Situated on the southern end of the Santa Monica Bay, South Bay Los Angeles is a premier destination for buyers seeking the classic California surf town.
While the endless summer sunshine is enough to make most people pick up and move, the proximity of neighborhoods like El Segundo and Hawthorne to leading aerospace and technology firms makes South Bay LA a desired location for tech workers and engineers looking to put down roots.
This region is characterized by expansive oceanfront neighborhoods like Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach that transition into neighborhoods with easy commutes like Inglewood, Torrance, and Carson.
Buyers seeking homes in the South Bay have many housing styles and neighborhoods to choose from, and each area offers different benefits to aspiring homeowners. To help buyers learn about the South Bay LA region, Prevu put together a guide of what attracts folks to these coastal neighborhoods.
El Segundo
Just south of LAX, El Segundo is the first city of South Bay LA. Many aerospace and technology companies call El Segundo home, making it perfect for engineers and technologists looking for a small-town feel and easy access to the office.
Sepulveda Boulevard separates the residential and business areas of El Segundo, and buyers will find tree-lined streets to the west and commercial districts to the east. Savvy buyers seeking real estate close to the ocean can find listings in El Segundo, so long as they are OK with a beach boxed in by LAX to the north, the Chevron Oil Refinery to the South, and the Hyperion Water Reclamation plant residing between the residential neighborhoods and the surf.
A variety of airlines, aerospace companies, and the toy company Mattel have headquarters in El Segundo, which is why this city by the ocean is a hot destination for tech professionals. Standard Oil Company, now Chevron, founded El Segundo in 1911 to build an oil refinery and create a town for their workers. Today, residents will find a quaint city ringed by industry.
Buyers scouring listings in this area will find mid-century modern homes and renovated terra cotta time-clad mission and colonial revival homes in El Segundo.
Manhattan Beach
Known as one of the best beach communities in America, Manhattan Beach is famous for its pristine surf, volleyball tournaments, and palatial oceanfront homes. Manhattan Beach is a leading destination for wealthy homebuyers, as the median sale price for a home is over $2.5 million.
Multimillionaires mingle with traveling surfers, as the El Porto section of Manhattan Beach is known for some of the best surfing on the West Coast. GQ recognized the region as one of the six best beaches in the nation, and Forbes ranked the Manhattan Beach Unified school district as the 6th best in the country. It is not hard to see why the city commands so many monikers. Manhattan Beach provides homeowners with access to the ocean, has much less traffic than most of the Greater Los Angeles area, and has a downtown featuring Zagat-rated restaurants and designer boutiques.
Homebuyers checking out listings in Manhattan Beach will find craftsman, mid-century modern, and gleaming post-modern homes dotting the hillsides leading to the beach. These hills were massive dunes at the turn of the century until creative developers saw the oceanfront potential and began leveling the dunes to layout the streets that now contain Spanish Revival mansions.
At the end of Manhattan Beach Boulevard, visitors exploring homes along The Strand can experience the splendor of the Pacific Ocean from the Manhattan Beach Pier that juts out from the waterfront.
Hermosa Beach
As prospective residents go further south down Sepulveda Boulevard in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, they will find the exclusive Hermosa Beach. This enclave is famous for the flat sandy stretches that host world-famous beach volleyball tournaments, surfing contests, and triathlon events.
Beyond feats of strength and skill, Hermosa Beach is an art haven hosting creative festivals. Before the pandemic, residents could attend Fiesta Hermosa, the Hermosa Beach Film Festival, and the Hermosa Beach Sunset Concert series while taking in the views of the Pacific. Visitors should check out the Hermosa Beach Pier to take in the splendor this beachside community has to offer.
Continuing down along The Strand from Manhattan Beach, newcomers to Hermosa Beach can expect to find spacious compounds designed to take in the sunsets and stellar ocean breezes. Beyond the ocean, Hermosa Beach is home to nine parks, like the Hermosa Valley Greenbelt, which extends north-to-south through the city.
As buyers explore the region, they will see a range of homes, from two-story single-family homes designed in the colonial revival style to modern craftsman homes featuring their classic overhanging roofs and wood plank exteriors.
Like Manhattan Beach, the Sepulveda Boulevard is the main thoroughfare for businesses in Hermosa Beach, and prospective residents will find a Trader Joe’s, as well as numerous restaurants lining this stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway. Beyond Trader Joe’s, Hermosa Beach residents have access to a farmers market that opens up shop every Wednesday and Friday.
Redondo Beach
Just south of Hermosa Beach, featuring wide streets and a laid-back vibe from the locals, buyers will find the community of Redondo Beach. Another idyllic city by the ocean, the region is famous for the perfect surf and flat stretches of sand, but Redondo Beach offers much more than sunbathing and surfing.
Those with a heart for the water will love Redondo Beach, as it is home to the King Harbor Marina, where locals can dock their boats with ease. South Redondo Beach has a vibrant culture, giving off a “bike to the grocery store” vibe, where residents pre-pandemic could easily stumble upon a community event or block party.
North Redondo Beach begins at the intersection of 190th, Herando, and Anita streets, spreading north to Marine Avenue, where Northrop Grumman has a corporate office. North Redondo Beach provides homeowners with a residential experience but still has close access to Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach to the west. South Redondo Beach real estate features larger land plots and has homes ranging from historic-styled colonial revival homes to glass and steel post-modern homes overlooking the Pacific.
To the north, buyers can expect smaller, uniform land plots and rows of craftsman style homes. The Sepulveda Boulevard section of the Pacific Coast Highway runs through Redondo Beach as well, and buyers thinking of closing a deal in the city can find coffee shops, plus Mexican, Cajun, American, and Japanese restaurants, and the public library all along this historic highway.
Hawthorne
A technological haven, buyers working in aerospace, engineering, or industrial design will love the city of Hawthorne. Northrop Grumman maintains a presence in Hawthorne, and their historic factory produced many of the airplanes used in WWII. But today, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company uses their Hawthorne facility to produce parts for their rockets.
SpaceX has several production facilities surrounding Hawthorne Municipal Airport, and homebuyers checking out listings in Hawthorne can find properties just a few minutes away from the airfield. While these industrial facilities are awe-inspiring, the city also contains a selection of space-themed breweries and restaurants like the Common Space Brewery and Tasting Room, and Base 51, both of which are just off El Segundo Boulevard.
Conveniently located just minutes from LAX, Hawthorne is perfect for folks thinking of moving to South Bay LA because the neighborhood is bordered by I-405 to the west and I-105 to the north, putting most of Los Angeles within reach.
Buyers searching for homes in Hawthorne will find a mix of single and double-story homes, and many located by the municipal airport modeled in the craftsman style. Hawthorne residents have access to a Costco, Home Depot, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and a Best Buy, so buyers thinking of closing a deal on a fixer-upper have plenty of local stores to purchase materials.
Torrance
Home to beaches, museums, and parks, Torrance is a suburban paradise nestled in the heart of South Bay of Los Angeles. Bordered by Rancho Palos Verdes, Torrance is far from Downtown LA, but this is by design.
In the early 1900s, the real estate developer Jared Sidney Torrance envisioned the city as a mixed-use industrial, residential district south of Los Angeles. Torrance brought in the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr to build this vision of a park-laden residential paradise. Today, residents have over 30 parks to explore on any given day, the largest of which is Madrona Marsh Preserve, which features a rare example of Southern California wetlands.
While nature takes precedence in Torrance, shoppers will rejoice to know that the Del Amo Fashion Center Shopping Mall is located just behind the Madrona Marsh Preserve, featuring a Target, Macy’s, and numerous pubs and restaurants.
To the north, residents will find the Torrance Art Museum, located right next to the Torrance Cultural Arts Center, which hosts several events throughout the year. Many homes in Torrance feature terracotta-clad roofs, borrowing themes from Spanish colonial missions of old, and most of these properties are large enough to house a yard complete with an in-ground pool. While Torrance has a laid-back vibe, the city is an industrial powerhouse, and Honda has a giant campus housing their American headquarters and R&D center.
Inglewood
Home to the original Randy’s Donuts bakery, famous for the giant donut atop the Googie architecture, Inglewood is yet another South Bay LA city that buyers should keep on their radar.
Located to the east of LAX, Inglewood boasts the newly-constructed SoFi Stadium, home to both the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers since September 2020. The city is also home to The Forum, an events venue built back in the 1960s that was the home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the LA Kings before both teams moved to the Staples Center in the 1990s. Before the pandemic, The Forum served as a concert venue.
Buyers perusing listings in Inglewood will find an eclectic mix of single-story craftsman homes intermingled with multi-family condominium units.
Carson
The newest addition to the South Bay region of Los Angeles, Carson city was incorporated in 1968. Located to the east of Torrance and west of California Heights, Carson sits a mile north of the Terminal Island shipping port.
Carson is a mixed-use city, featuring wide streets and large property lots on the westside and industrial zones and oil fields to the east. Since Carson is the newest addition to South Bay, homebuyers can expect newer homes featuring post-modern and mid-century styles and a selection of Spanish and colonial-style houses.
Carson was once the epicenter of the Los Angeles oil boom in the early 1900s, producing over 1,000 oil barrels a day at its peak. While Shell maintains a refinery in the city, manufacturing is the dominant business. Carson is home to the College of Extended and International Education, and the campus contains the training facility of the LA Chargers.
Potential buyers exploring Carson might not be near the beach, but they can take an outing to the International Printing Museum, then watch race car drivers battle for pole position at the Porsche Motorsport Race Track just to the north on Main Street.
Prevu Real Estate, Inc. is a licensed real estate broker in California, license number 02134758.
