All Blog Entries by Sam Smith

When shopping for homes there are a lot of luxury items that a home can come with.  Some of these items would include an outdoor pool, large primary suite with a huge walk-in closet, fitness room and even an dedicated wine room.  When it comes to cooking in the home it's very common place in a lot of San Clemente homes to have a kitchen that comes with stainless steel appliances and a center kitchen island.  What is unusual and hard to find is a bonus butlers pantry that is located off the kitchen area.  A butlers pantry as pictured below is a bonus working space area that is an ideal place to keep extra wine and champagne drinking glasses and a working counter that is often used to prepare additional items that you don't want to do in front of guests.

Talega is one of our planned communities here in San Clemente that offers some of the newer style with a wide range of single family homes and residential condos.  There is a limited number of rental properties in the Talega area that offer a view of the ocean since the properties located here are approximately over 1 mile away from the beach.  Since I have lived in San Clemente for over 20 years I run across many people that either love or hate the Talega area for a variety of reasons.  Many of the people who love living here for these few reasons.  First, the homes in this community are what we call a planned community where everything is planned to the style of the homes, number of floor plans in each individual neighborhood to all the community

The San Clemente real estate market has seen a huge increase in listing prices in the last several years with some amazing homes getting top dollar for them.  One of our most requested items when people are looking for homes here is having a nice ocean view.  San Clemente is unique when it comes to ocean view properties as the 5 freeway basically splits the town into two halves.  The homes that are located on the ocean side of the freeway are very desirable since you easily walk to the beach but often times will have limited ocean views unless you are very close to the beach.  Properties on the east side of the freeway are located in the hills of San Clemente and can have amazing panoramic ocean views.  The only drawback with a lot of these properties is

It's nice to see a new listing come on the market that has been completely remolded where the buyer has little work to be done on the home.  This is true for 1205 Cerca in San Clemente that is located in the very much sought after area of Forster Ranch.  The home features a total of four bedrooms, three baths with an approximate square feet of 2,065 square feet that is located on a huge 10,150 square foot lot.  The two level home comes with an attached two car garage and is a popular detached single family home that was built in 1987.  The home just came on the market 4 days ago on Saturday 2/24/22 with a current list price of $1,500,000.  

One of the biggest selling features of the home is the stunning gourmet kitchen with a large center island that

San Clemente has 9 different areas that are filled with a large variety of neighborhoods with different perks and amenities.  For those looking for homes located on large lots it's important to understand that not all communities will have the same features.  Homes located in Southern California in general are located on much smaller lots sizes than would you would find in other states like Texas, etc.  This is especially true as you get closer to the beach and lot sizes are at a premium.  In San Clemente, homes typically located on the ocean side of the 5 freeway are much smaller than those located on the east side of the freeway.  There are exceptions to this that include the new Sea Summit community in San Clemente that does offer some large scale

San Clemente has seen a very limited inventory of homes for the year 2021 with a small number of new homes being built for re-sale. There are still some great opportunities out there if you know where to look.  One of these opportunities is a new construction listing located at 1205 Via La Mesa which is scheduled to become between a 4,200 to 4,500 square foot home with a total of 5 bedrooms and 5 baths.  If you are family with the street Via La Mesa then you know it's located on the east side of the 5 freeway and is being advertised as offering ocean and coastline views.  It's reported that a prominent builder will be in charge of building this modern architectural style home with quality craftsmanship.  The nice thing about this project is that the buyer

One year after the global pandemic has shown has resilient the real estate market can be in Southern California.  I think a lot of people were really surprised how strong the market was in 2021 during the summer and fall months and really couldn't imagine it becoming any stronger than it did.  In fact, 2021 was one of best real estate markets we have had in the last 20 years with many properties selling in just a matter of days of being on the market with multiple offers on a lot of homes.  San Clemente was no exception as we saw the most expensive home ever sold in San Clemente history for over $33 million dollars.  Here is a quick rundown of the most expensive homes sold the year up to this point.  4130 Calle Isabella was the highest sale this year

One of the biggest trends in real estate are from buyers looking to buy a one story home due to a variety of reasons.  Many of the clients that we deal with are looking to down size from larger homes and life in a home that doesn't feature any stairs or levels.  We see this a lot from baby boomers in recent years who are looking for their final retirement home and looking down the road where they may not be able to go up and down stairs at a later time in life.  So the where can the best single level homes be found in San Clemente, our quick guide will show you were to look.  

The most affordable one story homes can be found in the 55+ communities like Colony Cove, Bay Cliff Village and Talega Gallery.  The first two neighborhoods often have smaller

One of the premier bluff front locations is located in the Southwest San Clemente area with a small condo complex known as Sea Pointe Villas.  If you are family with San Clemente then you have probably been down to the State Park area.  Just above the park is a circular street known as "Avenida Montalvo" and "Avenida Lobiero" which meet as the street loops around the area where some of the best bluff front ocean view condos can be found in San Clemente.  Sea Pointe Villas is located right at the Botton of the loop and can have stunning white water views.  The complex itself is very small so don't expect to see a lot of listings coming on the market and any given time.  We did some research on the past listing history for this complex and found that

One of the more popular places to look for rental homes in San Clemente is the Marblehead area.  The community has expanded greatly in the last several years with the additional of the newer Sea Summit community.  Originally the Marblehead community consisted of homes located on the east side of the 5 freeway located in a secure gated community with a number of neighborhoods to choose from.  There were also a couple condo tracts that were located just outside this gated community which formed the Marblehead area.  Then back in 2015 everything changed with the construction of brand new homes in four different neighborhoods located on the west (ocean) side of the 5 freeway.  This community is commonly known as Sea Summit and has become on the hottest

If you have looked any many homes in the San Clemente area one name that you will come across is Chris Abel.  Many of these homes were designed in the 1950's with the popular mid-century modern designed homes were built.  His reach can be seen in many different neighborhoods throughout San Clemente from smaller beach bungalow to multi-family building structures.  One of the most popular places to find his work would be at the Vista Pacific Del Gado community.  When you talk about mid-century modern design the bungalow style homes found in this community are the closest match you will find in San Clemente.  All of the homes located here are one story homes with nice vaulted ceiling's that give the illusion of extra space.  The properties are rather on the

Richmond Pointe is one of my favorite neighborhoods in the area of Rancho San Clemente for a variety of reasons.  First, the location is really prime and can offer some really views that include ocean and hill views.  Second, the neighborhood often offers some of the most affordable real estate prices when compared with other communities throughout San Clemente making it a good value for the money. This is also true for rental homes in this area which are very much soft after.  For the most part, the large majority of rentals found in this community will be long term which is normally a 12 month period to start.  The most common time for rental properties to come on the market will be in the spring and summer months as these are the easiest months to rent

San Clemente is an older beach town down that dates back to the 1920's when the homes were first built here.   Since many of the neighborhoods in San Clemente have been around for a long time you won't typically find any Mello Roos in these neighborhoods.  Mello Roos is a bond that is associated with brand new communities as a way of passing on the costs to the homeowners associated with building a new neighborhood.  Builders are always looking for ways to minimize the costs when building homes and creating a Mello Roos bond which typically goes for 25 to 30 years and is smart way for them to avoid the costs associated with building streets, sidewalks, etc in a new community.  Most buyers don't like this added extra cost when buying a home but since most

If you have been looking at real estate in the last year you know how competitive the market is right now.  Finding anything under $500,000 by the beach has become very hard to do, especially anything with quality construction and a view.  San Clemente still offers some affordable options if you know where to look.  Real Estate prices historically have been going up in the past 10 years with a sharp increase in the last 12 months due to low interest rates and buyers looking to invest in properties that they can live in as well as rent out to others.  If you find something you like we always recommend putting in an offer quickly as there are many buyers looking in this price range.

The most popular complex in San Clemente for under $500,000 is the Vista

If you are new to San Clemente one of the first places you will probably visit would be the San Clemente Pier area.  This is also a great place to find a short or long term rental depending on what you are looking for.  During the summer months San Clemente becomes a very popular place to vacation so many residents who own properties in this area will increase their rental prices for this high season time frame which typically seen during June, July, August and September.  These normally are fully furnished rentals that offer everything you would need for the perfect vacation by the beach and San Clemente really has a lot to offer.

There are also some long term rentals found in this area as well.  Expect to find rental rates typically lower than those

We received a call last night from a client looking in the Colony Cove community in San Clemente.  There budget was around $675,000 which is a good amount of money which easily could have bought a property last year in Colony Cove when looking at the comparble sales from 2020.   They were shocked at the current real estate prices this year which are ranging from $734,000 to $815,000 which is a far cry from sales from last year that ranged from $574,000 to $650,000.  A lot has changed in the real estate market in the last 9 months for a variety of reasons.

First, having low mortgage rates has really been a game changer for the real estate market in Southern California and other places as well.  What that means is that buyers are able to afford more

If you are in the market to buy a residential condo in the San Clemente area under $1 million dollars then you probably have come across the properties located in the Terramour complex.  Right now there are currently 6 condos on the market for sale that range from $749,000 to $899,000 with all of the condos offering 2 bedroom floor plans.  These condos are actually not new construction condos as they were originally built in 2010 but are advertised as being "freshly reimagined in 2020" according to several of the listing descriptions.  Many of these condos were first put on the market in the middle of June 2020 and have received a good response since then.  According to our multiple listing service 6 of the condos have already sold since that time frame

The year 2020 will remembered for a variety of reasons and was surprisingly a good year for real estate in San Clemente, California. The market was good for the first couple of months at the beginning of the year and slowed down dramatically due to the nationwide shut down that occurred in March and April.  Of course, that didn't last long as COVID19 caused many home buyers the urgent need to find another home that was more suited for staying at home.  We experienced a lot of buyers coming from the big cities looking to own a home with more land and more interior space.  Low mortgage interest rates also helped increase the buying power and we started to see multiple offers on many properties in the summer and fall months.  There were three large sales

San Clemente offers a wide variety of neighborhoods to choose from the downtown San Clemente area that was originally built staring in the 1920's to newer areas like Talega that started constructions approximately 20 years ago and has spanned over 40 different communities.  The one thing that all of these homes have in common is offering homes that are located on cul-de-sac streets.  When looking for a home most buyers have a bucket list of items that they want to have in their new home.  Location is typically at the top of the list when a client wants to live in a certain neighborhood or an area that is approximately that is a certain distance to the beach.  Many times buyers will also want to have a private location which a cul-de-sac street can offer.

We always get excited when new listings come on the market in the San Clemente that offer a unique opportunity to find a home that is not necessarily the same as other homes that are on the market.  A perfect example of this is a new historic home that was built in 1929 and offers a unique position on a hilltop location.  San Clemente has a very limited number of historic homes from the 1920's and 1930's that still exist today.  The large majority of them are located near the downtown area with a few of them located on unique locations like 165 Calle Redondel.  

The home is currently listed at $1,050,00 and has been on the market for 3 days ago and sure to see a lot of activity.  It features a total of 2 bedrooms with an approximate 934 square feet