North Redondo Beach Homes for Sale and Real Estate Trends

North Redondo Beach is the inland section of the city, and the neighborhood sits east of the Pacific Coast Highway, yet is still a short drive or bike ride to the beach. 

North Redondo has four distinct neighborhoods including Golden Hills, Villas North, Villas South and El Nido.

Each neighborhood offers a unique location, cultural feel, prevailing home style and price range. Because of the size of the area, some neighborhoods like Golden Hills offer easy beach access, while others like Villas North get you on the freeway relatively quickly. With such a wide variety of options, it’s best to look at each neighborhood in details – so let’s get into the neighborhood guide below.

North Redondo Beach Real Estate and Neighborhood Guide

Sitting right beside Hermosa Beach, the Golden Hills neighborhood offers residents the feel of the Hermosa Beach lifestyle, without the Hermosa Beach prices. Most of the Golden Hills lots are about 2,500 sqft, fairly uniform in their layout, and many of the older homes have been rebuilt in recent years. The smaller lots require a townhome style of architecture with narrow detached homes. Some homes will have a rooftop deck or very small yard. Sometimes it’s possible to find a “double lot” home where two older 2,500 sqft lots were previously combined into one larger space. These homes may have enough room for a swimming pool, or were rebuilt into a larger single home. An even more interesting option if you’re an investor is to take down the older double lot home, re-divide the lot and build two new homes. While city and mountain views are possible, Golden Hills homes generally do not include ocean views. Golden Hills is a short ride to the beach, and an even shorter ride to the restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets and boutiques lining PCH and Aviation Blvd. Most homes for sale in Golden Hills are in the low to mid $1 million price range.

Golden Hills is bordered on the north by Artesia Blvd (placing it adjacent to Manhattan Beach’s Mira Costa section), the west mostly by Harper Ave, the south by Ripley Ave, and the east by a line running approximately Aviation-Ford-Harkness Ln.

If you’re as old as I am, you have probably heard of a Cold War era aerospace company called TRW. The old TRW campus is actually now the Northrop Grumman campus, but back in the day TRW built tract homes for its workers in what is now called the Villas North neighborhood. While the homes were rather smaller, the lot sizes were fairly generous, many homes were built on 5,000+ sqft lots. Some lots were divided, but the majority of lots that come on the market are still the original size. The community is more classic residential in nature with almost all single family detached homes laid out as a traditional California tract community. Outside of the old TRW Tract, you can find more options with townhomes, condominiums (including a 55+ building for active adults) and apartments. The area is prime for redevelopment, so you will often see some of the original homes on larger lots taken down, the lot divided and two brand new townhomes go up, or a developer might take down an original home and rebuild a much larger, modern style home in its place. 

Villas North is bordered on the west by Aviation Blvd, the north by Marine Ave, the east by Inglewood Ave, and the south by Artesia Blvd. The neighborhood sits just to the east of Manhattan Beach.

On the south side of Artesia Blvd, directly opposite Villas North, you’ll find the Villas South neighborhood. Villas South offers beautiful, hilly tree lined streets, and aside from one small area with apartment buildings, most of the neighborhood is comprised of single family detached homes. Zoning changes over the years allowed builders to take advantage of the larger 7,500 sqft lots to build two or even three townhomes on the same lot with a shared driveway. While the Villas South neighborhood is comprised mostly of single family homes and townhomes, there are also a number of rental apartment communities available. The location of Villas South gives residents quick and easy access to the various restaurants, shops, professional offices, fitness studios and other local businesses along Artesia Blvd as well as the South Bay Galleria mall.

Villas South is bordered by Artesia Blvd on the north, a diagonal line running along Ripley Ave on the east and south, and a line running approximately Aviation-Ford-Harkness Ln. on the west (adjacent to Golden Hills).

Rounding out the main neighborhoods of North Redondo Beach is the small pocket of El Nido. Anchored in the northeast corner by the South Bay Galleria, El Nido offers the best of two worlds – easy freeway access along Artesia, and easy beach access to your choice of the various Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan public beaches. 

El Nido homes sit on larger lots of 5,000-7,500 sqft and boasts entry level pricing for the Redondo Beach detached home market, with properties priced from the high $800,000s. Townhome options are also available, but with most of the townhome offerings being new renovations, you can expect to pay about the same as a non-renovated detached home.

El Nido is located as a mirror of Villas South, so its north/west border sits along Ripley Ave, while W 190th runs along the south. The eastern border is a line running mostly down Hawthorne Blvd, but oddly skips right around the like-named El Nido Park, which has a Redondo Beach address, but actually belongs to Torrance. 

North Redondo Beach is well known for its:

Top Ranked Schools – The Redondo Beach Unified School District is the largest school district among the three Beach Cities, and includes 8 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 1 high school. The city is also home to a number of private schools and daycare facilities, as well as specialized alternative education programs for continuing study, adult education and independent learning. 

According to recent data, the overall rating for schools in Redondo Beach is 9-10 out of 10. This rating is based on a number of factors, including test scores, graduation rates, and the availability of advanced placement (AP) courses. Additionally, the schools in Redondo Beach have a low student-to-teacher ratio, which allows for individualized attention and support for each student.

Variety of Home Types and Lot Sizes – North Redondo Beach offers a wide variety of home types with a broader mix of detached homes, townhomes and condominiums across more price points, and a number of apartments for rent.

North Redondo homes tend to offer larger yards and more space, and easier freeway access.

Excellent Location – North Redondo Beach is known for offering a unique mix of residential areas closely intermixed with countless local and national brand businesses giving residents an almost endless variety of everything from restaurants to yoga studios. 

The unique layout of North Redondo Beach along with the curve of the 405 freeway provides better options for commuting. Residents of North Redondo, especially the Villas North and El Nido neighborhood have relatively easy and quick access to the 405, 91 and 110 freeways.

Economic Opportunities – Northrop Grumman is the largest employer in the Redondo Beach area, and the companies of Silicon Beach in Santa Monica and Manhattan Beach are a reasonably short commute away. 

To the south, the departure of Toyota from Torrance has allowed a variety of small, medium and larger businesses to move into some of Toyota’s vacant office space, creating job growth for the area. 

To get personal advice on buying or selling a North Redondo Beach home, contact Steve Enchin, your Beach Cities and South Bay real estate marketing expert