LIVING IN LAGUNA BEACH
Laguna Beach is a medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 22,991 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Laguna Beach is the 293rd largest community in California.
Laguna Beach home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but Laguna Beach real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Laguna Beach is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 95.45% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Laguna Beach is a city of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Laguna Beach who work in management occupations (21.60%), sales jobs (15.83%), and business and financial occupations (9.52%).
Of important note, Laguna Beach is also a city of artists. Laguna Beach has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Laguna Beach’s character.
Also of interest is that Laguna Beach has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 17.05% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Laguna Beach is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.
Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Laguna Beach. 66.97% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.
The per capita income in Laguna Beach in 2010 was $92,391, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $369,564 for a family of four.
Laguna Beach is a somewhat ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Laguna Beach home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Laguna Beach residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Laguna Beach include German, English, Irish, Italian, and French.
The most common language spoken in Laguna Beach is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
LAGUNA BEACH HOUSING MARKET INFORMATION
With a population of 22,991, 10,542 total housing units (homes and apartments), and a median house value of $1,774,835, Laguna Beach house prices are not only among the most expensive in California, Laguna Beach real estate also is some of the most expensive in all of America.
Single-family detached homes are the single most common housing type in Laguna Beach, accounting for 70.22% of the city's housing units. Other types of housing that are prevalent in Laguna Beach include large apartment complexes or high rise apartments ( 14.68%), duplexes, homes converted to apartments or other small apartment buildings ( 8.53%), and a few row houses and other attached homes ( 4.70%).
People in Laguna Beach primarily live in small (one, two or no bedroom) single-family detached homes. Laguna Beach has a mixture of owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing.
At the end of World War II, American soldiers returned home triumphant and, with the help of the GI Bill, built homes by the millions on the edges of America's cities. These homes were predominantly capes and ranches, modest in size, but built to house a growing middle-class as the 20th century became the American century. Laguna Beach's housing was primarily built during this period, from the '40s through the '60s. A full 42.99% of the city's housing hails from this era. Other housing ages represented in Laguna Beach include homes built between 1970-1999 ( 30.48%) and housing constructed before 1939 ( 20.16%). There's also some housing in Laguna Beach built between 2000 and later ( 6.37%).
Vacant housing appears to be an issue in Laguna Beach. Fully 21.84% of the housing stock is classified as vacant. Left unchecked, vacant Laguna Beach homes and apartments can be a drag on the real estate market, holding Laguna Beach real estate prices below levels they could achieve if vacant housing was absorbed into the market and became occupied. Housing vacancy rates are a useful measure to consider, along with other things, if you are a home buyer or a real estate investor.
LAGUNA BEACH HOME APPRECIATION RATES
Appreciation rates for homes in Laguna Beach have been tracking above average for the last ten years, according to NeighborhoodScout data. The cumulative appreciation rate over the ten years has been 46.01%, which ranks in the top 30% nationwide. This equates to an annual average Laguna Beach house appreciation rate of 3.86%.
Over the last year, Laguna Beach appreciation rates have trailed the rest of the nation. In the last twelve months, Laguna Beach's appreciation rate has been -2.20%, which is lower than appreciation rates in most communities in America. In the latest quarter, NeighborhoodScout's data show that house appreciation rates in Laguna Beach were at 1.28%, which equates to an annual appreciation rate of 5.23%.
Relative to California, our data show that Laguna Beach's latest annual appreciation rate is lower than 90% of the other cities and towns in California.
One very important thing to keep in mind is that these are average appreciation rates for the city. Individual neighborhoods within Laguna Beach differ in their investment potential, sometimes by a great deal. Fortunately, you can use NeighborhoodScout to pinpoint the exact neighborhoods in Laguna Beach - or in any city or town - that have the best track record of real estate appreciation, by the latest quarter, the last year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, or even since 2000, to assist you in making the best Laguna Beach real estate investment or home purchase decisions.
Reasons To Invest
- Popular Tourist Destination
- Increasing Rental Demand
- Increasing Appreciation Rates
- Population Growth
- Growing Job Market
- Ethnically-Diverse City
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