San Clemente Oceanfront Homes

San Clemente Oceanfront Homes for Sale

These are the San Clemente homes for sale that their listing agents mark as oceanfront or beachfront in the MLS, newest first. The grid updates from the MLS every 5 minutes. In San Clemente the tag covers two kinds of home, the houses on the sand at Capistrano Shores and the much larger number of houses and condos on the bluffs above the beach, so read each listing for where the home sits. For homes set back from the edge, see the San Clemente ocean-view homes.

What Oceanfront Means in San Clemente

San Clemente has about five miles of coast, and a single-track rail line, used by Amtrak, Metrolink and freight trains, runs the whole length of it along the base of the bluffs. The Orange County Transportation Authority owns that corridor and the rock revetment that lines it in many places. The order is the same almost everywhere: the home, then the bluff, then the tracks and the rocks, then the beach. Only one community, Capistrano Shores, puts homes on the ocean side of the tracks. Every other home sold as oceanfront in San Clemente sits inland of the tracks, nearly all of them on the bluff above, and residents reach the sand by public stairways and ramps, then over the tracks at the city’s signal-controlled crossings or under them through underpasses.

Who Owns the Sand

The State of California owns the tidelands, which on a beach like San Clemente’s generally run seaward of the mean high tide line. That line moves with the shoreline, so a survey on one day can differ from the next, and the State Lands Commission is the recognized authority for locating it. About two miles of San Clemente’s shore are private beach parcels, most of them owned by the associations at Shorecliffs, Cyprus Cove and Cyprus Shore and by the mobile home parks at the north end, including Capistrano Shores, but the city’s Land Use Plan keeps public access seaward of the mean high tide line at all times, and no private parcel may block it.

San Clemente Oceanfront Neighborhoods From North to South

Capistrano Shores

Capistrano Shores, at 1880 N. El Camino Real, is a single row of 90 manufactured homes on the sand near the north end of the city, between the tracks and the sea. North of it, a few bluff-top houses on La Ventana look down on Poche and the Shorecliffs beach. The land belongs to Capistrano Shores, Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corporation of the 90 home owners, which bought it in January 2008; each owner holds a one-ninetieth membership that gives use of one space and owns the home, but not the land beneath it. A timber bulkhead and a rock revetment, built before the Coastal Act took effect in 1977, protect the row, and the corporation maintains them.

Replacing a home at Capistrano Shores is development that needs a coastal development permit from the Coastal Commission. Recent approvals have held new homes to a 16-foot roof measured from the park’s private frontage road, Senda de la Playa, and the Commission records each permit’s conditions through an amendment to that space’s occupancy agreement. The Coastal Act is the standard the Commission applies there; the 2018 Land Use Plan does not apply to the park, and the 1996 plan serves only as guidance. The beach in front runs from a few feet to about 70 feet wide by season, so walking along the shore in front of the park is practical only at low tide. Agents marked 13 Capistrano Shores sales as oceanfront between November 2024 and October 2026, from $1,625,000 to $5,900,000, at a median of $2,480,000.

The North Beach Bluff

South of North Beach, homes and condos line a bluff about 100 feet high above 204 Beach and Mariposa Point, on streets such as Dije Court, El Portal, Mariposa, Buena Vista and Escalones. Public stairways at Dije Court and El Portal and a ramp at Mariposa lead down to the Beach Trail and across the tracks to the sand. In January 2024 a slide from a privately owned slope above the tracks at Mariposa Point stopped all trains; the transportation authority built a catchment wall there, and the Beach Trail below reopened in October 2026. See North Beach homes.

The Pier Bowl

Above the pier, condominium buildings line the bluff on Corto Lane, Arenoso Lane and Avenida Granada, beside Casa Romantica, the 2.43-acre estate on the National Register of Historic Places that the city bought in 1988. The Pier Bowl Specific Plan sets building heights by zone: 25 feet in Residential Medium, 45 feet in Residential High, with 30 feet for properties fronting Coronado Lane, and 30 feet in the mixed-use core near Avenida Del Mar and Avenida Victoria, all under a Spanish Colonial Revival architectural overlay. In April 2023 the slope below Casa Romantica gave way above the tracks, rail service stopped, and the neighboring condo building was red-tagged. See Pier Bowl homes and Vista Pacifica Villas.

Lost Winds and Calle de los Alamos

South of T-Street, single-family homes sit on the bluff along Calle de los Alamos. The public way to the beach at Lost Winds, named for Calle Lasuen, mispronounced over the years, runs down a 10-foot easement between two homes, then by steps to a protected rail crossing and the sand. Leslie Park, a pocket park on the bluff, has two viewing levels but no beach access. Flagged sales on Calle de los Alamos ran from $4,500,000 to $6,650,000 between January and November 2025. See Southwest San Clemente homes.

Cyprus Shore, Cyprus Cove and Cotton’s Point

At the south end, west of Interstate 5, the gated communities of Cyprus Shore, Cyprus Cove and Cotton’s Point Estates hold some of the city’s largest oceanfront houses. The Cyprus Cove and Cyprus Shore associations own the beach parcel below the bluffs, which Cotton’s Point residents share; it carries courts and picnic areas but no homes, and the sand is private above the mean high tide line and public seaward of it. In 2021 and 2022 an old landslide below Cyprus Shore moved again, and the transportation authority anchored the bluff with tiebacks and buried grade beams; the Coastal Commission reported that movement stopped once the work was finished in spring 2023, while warning that smaller local instability can continue. Agents marked two Cyprus Cove sales as oceanfront in 2025, at $6,999,000 and $10,100,000.

Oceanfront Condos and Townhomes

Condos and townhomes made up 20 of the flagged sales between November 2024 and October 2026, from $1,127,000 to $5,500,000, at a median of $2,250,000. Most sat on the bluff between North Beach and the Pier Bowl, and four sat on Avenida Lobeiro, above Calafia at the south end. Association documents for a bluff-top building show its reserves, its insurance and any slope or drainage work the association has done, so read them before you write an offer.

Coastal Permits, Bluffs and Hazard Maps in San Clemente

Who issues permits. The Coastal Commission certified San Clemente’s Land Use Plan in 2018, but the city’s Implementation Plan was still in progress in June 2026 (see the city’s coastal planning page), so the Commission, not the city, issues coastal development permits for work on bluff, beach and canyon lots. A city exclusion order exempts ordinary home building in many residential zones, but never on lots on or beside a coastal bluff, beach or canyon.

What the 2018 plan asks for. For new homes and major remodels on the bluff, the plan calls for a geotechnical study of the bluff edge and its retreat over at least 75 years, including sea-level rise, and a setback of the greatest of that study’s line, 25 feet from the bluff edge or a stringline drawn between the neighboring homes. New seawalls and other shoreline armor are discouraged, allowed only by permit under strict tests, and new development records a waiver of any right to armor. A major remodel means altering half or more of any one major structural part (the exterior walls, the floor and roof structure or the foundation), or adding half again to the floor area, with past changes to each part counted since January 1, 1977.

Hazard maps. FEMA’s flood maps put the beach and the revetment in Zone VE, the coastal high-hazard zone. The Capistrano Shores homes map just landward of it, in Zone X, and the bluff-top parcels map as minimal flood hazard. The State’s Tsunami Hazard Area, drawn for evacuation planning, covers Capistrano Shores and the beaches but not the bluff tops above them. The Natural Hazard Disclosure for a home shows whether it sits in a mapped flood, fault or seismic hazard zone; check the FEMA flood map and the state tsunami hazard maps for the address as well.

Sea-level rise. The city’s 2021 Coastal Resiliency Plan modeled 0.8, 3.3 and 4.9 feet of sea-level rise, and it left Capistrano Shores out of its study area. At 3.3 feet most beaches erode back to the railroad revetment and nearly all the city’s beach facilities are exposed. At 4.9 feet, in a worst case where the rail line and its revetment are removed, erosion could reach the bluffs below the bluff-top homes.

San Clemente Oceanfront Home Prices

Listing agents marked 42 San Clemente sales as oceanfront or beachfront between November 2024 and October 2026, at a median of $2,550,000. Thirteen were Capistrano Shores homes (median $2,480,000), 20 were condos and townhomes (median $2,250,000), and nine were single-family houses, from $2,100,000 to the $10,100,000 Cyprus Cove sale. At the median, these homes sold for about 92 percent of their original list price. For the citywide record, see the San Clemente housing market page.

San Clemente Oceanfront and Beachfront Homes Sold in the Last 12 Months

The latest closings that listing agents marked as oceanfront or beachfront, newest first.

Realatrends Real Estate on the San Clemente Coast

Realatrends Real Estate has sold homes on the south Orange County coast since 1983, with more than 700 sales and $1B+ closed. On the oceanfront we check the permit history, the bluff and the association records before you write an offer, and we price from the sales on your own stretch of coast. Read our guides to San Clemente beaches and selling a home in San Clemente, compare the city with Dana Point and see the Dana Point oceanfront homes next door, or talk with us.

Frequently Asked Questions About San Clemente Oceanfront Homes

Are there homes on the sand in San Clemente?

Only at Capistrano Shores, the row of 90 manufactured homes at 1880 N. El Camino Real, on the ocean side of the rail line. Every other San Clemente home sold as oceanfront sits inland of the tracks, most on the bluff above them.

Do Capistrano Shores owners own their land?

Not directly. The land belongs to Capistrano Shores, Inc., a non-profit corporation of the 90 home owners; each owner holds a one-ninetieth membership that gives use of one space and owns the home on it.

How much do oceanfront homes cost in San Clemente?

Between November 2024 and October 2026, the 42 sales that agents marked as oceanfront or beachfront had a median of $2,550,000. Condos and townhomes sold for a median of $2,250,000, Capistrano Shores homes for $2,480,000, and single-family houses for $2,100,000 to $10,100,000.

Who owns the beach in front of San Clemente’s oceanfront homes?

The State owns the tidelands seaward of the mean high tide line, and the public may use them at all times. Some of the dry sand above that line belongs to private beach parcels, most of them held by the associations at Cyprus Shore, Cyprus Cove and Shorecliffs and by the north-end mobile home parks, including Capistrano Shores.

Can you build a seawall to protect a San Clemente oceanfront home?

New seawalls and other armor are discouraged under the city’s 2018 Land Use Plan and allowed only by a Coastal Commission permit under strict tests. New homes and major remodels on the bluff record a waiver of any right to armor.

Do I need a Coastal Commission permit to remodel a bluff-top home in San Clemente?

Usually, yes. The city’s coastal program is not fully certified, so the Coastal Commission issues permits for work on bluff, beach and canyon lots, and the city’s exemption for ordinary home building does not reach those lots.