Affordable housing remains a reality while first quarter home sales decline 38.9 percent.

Affordable housing remains a reality while first quarter home sales decline 38.9 percent

The dream of affordable housing near the beach is still a reality in Long Beach, though that may soon change, given the area's expected rapid growth.

"Long Beach is still the best buy in beach property from Santa Monica to the Mexican border," said Greg Berkemer, executive vice president of the Long Beach Board of Realtors. "Many South Bay agents bring their clients here from Torrance and Redondo Beach because properties there are more expensive."

Still, the city's real estate fate is closely tied to that of the county, which has slowed from the blistering pace of two years ago. Sales of homes in Long Beach for the first quarter in 1990 declined by 38.9 percent from the same quarter in 1989, while homes sales declined by 26.1 percent over the same period for the Los Angeles County as a whole, said Chris Taylor, senior research economist for the California Association of Realtors. Taylor cautioned, however, that Long Beach's greater percentage decline may have been caused by the city's smaller housing base.

Berkemer noted that inventory in Long Beach this year stands at 6,000 listings, compared to 2,700 listings for June 1989.

"I think the upper end [over $350,000] has slowed down quite a bit, but we're doing better overall than last year," said Robert Stallings, broker and owner of Re/ Max Real Estate Specialists of Long Beach and president-elect of the Long Beach Board of Realtors. "The properties that are selling more than the others are single family residences under $250,000. In east Long Beach you can still find them."

He said that attractive fairly priced homes are selling in two weeks, while less attractive overpriced homes may take two months to sell.

In all there are 175,400 housing units in the city, including 78,000 single family homes. The total number of homes is expected to increase by six percent to 186,000 units by the year 2000.

Of multi-family units there are 23,400 apartment buildings of two to four units and 71,600 of five or more units, according to State of California Department of Finance figures. Most of the multi-family housing is located in the southwest quadrant of the city, near the ocean and Orange County.

One of the challenges posed by the growth of the city is to increase residential density to accommodate new buyers while not encroaching upon single family home neighborhoods. The result has been a neighborhood preservation movement to steer new corridors of dense residential growth into previously commercial zones.

"Last year we tried to implement that strategic policy by removing the most high density opportunities from the neighborhoods and placing them on some of the major streets in the city," said Ellis Crow, long range planning officer for the City of Long Beach. "There are old-style strip commercial areas that look terrible. We are rezoning them to high-density residential use."

The Los Angeles Metro Blue Line light rail will link Long Beach with downtown Los Angeles beginning July 14 and is expected to spur additional housing demand in the area.

Fortuitously, large expanses of land near the line's stops on Long Beach Boulevard are expected to become available for residential development, as automobile dealers currently on the block move to the Signal Hill Auto Mall.

"The mistake that other [cities] have made in the past is to line the [rail corridor] street with commercial; but there's not that much demand," Crow said. "The future of those boulevards is in high density residential condos and in apartment buildings."

While much residential housing may be coming on the market, prices are expected to climb to the level of the rest of the county, he said.

"I think that the thing that surprises many is that the price of housing has lagged behind the region as a whole, though we have as many or more of the amenities as South Bay and Santa Monica," Crow noted. "I think we will catch up

to the regional average soon."

Indeed, the price of the median home sold in Long Beach surpassed that of Los Angeles this year. The price of homes in Long Beach rose 10.1 percent from first quarter 1989 to first quarter 1990 from $193,565 to $213,050, according to California Association of Realtors statistics. Meanwhile, the median-priced Los Angeles home only rose by 6 percent from $199,556 in first quarter 1989 to $211,491 in first quarter 1990.

Most future growth will be in large condominium and apartment structures because of the lack of affordable land. Residential housing may also be annexed onto the city from unincorporated land in the southeast portion of the city, as is the case with a project of Seal Beach-based Bixby Ranch Co.

Bixby Ranch has a two-pronged development strategy for the area. A total of 760 units which the company seeks to build on 50 acres north of Westminster are targeted to "move-up buyers in Long Beach looking for a new home product," said Stewart Honeyman, senior vice president of real estate business investments for Bixby Ranch Co.

Another 25 acres will be developed for mixed use and will include a neighborhood shopping center and 200, 1,000-square-foot townhouse "stackflat" units targeted "to a larger segment of the population that can only afford so much."

Besides access to the beach the area offers many other attractions.

"Long Beach has always been a well-kept secret and the secret is finally out," Honeyman said. "It has better air quality, cooler temperatures, a well-established downtown area, lots of room for businesses to move into the area and large infrastructure in place."

There are problems, he noted. Ethnic boundaries in the city tend to be sharply drawn and the quality of public schools in the area is also a frequently voiced concern.

For those who can afford it, the city offers unique touches, such as the canals of Naples neighborhood. A system of canals allows residents of the wealthy neighborhood to bring their boats to the front door. The largest estates in the city are located in the Park Estates and Virginia Country Club neighborhoods.

The city is also committed to historic preservation, with a full-time historic preservation officer who has identified several hundred buildings with historic significance and a full-time architect to review the design of all projects to make sure that projects' designs mesh with that of surrounding buildings.

PHOTO : California dreaming: Homes remain reachable