Guest Author in Homes for Sale, Market Trends, Median Home Price, Southern California, Vacation PropertyJul 13, 2007

Comparing Huntington Beach and Carlsbad Real Estate

This is the second article of the series comparing similar cities and their real estate, namely Huntington Beach and Carlsbad. Like the previous article, I analyze some of the key elements of the homes for sale in the cities and also publish a list of the properties that are “winners” of the lowest prices per square foot. Price per square foot is one of the parameters that people use to evaluate properties for sale, and to find real estate that are relatively good value. Therefore the top of this list are the real estate that represent the best value, in terms of being able to purchase the largest square footage (or real estate) per dollar that you spend.

This one parameter is obviously only one of many characteristics a home buyer should look at in the process of evaluating a property. It is also recommended that a prospective home buyer seeks a professional real estate agent help in identifying the true value of a property, because at the end of the day, analyses like this is crude and does not take into account of many other important elements of a property.

This second article will cover Huntington Beach real estate and Carlsbad real estate, two Sourthern California cities along the coast and among some of the best beach cities, close to I-405 and I-5 resptively.

The summary of the results is that the two cities have similar characteristics, with Carlsbad having a higher median price for the homes, but Huntington Beach has a much higher $/sf at $490/sf than Carlsbad at $388/sf. Huntington Beach also has a much higher $/lot sf at $149/sf than Carlsbad’s $103/sf.

In reviewing the Huntington Beach property list, I selected only single family residences for the purpose of this report and there are 566 of them. The reasons I did that is to keep the analysis more uniform, otherwise the numbers may be skewed by the different types of properties. From the movoto.com website, there are 495 Huntington Beach homes for sale that are single family properties where square footage information is available. I summarize the key characteristics below:

Square Footage – minimum 416 sf, maximum 6,400 sf, median 1,989 sf
Lot Size – minimum 858 sf, maximum 19,266 sf, median 6,000 sf
Bedrooms – minimum 1, maximum 6, median 4
Bathrooms – minimum 1, maximum 6, median 2
Garage Spaces – minimum 0, maximum 5, median 2
Days on Market – minimum 8 days, maximum 381 days, median 65 days
Offered Price – minimum $225,000, maximum $7,500,000, median $875,000
$/sf – minimum $144, maximum $1,550, median $490
$/sf of lot size – minimum $70, maximum $1,345, median $149
$/bedroom – minimum $105,000, maximum $2,500,000, median $245,817

The Carlsbad property list of 495 properties is then evaluated from the movoto.com website. There are a total of 187 Carlsbad homes for sale according to the website. The summary of the characteristics:

Square Footage – minimum 650, maximum 6,000, median 2,792
Lot Size – minimum 1,121, maximum 170,755, median 10,057
Bedrooms – minimum 1, maximum 7, median 4
Bathrooms – minimum 1, maximum 8, median 3
Days on Market – minimum 0, maximum 471, median 50
Offered Price – minimum $469,900, maximum $4,250,000, median $994,250
$/sf – minimum $210, maximum $2,041, median $388
$/sf of Lot Size – minimum $18, maximum $431, median $103
$/bedrooms – minimum $116,666, maximum $1,625,000, median $262,885

We’ll review other cities in our next articles.

The top 100 properties in Carlsbad and their respective $/sf numbers are: 7183 Sitio Caballero, Carlsbad $210.09 7606 Romeria St, Carlsbad $220.88 2733 Levante St, Carlsbad $238.23 2623 Abedul St, Carlsbad $243.71 3500 Corte Romero, Carlsbad $257.17 3566 Sand Ct, Carlsbad $263.47 2728 Forest Park Ln, Carlsbad $264.68 2903 Rancho Cortes, Carlsbad $267.40 7762 Quitasol, Carlsbad $268.54 2525 Chestnut Ave, Carlsbad $268.71 3004 Azahar St, Carlsbad $269.35 3560 Simsbury, Carlsbad $269.41 2858 Rancho Pancho, Carlsbad $271.69 3844 Stoneridge Rd, Carlsbad $273.21 7001 Almaden, Carlsbad $276.94 7349 Gabbiano Ln, Carlsbad $278.31 3338 Rancho Famosa, Carlsbad $281.29 3529 Hummock Dr, Carlsbad $281.74 3314 Piragua, Carlsbad $281.98 5089 Lynch Ct, Carlsbad $285.80 6360 Huntington Dr, Carlsbad $285.89 2567 Ingleton Ave, Carlsbad $286.98 7235 Mimosa Dr, Carlsbad $291.66 3762 Caldera Pl, Carlsbad $291.75 2567 Unicornio St, Carlsbad $292.58 3250 Maezel Ln, Carlsbad $295.48 6857 Citrine Dr, Carlsbad $299.17 2663 Bressi Ranch Way, Carlsbad $304.74 8077 Sitio Toledo, Carlsbad $305.50 2732 Obelisco Ct, Carlsbad $305.78 8056 Camino Montego, Carlsbad $305.97 6568 Coneflower Dr, Carlsbad $306.48 6071 Paseo Carreta, Carlsbad $306.77 3760 Sierra Morena Ave, Carlsbad $308.19 2794 Woodwind Rd, Carlsbad $308.80 3875 Trieste Dr, Carlsbad $309.15 6443 Merlin Dr, Carlsbad $309.52 2417 Lapis Rd, Carlsbad $311.06 2665 Levante St, Carlsbad $312.11 2850 Rancho Diamonte, Carlsbad $312.56 7819 Calle Jalisco, Carlsbad $318.18 2420 Gary Cir, Carlsbad $319.13 3601 Seaview Way, Carlsbad $319.30 2807 Rancho Diamonte, Carlsbad $319.89 2702 Peppertree Way, Carlsbad $320.02 3511 Stockton Pl, Carlsbad $321.92 2817 Cazadero Dr, Carlsbad $323.69 2236 Plazuela St, Carlsbad $324.62 2912 Via Conquistador, Carlsbad $327.42 3433 Camino Corte, Carlsbad $327.67 6636 Grulla St, Carlsbad $328.74 3265 James Dr, Carlsbad $330.37 8019 Paseo Almendro, Carlsbad $334.20 1714 Blackbird Cir, Carlsbad $338.25 6959 Goldstone Rd, Carlsbad $338.45 7475 Circulo Sequoia, Carlsbad $339.43 3307 James Dr, Carlsbad $340.58 6359 Huntington Dr, Carlsbad $341.22 3283 Corte Vera Cruz, Carlsbad $341.31 4305 Skyline Rd, Carlsbad $341.81 3174 Seabury St, Carlsbad $343.38 1687 Fisherman Dr, Carlsbad$343.51 2608 Sombrosa St, Carlsbad $344.03 6388 Huntington Dr, Carlsbad $345.30 939 Begonia Ct, Carlsbad $349.39 3667 Adams St, Carlsbad $352.88 7409 Pelican St, Carlsbad $353.16 4822 Neblina Dr, Carlsbad $354.20 6426 Chiriqui Ln, Carlsbad $354.84 6115 Paseo Monona, Carlsbad $355.62 3319 Avenida Anacapa, Carlsbad $358.15 1674 Chestnut Ave, Carlsbad $360.45 3351 Donna Dr, Carlsbad $361.39 2785 James Dr, Carlsbad $364.04 7217 Mimosa Dr, Carlsbad $364.66 911 Piovana Ct, Carlsbad $366.20 7080 Montanes Ln, Carlsbad $366.45 3825 Trieste Dr, Carlsbad $367.24 2401 Buena Vista Cir, Carlsbad $369.05 1835 Chestnut Ave, Carlsbad $370.67 1336 Shorebird Ln, Carlsbad $371.19 2704 Socorro Ln, Carlsbad $371.41 3676 Adams St, Carlsbad $374.48 7237 Almaden Ln, Carlsbad $377.73 6301 Allston St, Carlsbad $377.86 2936 Avenida Theresa, Carlsbad $379.26 7232 El Fuerte St, Carlsbad $379.52 1294 Cynthia Ln, Carlsbad $379.53 6811 Vianda Ct, Carlsbad $380.23 3614 Pontiac Dr, Carlsbad $384.25 6381 Keeneland Dv, CARLSBAD $385.16 4957 Park Dr, Carlsbad $386.29 6609 Sitio Cedrela, Carlsbad $388.07 7556 Agua Dulce Ct, Carlsbad $388.58 5117 Steinbeck Ct, Carlsbad $389.96 1998 E Pointe Ave, Carlsbad $393.27 1374 Sparrow Rd, Carlsbad $394.03 1376 Sapphire Dr, Carlsbad $395.02 1387 Sapphire Dr, Carlsbad $395.23 1577 Corte Orchidia, Carlsbad $397.06

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4 Comments

Brian Brady wrote:
July 18, 2007 at 9:13 pm

This is kind of difficult. LA and San Diego are two distinctly different markets.

Carlsbad is a much different town than HB. Carlsbad has inland communities that are farther from the beach (travel time) than all of HB.

HB is sandwiched between the 405 and the Pacific; most of Carlsbad is EAST of the 5.

Carlsbad is 35 miles from the SD Airport; it’s airport has little or no commercial traffic. HB is less than 35 miles from LAX, Long Beach Airport, and John Wayne.

HB is LA metro, Carlsbad is SD.

As much as I love Carlsbad (I live 6 miles south), HB id deserving of the price “premium” you cite.

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CA Real Estate Blogger wrote:
July 19, 2007 at 10:18 am

Brian, thanks for commenting on the more detailed differences between the 2 cities. They are certainly many differences. My purpose of the articles is to show some of the differences, at least in terms of what you can buy at what price, in the 2 different metro areas, so that homebuyers get some idea of the differences.

Your qualitative differences are also very helpful for home buyers to review. Thanks for the comments!

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Anonymous wrote:
November 28, 2007 at 11:40 pm

I agree with the comments here. There is really no comparison when you look at Carlsbad and Huntington Beach Real Estate. The two cities though similar in some fashions are two very different cites with different incomes, and lifestyles. The homes in Carlsbad tend to be a bit more expensive than in Huntington Beach as well and as far as community and atmosphere goes I find Huntington Beach to be more on the relaxed side and Carlsbad a much more hectic environment.

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Anonymous wrote:
December 17, 2007 at 8:36 pm

I don’t know that there is any comparison as one of the respondents here noted. Homes in Carlsbad different greatly from Huntington Beach real estate. Not only do they carry different price tags the neighborhoods are greatly differ both in terms of the lifestyle and quality of living. In addition to that homes in both of those cities have vastly different designs. I actually prefer homes in Huntington Beach to the ones in Carlsbad. I enjoy both cities as well as I have been to the both of them many times throughout my life but they’re two totally different places.

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Comparing Huntington Beach and Carlsbad Real Estate

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