Seacliff

 

 

The Seacliff neighborhood of Huntington Beach is the area to the south of Bolsa Chica State Beach and Ecological Reserve, east of the Ocean and Pacific Coast Highway, and heading north and eastward to be bounded by Garfield and Goldenwest avenues.

 

Seacliff is a fairly small neighborhood, just 1.2 square miles, with about 5,800 people residing within its borders at any one time. The vast majority of homes in Seacliff are in gated communities, many of which have guard shacks in the front.

 

Of particular note is that at 5,800 people in the confines of an urban area of just over a square mile, this is not a particularly dense area. With Huntington Beach as a whole being comprised of an average of 7,308 people per square mile versus about 4,000 for Seacliff, most of the city has twice the amount of people in any given place that Seacliff has.

 

 

So, one of the least dense areas in the entire city, the Pacific Ocean on one side, an ecological preserve on the other, and in Orange County as well.

 

Sounds like a recipe for 20 million dollar homes, right?

 

Actually, no. Seacliff home prices, based on what you get for your money, are one of the best bargains you can find in all of Orange County. At the low end, you can find a few townhomes from the $600,000’s.

 

Additionally some townhomes are available in the area starting in the low $700,000s, which may sound a little high to some, but you can probably see PCH from your bedroom, and these aren’t your typical low quality box row-houses, these smaller properties usually start at about 2,000 square feet and lie within guard-gated communities.

 

Single Family homes in Seacliff usually run from about $1 million to $2 million, but homes in the neighborhood above $1.5 million or so usually have 4,000 or more square feet and are usually in very close proximity to the ocean and often lie on the edges of the prestigious Seacliff Country Club.  

 

Comparable homes running Southward towards either Newport or Laguna Beach would easily fetch $5 million or more. The “typical” home that has been sold in the area over the past year is a 2,000+ square foot home in a gated community for about $1.2 million a lies roughly 1 mile from the sand.

 

 

One highlight of the Seacliff neighborhood is the Seacliff Country Club, a private members-only golf course featuring a championship golf course along with tennis and fitness facilities. The club, which is the only private club in all of Huntington Beach, also has social-only memberships available for a reasonable fee that provide access to get-togethers and networking events.

 

As the area is comprised mostly of single-family homes, the average age of 47 skews higher than much of Orange County, and you can expect to know your neighbors for longer than in a lot of other areas, as the community is considerably stable, with the average resident staying put for 7-9 years.

 

Seacliff is also very much a family community, with 90% of residents being married, and about 40% of households in the area having children under the age of 18 living within.

 

Seacliff home buyers with children will have the opportunity to send them to very good public schools. Teenagers in the area will attend Huntington Beach High School, which U.S. News ranks #1474 on the list of the best high schools in the nation – that’s out of roughly 19,400, putting the school squarely in the top 10%.

 

Youngsters will also attend fine schools, with Huntington Seacliff Elementary scoring a 10 out of 10 on GreatSchools.org, a ranking meant for parents to easily compare schools by test scores and other data.

 

 

For those that are looking for a hip, happening place, Seacliff may not be the best area of Huntington Beach to consider. It is further from downtown and lacks the laid back, bohemian vibe of some of the other areas in the city.

 

For those that want to walk to nightlife instead of driving or taking a taxi, and especially for those to whom nightlife is actually important to, Seacliff is often not the best choice of neighborhoods and you may find yourself happier just a little bit further south down PCH nearer to some of the “downtown” areas. Also for those that prefer a boisterous stroll through a busy beach area to a quiet walk on an emptier beach, Seacliff is likely not the area for you.

 

On the plus side, lacking the walkability and the nightlife means lacking a lot of the noise, petty crime, and other nuisances that go along with living in a vibrant area – so for people that are in the point where they are “settled” Seacliff is considered a fine place to do just that.

 

With that being said, many areas of Seacliff provide a 10 minute or less walk to both the beach and the Bolsa Chica wetlands, which is one of the more beautiful and scenic areas to take a stroll in all of the Orange County areas.

 

Lastly, living in Seacliff for many represents the best of all possible worlds – a house in the Seacliff neighborhood means living in the quiet, but while being just 5 minutes from the “not quiet”, so to have a good time or to enjoy some of the better eateries in the city, it doesn’t take very much effort to get there.

 

Quite a few of our clients that look at Seacliff find that given the location, the luxury and relative serenity of the area, and the availability of absolutely top notch schools, Seacliff real estate offers a rare and unusual bargain compared to what one could find for elsewhere in the county.