The Five Most Affordable Long Beach Neighborhoods

While the state of California as a whole continues to see home prices climb, Long Beach neighborhoods offer some of the better home-buying opportunities. Located just minutes from the Orange County border, this city has the feel of a small town couched in between major metropolitan areas. Its downtown has seen a surge of development in the past decade, with plenty of bars and restaurants for young professionals, as well as a host of family-friendly activities, such as the Queen Mary or the famous Long Beach Ferris Wheel.

Whether you're on the hunt for luxurious condos or affordable homes in Long Beach, CA, Movoto Real Estate can help you narrow down your options.

Signal Hill: Life High On A Hill

While coastal Long Beach along its southern border is predictably pricier, check out the environs of the northern parts of the city for better home values. Originally named Loma Sental, or Signal Hill, by the Puva Indians in the 1500s, this independently incorporated city sits literally on top of Long Beach. Signal Hill is relatively central and still a quick drive to coastal Long Beach neighborhoods. The real value here is in its condos, which can typically fall well below the median home prices in the region. If you're a patient buyer, however, you can still find homes for less than $500,000 in this quiet part of town with some of the best hilltop views in the area. This nice two-bedroom home, for example, even comes complete with a fenced-in yard.

Bixby Knolls: A New Slice Of Old Southern California Living

Considered a family-friendly, squarely middle-class neighborhood, Bixby Knolls, also located in the city's north, is full of homes that were built in and around the 1920s and 1930s. Driving through its tree-lined streets, the word "quaint" will certainly come to mind. Look for historic, So-Cal-stylebungalows in this charming, quiet and, yes, quaint Long Beach neighborhood. Be a strategic home seeker with a good agent and a little bit of patience, and you may even find a muiti-bedroom home, like this wonderfully maintained house with four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths, for well below what residents of Los Angeles can expect to pay in a comparable neighborhood.

Things In Downtown Long Beach Are On An Upswing

If you're a fan of convenience, there are plenty of affordable apartments in Long Beach, CA. This two-bedroom condo with an open floor plan is just one example of the many loft-style condos to be had in Downtown Long Beach, a neighborhood that has enjoyed a lot of redevelopment in the last 15 years. The neighborhoods on the upper slice of downtown, which are still within walking distance of the beach, offer some of the better values in town. Ardent efforts on the city's part have brought a spate of new retail, including shopping, dining and drinking, to this once-desolate area. While many of its blocks would still be considered transitional, that is evolving quickly. This may be one of the last spots on the L.A. map within a stone's throw of the beach where an entire family can move into a historic home for less than the county's median home prices.

Lower Downtown Long Beach: Where The Views Are

The idyllic views along Ocean Boulevard and Shoreline Drive may be the best-kept secrets in terms of beach living in Los Angeles County. The strip of apartment-style condos and small homes near the Long Beach Convention center are a fraction of the cost of similar property in L.A.'s South Bay, with views that are just as lovely. Want a cozy condo with a view of the ocean for a mortgage that won't completely choke your lifestyle? How about being able to walk downstairs from your living room and end up directly on Alamitos Beach? Beach real estate doesn't get any more affordable than this Long Beach neighborhood.

Wrigley: A Successful Transition

Had you told anyone you were considering buying a home in Long Beach's Wrigley neighborhood 20 years ago, you would have gotten more than your fair share of funny looks. Times change, however, and today, this historic Long Beach neighborhood is without question one of the city's most affordable for buyers looking for a bargain and a sense of community. Here, you will likely find some neighbors whose family have been local since the Wrigley chewing gum tycoon founded the area in 1927. It is home to creative types and bohemians who are looking for an affordable, historic Long Beach, CA, real estate priced well below regional averages, such as this Spanish-style beauty that was built in 1931. Because this area has been in transition for some time, you can even expect to find the occasional new construction on select lots, and some of these may offer the best amenities, like open floor plans and remodeled kitchens and baths.

No matter of these Long Beach neighborhoods sounds most intriguing to you, local Movoto agents have plenty of ideas to help kick off your search.