Median Sale Price
$2,124,806
2.3% YoY
Spanish Village by the Sea
San Clemente Real Estate
Live listings, recent sales, and a local’s guide to San Clemente, from a brokerage that has worked this coast since 1983.
64,293
Population
$1.4M
Median Home Value
$140,062
Household Income
18.4 sq mi
Land Area
San Clemente real estate stretches from surf cottages above T-Street to gated estates at the city’s southern point, with master-planned hillside communities, blufftop new construction, and the historic Spanish-style homes that gave this town its name in between. This page tracks all of it: every active San Clemente home for sale, a live market dashboard, and a full local guide to the city’s neighborhoods, schools, beaches, and surf breaks. Realatrends has been a locally owned and operated Orange County brokerage since 1983, headquartered up Coast Highway at 1178 Glenneyre Street in Laguna Beach, and we have represented San Clemente buyers and sellers for decades. For a private showing, a custom search, or a pricing analysis on a specific San Clemente property, reach out anytime.
San Clemente Homes For Sale
Browse every active San Clemente home for sale in the live MLS feed on this page, newest listings first. The feed updates throughout the day and covers the entire market: Talega and Forster Ranch family homes, Sea Summit blufftop residences at Marblehead, Pier Bowl condos a walk from the sand, and the gated communities of Southwest San Clemente. Recently sold homes appear here too, and those sold comps are the most reliable pricing signal in any coastal market. Our brokers review them as part of every pricing analysis we run.
If you would rather have the market come to you, we will build a saved search that alerts you the moment a matching San Clemente property lists. You can also search every Orange County listing with our full MLS search tool, or contact us about off-market and coming-soon opportunities that surface through our broker network before they reach the public feeds.
About San Clemente
San Clemente calls itself the Spanish Village by the Sea, and the nickname is a literal description of the founder’s plan. In 1925, former Seattle mayor Ole Hanson bought roughly 2,000 acres of empty coastline halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego and laid out a town where every building would carry white stucco walls and a red tile roof. He sold 1,200 lots within six months, gave residents shared ownership of a fishing pier, a public pool, parks, and miles of bridle trails, and on February 27, 1928 San Clemente, named for the island offshore, incorporated as a city.
A century later the vision still reads in the architecture. Original Hanson-era Spanish Colonial homes anchor the blocks around the pier and downtown, the city’s civic buildings keep the style alive, and Casa Romantica, the blufftop home Hanson built for his own family in 1927, now operates as a cultural center with two and a half acres of gardens above the sand. Around that historic core, San Clemente grew into a city of about 64,000 residents at the southern end of Orange County, with Dana Point directly north and the San Diego County line at its southern edge.
Interstate 5 runs the length of the city, which puts the job centers of central Orange County within a normal commute and San Diego’s North County within an easy drive. Metrolink stops at the North Beach station, and weekend trains pull up beside the pier itself, a beach commute by rail that few California towns can offer.
San Clemente Neighborhoods and Communities
San Clemente divides into distinct districts, from the historic beach blocks to master-planned hill communities, each with its own housing stock and its own price logic. These are the areas buyers ask about most.
Southwest San Clemente
Southwest San Clemente runs from the blocks below T-Street to the county line, west of El Camino Real, and holds the city’s most coveted coastal addresses. The Riviera District mixes original Ole Hanson Spanish homes with mid-century beach houses on streets that walk to the sand, and the lanes around T-Street fill with surfboards every summer morning. At the city’s southern point sit the gated communities: Cyprus Shore, with roughly 123 custom homes between the bluff and the beach; neighboring Cyprus Cove, with resort amenities and private beach access; and Cotton’s Point Estates, where the 1926 Hamilton Cotton estate became La Casa Pacifica, President Nixon’s Western White House, after he bought it in 1969. The most expensive sales in San Clemente concentrate in this corner of the city.
The Pier Bowl and Central San Clemente
The Pier Bowl is the natural amphitheater of streets that curves around the San Clemente Pier, and it is the most walkable address in the city: down the hill to the sand, up the hill to the restaurants and shops of Avenida Del Mar. Housing here mixes historic Spanish cottages, ocean-view condos, and remodeled homes that trade on their view corridors. Central San Clemente spreads inland from downtown with established single-family streets, many of them holding Hanson-era originals that preservation-minded buyers seek out specifically.
North Beach and the Coast District
North Beach is San Clemente’s historic seaside gateway, home to the Ole Hanson Beach Club, the Spanish Revival pool building that opened in 1928, and the Casino San Clemente, the 1937 dance hall beside it, both restored and busy with events. The Metrolink station that opened here in 1995 makes this the city’s transit front door, and the coastal neighborhoods nearby pair beach-close living with quick access to Dana Point and the harbor. Homes range from original cottages to view condos along the lower coastal ridge.
Talega
Talega is the city’s largest master-planned community, roughly 3,500 acres of hills and canyons on San Clemente’s northeastern edge, developed beginning in the late 1990s into about 40 neighborhoods and more than 3,000 homes. The Talega Golf Club, an 18-hole par-72 Fred Couples signature course, threads through the community, and residents share pools, parks, trails, and a swim and athletic club. Neighborhoods span condos and townhomes such as Verano and Trinidad, family tracts, executive homes in San Lucar, and the Gallery, a gated 55-plus enclave of 283 homes. Buyers who want newer construction, open floor plans, and community amenities usually start their San Clemente search here.
Marblehead and Sea Summit
Marblehead occupies the coastal bluff on the ocean side of Interstate 5, and its newest chapter is Sea Summit, a 309-home community completed in the last decade on the 248-acre Marblehead Coastal site. Sea Summit’s four enclaves, Sapphire, Indigo, Azure, and Aqua, surround the Summit House recreation center, five community parks, and a network of blufftop trails that drop toward the shoreline. The Outlets at San Clemente, the blufftop shopping center that opened in 2015 with more than 60 stores, sits next door, and ocean views reach across much of the neighborhood. Inland Marblehead adds established single-family streets from earlier phases of the development.
Forster Ranch
Forster Ranch fills the canyons and ridgelines of northeastern San Clemente with family neighborhoods built from the 1980s through the early 2000s, named for Don Juan Forster, the rancho-era landowner whose holdings once covered this ground. Tracts range from single-story homes on generous lots in the older sections to larger residences from the 2000s, and the community park, known locally as the pirate park for its ship-themed playground, anchors weekend life. The Forster Ranch Ridgeline Trail runs 3.2 miles along the crest above the neighborhood with ocean views for most of its length.
Rancho San Clemente
Rancho San Clemente climbs the hills south of Avenida Pico with neighborhoods built in the 1980s and 1990s, from condos and townhomes to view homes along the upper streets, including communities like Pacific Shores from the late 1980s. Its own Ridgeline Trail covers about three and a half miles with ocean and canyon vistas, and the adjoining business park keeps a major employment center inside the city limits. For buyers who want a single-family home with a view at a friendlier price than the beach blocks, this is a frequent landing spot.
Surfing in San Clemente: Trestles, T-Street, and San Onofre
Surfing is not a hobby in San Clemente; it is civic infrastructure. The city’s southern boundary meets San Onofre State Beach, home to Trestles, and Lower Trestles in particular ranks among the most consistent high-performance waves in the world. Surfers call it surfing’s skatepark for the way its peeling cobblestone peaks reward progression. The World Surf League decided its world titles at Lowers for four straight seasons through 2024, the break remains a Championship Tour venue, and Lower Trestles was named the surfing venue for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Closer to town, T-Street serves as the everyday wave for generations of local kids, the beach break at the pier hosts contests through the summer, and the gentle rollers of San Onofre’s Old Man’s carry the longboard tradition forward. The surf industry followed the waves: board shapers, apparel brands, and media companies cluster in San Clemente, and the high school’s surf team competes at a national level. For many buyers, proximity to a specific break is a genuine search criterion, and we treat it like one.
Downtown, the Pier, and the Beach Trail
Daily life in San Clemente organizes itself around three connected places. Avenida Del Mar, the palm-lined main street, slopes from the historic downtown toward the ocean with locally owned restaurants, coffee houses, and shops, and it fills for community events through the year. At its foot, the municipal pier reaches out over one of the most photographed stretches of sand in Orange County, with dining at its base and the original 1920s beach culture intact around it.
Linking everything is the San Clemente Beach Trail, 2.3 miles of coastal path from North Beach to Calafia, passing the pier and T-Street along the way. Residents walk it, run it, and ride it daily, often with the Metrolink tracks on one side and breaking surf on the other. Add the city’s parks, the two ridgeline trail systems in the hills, and a mild coastal climate, and the lifestyle case for San Clemente makes itself. Many of our buyers tour homes after a morning on the trail and understand the city better for it.
Schools Serving San Clemente
San Clemente sits within the Capistrano Unified School District, the largest school district in Orange County. Elementary campuses inside the city include Marblehead, Las Palmas, Concordia, Clarence Lobo, Truman Benedict, and Vista del Mar, which operates as a K-8 campus in Talega. Students continue to Shorecliffs Middle School, Bernice Ayer Middle School, or Vista del Mar Middle School, and then to San Clemente High School, home of the Tritons, one of the district’s comprehensive high schools. Attendance boundaries can shift and several neighborhoods sit near boundary lines, so verify the assigned schools for any specific address with the district. We flag school-boundary questions for our buyers during showings.
The San Clemente Housing Market
San Clemente offers one of the broadest housing ladders on the south Orange County coast. Condos and townhomes, many in Talega, Rancho San Clemente, and the coastal districts, anchor the entry point of the market. Established single-family neighborhoods trade in the low millions, newer construction at Sea Summit and the larger view homes in Talega and Forster Ranch step up from there, and the gated communities and ocean-view properties of Southwest San Clemente set the top of the market. The live dashboard on this page tracks current medians, inventory, and days on market as they change, so lean on it rather than any published average that was stale the month it printed.
The supply picture rewards preparation. San Clemente is largely built out, coastal lots are finite, and homes in the most requested neighborhoods often draw multiple audiences at once: local move-up buyers, commuters trading inland square footage for the beach trail, second-home buyers, and surfers anchoring near a break. Sellers in that environment do best with disciplined pricing and full preparation, and buyers do best with financing ready and alerts running before the right home lists. Start with a free home valuation to see where your property sits in today’s market, or ask us to build your search.
Expert San Clemente Realtors
Realatrends Real Estate Services, Inc. has been locally owned and operated since 1983, headquartered at 1178 Glenneyre Street in Laguna Beach, a straight run up the coast from San Clemente. Brokers R. Clark Smith III and R. Clark Smith IV carry a family practice now in its fourth generation of Orange County real estate, with more than $1 billion in closed sales, and we represent buyers and sellers at every price point, condos through oceanfront estates.
If you are selling, our coastal homeowner seller guide walks through pricing, preparation, and marketing step by step, and a no-obligation valuation takes minutes to request. If you are buying, tell us what you want and we will line up showings, build your saved search, and watch the off-market channels. We work the neighboring markets daily too, from Laguna Niguel to San Juan Capistrano, so if your search crosses city lines we can carry it with you. Reach a San Clemente specialist here and we will handle the rest.
San Clemente Market Report
Updated May 2026
Days on Market
39 days
Active Inventory
94
New Listings (Month)
72
Year-Over-Year Change
2.3%
What's Your San Clemente Home Worth?
12-Month Median Price Trend
San Clemente
Good to Know
Frequently Asked Questions About San Clemente
Is San Clemente a good place to live?
Yes. San Clemente pairs miles of beaches and world-class surf with Capistrano Unified schools, a walkable historic downtown on Avenida Del Mar, and a 2.3-mile beach trail that connects the shoreline from North Beach to Calafia. The city of about 64,000 residents offers everything from master-planned hill communities to gated coastal enclaves, with Interstate 5 running the length of town and Metrolink service at North Beach for rail commuters.
What are the best neighborhoods in San Clemente?
The most requested areas are Southwest San Clemente for beach-close living and gated communities like Cyprus Shore and Cyprus Cove; the Pier Bowl for walkability to the pier and downtown; Talega for newer master-planned homes around a Fred Couples signature golf course; Sea Summit at Marblehead for blufftop construction from the last decade; and Forster Ranch and Rancho San Clemente for established family neighborhoods with trail access. Each district has its own price band and character, so the right answer depends on how you live.
How much do homes cost in San Clemente?
San Clemente covers a wide spread. Condos and townhomes anchor the entry point of the market, established single-family neighborhoods trade in the low millions, and ocean-view and gated coastal properties in Southwest San Clemente command the city’s top prices. For current numbers on any neighborhood, use the live listing feed and market dashboard on this page or request a custom pricing analysis from Realatrends.
Why is San Clemente called the Spanish Village by the Sea?
Founder Ole Hanson, a former mayor of Seattle, planned the town in 1925 as a unified Spanish Colonial village, requiring white stucco walls and red tile roofs on its original buildings. The city incorporated in 1928, and the style still defines its historic core, from the cottages around the pier to Casa Romantica, the blufftop home Hanson built in 1927 that now serves as a cultural center and garden open to the public.
Where is Trestles, and can you live near it?
Trestles sits at San Clemente’s southern edge within San Onofre State Beach, and Lower Trestles ranks among the best high-performance waves in the world: the World Surf League decided its world titles there for four straight seasons through 2024, and it will host surfing for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The closest homes are in Southwest San Clemente, including the gated communities of Cyprus Shore, Cyprus Cove, and Cotton’s Point Estates, all a short walk or bike ride from the trail down to the break.
What schools serve San Clemente?
San Clemente is served by the Capistrano Unified School District, the largest district in Orange County. City elementary schools include Marblehead, Las Palmas, Concordia, Clarence Lobo, Truman Benedict, and the K-8 Vista del Mar campus in Talega; students continue to Shorecliffs, Bernice Ayer, or Vista del Mar middle schools and then San Clemente High School. Attendance boundaries vary by address and can change, so verify school assignments with the district when evaluating a specific home.
Does San Clemente have gated communities?
Yes, concentrated in Southwest San Clemente near the county line: Cyprus Shore, with roughly 123 custom homes and private beach access; Cyprus Cove, with pools, tennis, and its own beach gate; and Cotton’s Point Estates, the community that contains La Casa Pacifica, President Nixon’s former Western White House. Talega adds the Gallery, a gated 55-plus neighborhood of 283 homes. Gated inventory turns over slowly, so serious buyers should set alerts and ask about off-market availability.
Thinking About San Clemente?
Let’s find your place on the coast
Whether you’re buying in San Clemente or preparing to sell, we’d welcome the chance to talk through your options, no obligation.