If you’re in the Long Beach area, housing is a dynamic market. No matter your needs, it’s important to consider how neighborhoods compare in terms of price, value and appreciation. Whether you’re looking for a place to live or to make an investment, knowing how proximity to the Cal State Long Beach campus affects prices is important. We’re about to look at those details together.
By the Numbers
The easiest way to answer the question is to compare home values within five miles of CSULB to other homes in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area. The median value of homes near the campus is currently about $600,000. If you want something a little more direct, the median value for homes sold in the neighborhood is right at $575,000. As for rent, that’s sitting at a median price of $2,350. Clearly, there is high housing value in the area, but how does it compare to the rest of the metro?
Once you get more than five miles from the campus, values go up sharply. Outside the CSULB neighborhood, the median home value is $650,000. The median sold price is $640,000 (a much smaller discrepancy) and rent sits around $3,200. Any way you slice it, housing costs less next to the campus.
What About the Future
When we look at appreciation rates, things get interesting. Near CSULB, housing costs went up by 2.5 percent last year, and that’s expected to accelerate to 3.1 percent next year. Outside the neighborhood, houses only appreciated at 1.4 percent last year. Next year’s projection expects values to go up by 2.4 percent. With trends like that, it’s no wonder why the area is attracting new real estate agents as soon as they finish their time at a Long Beach real estate school.
Clearly, they’re both valuable, hot housing markets. But, housing near the campus is more affordable today, and it’s gaining value faster. At least for the next year, the smarter buy is clearly in the Long Beach neighborhoods. You can get in for less money and watch your equity grow much faster.
If you’re looking for a more affordable place to live, housing near the school is clearly the better option. If you want to make an investment, housing near the school is still the winner. Even when you’re considering rental properties, they’re gaining value faster, but the lower initial cost means that cash on cash returns will outperform when you stay close to school. That’s the value of knowing your markets, and its why real estate is still the place to be to make money.
