while they are getting their professional photos and other marketing materials together.  The advantage of doing it this way for agents is that the days on the market will not start counting until it's officially switches to active.  If you have been familiar with real estate for awhile these were commonly known as pocket listings where real estate agents would only share these potential properties to clients they are currently

Laguna Beach is one of the few locations in Orange County, California where you can find homes that are located on the sand.  Neighboring beach towns like Newport Beach will also have beach front homes but often times have a boardwalk right in front of them.  Back in the 1960's it wasn't uncommon to build homes that were located literally on the sand in Laguna Beach.  Popular neighborhoods like Victoria Beach are a perfect example of where you can find these beachfront homes that have a lot to offer.  Of course, real estate in Laguna Beach is never cheap and you will pay a huge premium to have one located right on the beach.  A great example of this is a new listing that just came on the market in Victoria Beach and located at 2800 Ocean Front.  It

One of the hottest trends right now are 3D virtual home tours.  Since most showings are very limited agents in Laguna Beach are now making sure they every listing they have on the market comes with a virtual tour.  We checked all of the recent listings in Laguna Beach that have come on the market in the last week and every single one had a virtual tour.  The most popular virtual tour company by far is by Matterport which shows a 3D image of the property as if you were looking above the house and allows the consumer to walk through every single room as if they were at the house.  This makes a lot of sense since we have been getting a lot of calls lately of potential buyers asking for the virtual tour links of any given property.

One of the additional

We were just contacted by a client who is looking for off market condos in the Laguna Beach area.  Her main criteria is that she wanted a condo with spectacular views with a lot of building amenities.  Right now is considered our off season as many owners have decided to take their home off the market for the holidays.  Our typical selling season starts right after the first of the year and continues through the end of September.  The months of October, November and December are normally slower even through homes continue to sell just at a slower pace.  Even though a lot of owners take their home off the market for the holidays doesn't mean that they don't want to sell anymore.  A good real estate agent will have access to these properties and be able to

Laguna Beach offers a wide range of homes with various amenities that capture views of the Pacific Ocean.  One of the more requested amenities would be homes that offer a roof top deck.  For the most part we don't see a lot of homes that offer a roof top deck for a variety of reasons.  The first reason would be that views in Laguna Beach are protected so by adding an additional level on top of the house to build a roof top deck may block a neighbors view.  Laguna Beach also has height restrictions when building a home so adding a roof top deck will count towards the total height allowance.  

Some of the best places to look for homes with rooftop decks are more established neighborhoods that have space between the neighboring homes in order to

Buying a home in Laguna Beach can be tricky when deciding on which neighborhood to live and the best time to buy.  There are pros and cons to buying at different times of the year in Laguna Beach and often depends on how the current real estate market is doing.  It's first important to establish if the market is a buyers or a seller's market.  A buyers market means that homes will sit on the market longer than usual.  Buyers don't have to rush into buying a home and can often negotiate with the seller off the listing price.  In a seller's market properties are selling very fast and the owners are in control on who they sell it and the price they think the market will bear.  

Most of the homes in Laguna Beach will come on the market between January

When Real Estate agents take a listing it is usually for a 6 or 12 month period.  Of course, this can be any length of time that the owner wants as we have seen it as short as one month when the owner really wants to get it sold right away.  After this set amount of time when the property does not sell it goes off the market and is considered an "expired listing."  Be prepared when this happens as dozens of real estate agents who's sole job is to call on expired listings will start calling you non-stop the morning after the home expires.  

These agents make a living trying to convince owners why their home didn't sell and to use them the next time around.  What most seller's don't realize is that these types of agents have very good phone skills but

What a record year for home sales in Laguna Beach this year.  With a strong economy and comes record sales for ocean front properties with 3 home sales over $30 million dollars this year.  The 3 sales occurred in the communities of Irvine Cove and Victoria Beach.  The three properties are not new to the market as they have been on the market at previous times but what makes this unique is that all 3 homes sold in the same calendar year for record prices, all with commanding ocean front views.  2018 was a great year for real estate in Laguna Beach and here is a quick recap of the most expensive homes sold in Laguna Beach.

Two of the three sales occurred in the Irvine Cove community.  First, 2471 Riviera Drive sold for $35,820,000 after being on the