Long Beach Real Estate-Long Beach Condos

Belmont Heights Market Report

Homes, Condos and Income Properties

Long Beach California Real Estate Sales - 2008

Updated: October 4, 2008

Belmont Heights is bounded by:

• Ocean Blvd and Livingston Drive on the South
• Redondo Avenue on the West
• 4th Street to the North
• Nieto Avenue to the East

The Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach California is a lovely, ecclectic mix of early century homes, low rise condos, smaller apartment buildings (including some fabulous spanish duplexes), restaurants, coffee shops, funky stores, galleries and a nice mix of neighborhood friendly small business. Just blocks from the bluffs, overlooking the harbor, the beach, and a short walk into Belmont Shore, Belmont Heights is a tree lined Long Beach Community developed in the early 20th Century, and a great place to call home. Many of the neighborhood homes were originally built as summer cottages mostly between 1905 and 1939, later becoming year round residences. More bungalow style homes can be found here than in any other community of Long Beach.

Read Also:

• Belmont Heights Neighborhood of Long Beach California Resource Guide
• Bluff Park Historic District Neighborhood Market Report
• Long Beach California Beach Communities
• History of Long Beach California
• Long Beach CA Historic Homes and Districts
• THE MILLS ACT

Belmont Heights Homes - Sales 2008

There are currently 75 Homes for sale in Belmont Heights, ranging in price from $318,900 to $2,350,000.

• Average Price: $1,001,988
  
• Average Days on Market: 94
  

There are currently 9 Belmont Heights Homes in escrow, accepting Back-Up offers.

• Average Price: $889,438
• Average Days on Market: 94
  

and 5 Belmont Heights Homes are Pending in escrow:

• Average Price: $773,799
• Average Days on Market: 89
  

68 Homes in Belmont Heights have closed escrow in 2008.

• Average Price: $869,551
• Average Days on Market: 81
  

Belmont Heights Homes For Sale

• Belmont Heights Homes For Sale $800000 and less
• Belmont Heights Homes For Sale $800000 to $1200000
• Belmont Heights Homes For Sale $1200000 and higher

View all available Belmont Heights Homes For Sale, this feed is Live from the MLS and is updated on a regular basis

Belmont Heights Condos-Coops-OYOs - Sales 2008

No Coops or OYOs have sold in Belmont Heights in 2008.

There are 42 Belmont Heights Condos For Sale and 6 OYOs (Own Your Own) For Sale  ranging in price from $205,000 to $949,000.

• Average Price: $402,525
• Average Days on Market: 102
  

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Belmont Heights Condo For Sale

Long Beach California Real Estate

PEEK-A-BOO OCEAN VIEWS

Enjoy beach living at the "Pacific Ocean Condos" in the Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach California, just adjacent to Belmont Shore. 

Light and airy Belmont Heights Condo is a front corner upper unit with a nice open floor plan, hardwood floors and a wide expanse of windows to enjoy peek-a-boo ocean views and sultry ocean breezes. 

Located within a short walk of Belmont Shore shops and restaurants this lovely Long Beach condo is just 2 short blocks to the sand and the Belmont Pier.  Walk over to the Belmont Brewing Company for a great sunset dinner or to La Palapa for dinner and light entertainment.  Head into the very trendy Belmont Shore for shopping, entertainment and the many great restaurants on Second Street or walk up to Broadway for a fantabulous java fix at the Library Café, it's all just a short walk from home.  Not in the mood to go out?  Swing by the nearby newly renovated Vons supermarket and pick up fixings to barbeque on the patio for a nice quiet dinner at home. 

• 2 Bedrooms (Front Bedroom has Peek-A-Boo Ocean Views)
  
• 1 Bath
• 969 Sq Ft
• Built 1952
• HOA $173
• Living Room (has Peek-A-Boo Ocean Views)
  
• Dining Room (Peek-A-Boo Ocean Views)
  
• Large Kitchen with lots of Windows (Peek-A-Boo Ocean Views)
• Hardwood Floors
• Crown Molding
• Central Heating
• Air Conditioning in Living Room
• Newer Triple Pane Windows
• Kitchen features corian countertops
• Ceiling fans
• Private garage
• Window Coverings

This great Belmont Heights Condo has 2 large common area patios, one in the private interior of the complex and another adjacent to this unit.  Catch some rays, barbeque, read a book or enjoy the fireworks and ringside seats to Ocean Blvd parades, marathons and other events without leaving home.  None of the other owners use the large upper deck adjacent to this condo at this time, so it is like having your own. 

Just a couple of short blocks to the beach; walk down to enjoy one of our beautiful sunsets, take a walk on the beach, or bike into Downtown Long Beach on the bike path. 

This complex is comprised of 8 condominium units, built in the 1950's retro style, these units are very appealing.  Most have separate entrances and are quite private from each other. 

Many homes and condos close to the ocean, here in Long Beach, do not have air conditioning; we just don't need it most of the time.  This condo does have a wall unit air conditioner in the living room, which the seller plans to leave for the new owner.   The seller will also be leaving all window coverings. 

Have you been dreaming about moving down to the beach?  Are you craving clean ocean air?  Looking for a walk-able neighborhood?  Long Beach offers some of the friendliest, desirable and most affordable beach living in all of Southern California. 

Long Beach waterfront neighborhoods surrounding the bay:  

• Downtown Long Beach
• Alamitos Beach
• Bluff Park
• Belmont Heights
• Belmont Shore
• Naples Island
• The Peninsula
• Spinnaker Bay
• Marina Pacifica

If you are thinking about Relocating to the Long Beach area you will find this Relocation and City Resource Guide very helpful. 

This lovely condominium is being offered at $419,000. 

This is NOT a short sale and it is NOT bank owned, it is a conventional sale and is priced to sell.  It is the lowest priced 2 bedroom condo, with any kind of ocean view, currently on the market in the Belmont Heights and Belmont Shore neighborhoods. 

Co-listed with Wendy Rich-Soto

Call Laurie (562) 212-5420 or Wendy (562) 606-4040 today to view this lovely Belmont Heights Condo. 

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Breaking Long Beach Real Estate News:

Long Beach Own Your Own (OYO) Owners Are Organizing for Condo Conversion.  Back in May the Long Beach Real Estate Home Blog published an article on OYO's.  So many buyers were inquiring about this form of ownership it made sense to publish an article, explaining this form of ownership, to be found on the Internet.  Well it has been found, by several thousand Long Beach and potential Long Beach residents who have indeed read it, including many frustrated Long Beach OYO owners.  Several days ago I was contacted by the lovely Deb Dobias, a Long Beach OYO owner who is a major contributing force in the quest to organize OYO owners to push state and local officials to loosen the reigns and convert the last of the existing Long Beach OYO's to condos.  Deb went on to explain what these owners have been up against and the efforts they have put forth.  We invited her to write an article here and are very pleased that she accepted our offer. 

It is our sincere hope that the District Weekly, Curbed LA, the Grunion and Downtown Gazettes, the Press Telegram, the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register will also pick up this article or will contact Deb and assist in this noble effort with an article of their own to help these troubled OYO owners. It is our further hope that both California state and local officials will get out of the box and make this happen. 

Please understand that many of these owners are in deep trouble.  They cannot sell their Own Your Own (OYO) homes because there is little or no financing available.  Due to the problems plaguing this form of ownership many owners have rented their units out and have moved on.  In doing so they have decreased the level of owner occupied units in the remaining OYOs which has eliminated any chance for a Long Beach buyer to obtain financing to purchase. 

In July 2008 the Long Beach Real Estate Blog offered the communities of Long Beach a place to be published.  This is another in a series of articles by Long Beach residents.  Do You Want to be Published?

OYO Conversions - An untapped resource for Affordable Housing

Author:  Deb Dobias

The City of Long Beach Housing is under-served in providing affordable housing to "first-time home buyers" and seniors on fixed incomes. "While Long Beach Housing Trust" continues to build new projects for affordable housing, low income or fixed income buyers are still unable to have enough funding to pay the down payment. Building costs keep the price of these "Affordable" Long Beach homes high.

Purchasing Own Your Own Apartments (OYO) in Long Beach is a means to becoming stakeholders and being able to afford to buy apartment homes for reasonable sums.  OYOs were the pre-cursors to Condos, usually built before the 1960s.  Long Beach has a large number of these charming, well-kept, usually small buildings.  Most Long Beach OYOs, even after Condo Conversion, would sell for less than newer "Affordable Housing"; this could significantly add to the City's Affordable Housing.  Best of all, making it possible for people to buy these affordable Long Beach homes would leave the Housing Trust funds for more housing in Long Beach.

Little Problem...

Someone who wants to buy a Long Beach OYO usually cannot get financing like Condos can.  When a bank does offer loans, it usually requires a high owner-occupancy in the OYO complex.  For the past few years, only Long Beach investors could cough up the cash to buy these places, so owner-occupancy is often low.

Which causes more problems...

• One lady in our building got sick and couldn't work for a while.  Our building, a Long Beach OYO, had some serious maintenance issues so we had to levy some special assessments, which she couldn't pay.  The City of Long Beach has Rehab Loans for low-income owners of houses or Condos, but not for OYOs.  This poor lady wound up having to sell her OYO home for a very low price and move in with family.  Had we been able to convert, she could have kept her home.

• Many Long Beach OYO owners are elderly.  Reverse mortgages are not available to OYOs in Long Beach.

• No home equity loans are available to OYOs.  This often causes owners to vote against maintenance assessments or to avoid maintaining their own units.  These are older buildings, so this affects Long Beach neighborhoods and tenants as well as owners.

• A lady who lived in her OYO home told me that she wanted to take out an equity loan so she could invest in another property.   Renting that property would help her to pay bills when she retires.  She has excellent credit and owes nothing on her OYO.   She cannot do this simply because her OYO complex can't prove who lived there in 1982! 

Why can't OYOs just convert to Condominiums?

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Long Beach Real Estate News

Long Beach California Real Estate Sales Update

The Long Beach Real Estate Market has been shifting a bit this year. After a very slow start in January, Long Beach home sales are up by over 100% on a monthly basis as of August. Long Beach Condo sales, still very weak, have been increasing on a monthly basis, almost doubling by August.  Downtown Long Beach is home to a great many condominium complexes; clearly 25% of all Long Beach condo sales this year have been in the Downtown area.  This makes sense, Downtown is still very affordable and affordable sells in this market.  The redevelopment in Downtown Long Beach has made living there very desirable. 

While residential real estate sales in Long Beach are down a bit from the same time in 2007; sales of income properties are down substantially. The Long Beach income property sector has been extremely hard hit with large decreases in annual sales 2006 through 2007.  2008 has not offered a reprieve for owners of these investment properties.  Prospective buyers of income properties are learning that large down payments are now necessary to purchase units whether they are owner occupied or not.  The banks, hard pressed to cover these loans, have raised the bar on qualifying.  It is not unusual for a bank to demand a 40% down payment and excellent credit before even considering a loan for apartments. Still, some sellers need to sell and there have been a few very sweet deals that have closed this year, some all cash, the rest with large down payments or seller financing. 

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Long Beach Real Estate News

Buying Fixer Upper Homes in Long Beach

Many buyers who are searching for homes in Long Beach express interest in purchasing a "fixer upper".  It is always interesting to hear what their idea of a "fixer upper" is.  There are so many levels of fixer upper it is necessary to clarify what the buyer has in mind.

Quite a few buyers of Long Beach Real Estate think a home that requires paint and carpet is a fixer upper.  These are cosmetic fixers and while they do cost a fair amount of money to update, it is very common to need paint and replace flooring when purchasing Long Beach homes.  This could be called a cosmetic fixer, but then many homes that require extensive work in the kitchen and bath - or even replacement - are often referred to as cosmetic fixers as well.  Costs can start to add up and the buyer isn't going to be thinking "cosmetic fixer" as the price tag begins to reach the stratosphere. 

• Paint interior and exterior
  
• Carpet or sanding/replacing hardwood or tile flooring.
  
• Kitchen Remodel or refacing
  
• Bath full or partial remodel
  

There are many items your home inspector will look at that can add to this already hefty amount of necessary repairs and/or upgrades.  Electric and plumbing replacements can get pricey if added to the already climbing total of necessary upgrades. Here are a few important items to inquire about:

• Has the electric been upgraded - at least partially? When?
• Is the plumbing copper? When was it installed?
  
• Are the upgrades nearing the end of their useful life? 
• Will you need to replace them at some point in the near future?

Lets not forget the roof.  There are many types of roofs, made out of many materials, but roofs do have a life expectancy. Find out how long ago the roof was installed and if the homeowner purchased a 30 year roof.  It will give you an idea of when (not if) you will need to upgrade it once again.  Roof replacements come in several forms.

• Adding an additional layer of shingle. (moderately expensive)
  
• Adding an additional layer of shingle and replacing the wood underneath it. (more expensive)
  
• Entire roof replacement including roof frame and ridge-board.  (quite pricey)
  

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