Monarch Beach

Monarch Beach

Monarch Beach Real Estate

Most of the city of Dana Point constitutes some of the best homes in Orange County that you can buy for your money.

The Monarch Beach homes, which happen to be part of Dana Point, however, represent the best homes money could actually buy. Not just in Orange County, either. These are some of the very best homes available on the entire planet. You can actually see Catalina Island from the living room of some of the best homes in Monarch Beach.

The Monarch Beach neighborhood is the northernmost part of Dana Point and really lies midway between Dana Point “proper” and Laguna Beach along Pacific Coast Highway.

Residents in the neighborhood prefer to be known as residents of the town of Monarch Beach, as opposed to being considered part of Dana Point, which to some is considered to be a different area entirely.

Living in a Monarch Beach Home

To give you just a little bit of an idea of the 5-star nature of this area, Monarch Beach is home to the Ritz Carlton, but for those who don’t quite feel that the Ritz Carlton is up to their lofty standards, the St Regis Monarch Beach Resort is there too. (Rooms at the St Regis typically start at $1,500 a night, and if you hang around in the lobby for the afternoon, you’ll probably encounter 5-10 people that you’ve otherwise only seen on television).

(Both the Ritz Carlton and the St Regis Monarch Beach Resort in this neighborhood carry the prestigious AAA 5-diamond rating, an award given to less than one third of one percent of all the hotel properties in the U.S.)

There is some confusion on the internet between the Monarch Beach neighborhood and the Monarch Beach Housing Development. According to the Monarch Beach HOA, Monarch Beach is a 444-home master planned community behind a guarded gate consisting of 4 pristine neighborhoods, Marquesa, The Estates, Antigua, and The Villas.

The “town” of Monarch Beach, however, casts a considerably wider net, and lies along a 1.5 mile stretch of coastline through PCH starting just to the North of the Dana Point Harbor at Strands Beach and going all the way up to the terminus of Crown Valley Parkway.

The area boasts some of the most beautiful views, beaches, and “peaceful aura” found in all of California. Strands Beach, with miles of coastal hiking trails, and the Strands Private Beach Club, one of the only private Beach Clubs in the area.

Also of note is Monarch Beach Golf Club, one of the finest beachfront golf resorts in the area that doesn’t require a 6-figure membership fee to play at. Near the golf club is the Sea Terrace Community Park a pristine park with an ocean view that has free concerts during the summertime.

Also within walking distance are the wonderful Dana Point Marina and Salt Creek Beach.

Monarch Beach Home Prices

The Monarch Beach community has options that range in price from downright reasonable (considering what you are getting) to some of the most over the top luxury you could imagine and price tags to go with it.

If you’re looking for a tiny (700 SF) 1 bedroom condo near the beach in one of the most wonderful areas of all the world for about $300,000 well, you can find that here.

If you’re looking to spend $20 million for a 12,000 foot palace with views of the ocean from every room, a ten car garage and all the accoutrements that go with it, you can buy that in Monarch Beach too.

One of the questions we get from clients often: what does the typical home in Monarch Beach cost? While it’s a really hard question to answer, as it really depends on what you’re looking for, and we just mentioned about a 19 and a half million dollar swing if you were to line all of Monarch Beach real estate up from cheapest to dearest, a house right in the middle might be about 2,250 square feet, with 3 or 4 bedrooms, and you’d probably have to walk 3 or 4 minutes to see the water, as opposed to waking up with a view of the ocean- that house would cost about $1.5 million.

Pros and Cons of Monarch Beach Real Estate

Since Monarch Beach, as we just described it, is obviously one of the best places on the entire planet that you could ever be blessed to live in, what could possibly be wrong with it?

Like any place, it’s not an area everybody would pick to live in, and for some folks, Monarch Beach does have its drawbacks. One of the biggest of these drawbacks is that it’s simply far. If you’re retired, or you work from home, or you work in Dana Point or Laguna Beach, that’s likely not an issue, but if you commute to middle or north Orange County for work every day, drive time may be a consideration for you.

Secondly, there are two types of beach areas: serene, relaxing beach areas and happening beach areas. Laguna Beach, for example, has a happening scene and some nightlife. Monarch Beach – not so much. In general people who prefer to be in a lively, dynamic, happening place will likely pick Laguna or Newport – Monarch Beach is preferred by folks who either have no interest to the night life of some beach communities or those who are willing to get in the car and drive to the party.

On the plus side, residents get to live in an area that owners of the most luxurious resorts in the world would choose to plop a hotel down on. Also, while the area is not tallied separately in crime statistics, residents will tell you that crime is virtually non-existent in the area. Dana Point crime stats are less than half of what they are in California as a whole, and you can bet that Monarch Beach’s crime risk is even lower.

 


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