Los Angeles Living

The Santa Monica housing market, has remained fairly steady over the last year.  It is a city of distinct and diverse areas:

Santa Monica Canyon:  with a Santa Monica zip code this is in fact part of the City of Los Angeles. It is a hilly and rustic park-like area with some lovely ocean views.

Canyon Charter Elementary School is one of the most prestigious schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District

Ocean Park:   this is a destination area for locals with its trendy restaurants and boutiques on Main St. Situated along the beach to Lincoln Avenue, it is a mix of older homes, condos and apartments.  There are a few walk streets that still have many of the original craftsman houses.

SMASH is an alternative school and John Muir High School serve this area. Olympic High School is an alternative high school in the area.

North of San Vicente, are the some of the most expensive homes in Santa Monica and indeed Los Angeles County.

North of Montana,  also has the high-end Santa Monica homes,  and Montana Ave. is a destination for restaurants and boutiques.

North of Wilshire is a mainly residential area with a mix of single-family homes, condos, and apartments.  This is a more affordable area, though still expensive.

Downtown Santa Monica,  is the commercial area which includes Third Street Promenade a pedestrian-only shopping mall with a mix of restaurants, shops and street entertainment.  Soon to be finished is the newly-renovated Santa Monica Place Mall.

Midtown Santa Monica,  is an area of grid streets with a mix of single-family, condos and apartment buildings.  This part of the city bears more resemblance to its neighbor, West Los Angeles and is not a tourist area.

Sunset Park, is a quaint, hilly area bordering Santa Monica Airport made up mostly of single family homes.

Santa Monica-Malibu School District covers the Santa Monica area.

Santa Monica homes sales  have remained fairly steady.  The statistics below are for single family homes.  They are taken from the MLS.

There were 11 sales in February '10 vs 5 in February '09. 

The median price was $930,000 almost half that of February '09 at $1,579,000.  However, the January '10 median price was almost the same at $1,579,000 with very little fluctuation over the year.

Days on the market has increased, from 49 in February'09 to 74 in February '10.

There were 123 homes on the market last month, with a median price of $1,850,000, almost the same as in February '09.  The number of homes on the market in that month was 165.

Santa Monica homes for sale