Latigo Beach Homes for Sale in Malibu
Why People Move to Latigo Beach
- The water really is bluer. A colour study of 53 American waterways matched each one to its nearest hex code and ranked Latigo the 12th bluest in the country.
- Sheltered water. The beach faces southeast and Latigo Point blocks the swell coming from the west, so the water in front of the houses stays calm when the open coast either side is not. You can put a child in it.
- A short, quiet stretch. The sand sits directly below the houses and condominiums on Latigo Shore Drive, which is most of why it stays lightly used even in August.
- Open land to the east. The bluffs toward Corral Canyon are public and undeveloped, so the view along the coast does not end in more rooflines.
Latigo is one of the quieter addresses in central Malibu, roughly between the Malibu Pier and Point Dume. The turn is easy to miss: look for the Coastal Access sign on Pacific Coast Highway pointing into Latigo Shore Drive, which is signed for Seagull Drive as well. Past that sign the street is private.
Living in Latigo Beach
- Swimming, not just views. The sheltered aspect makes this one of the few stretches on this coast where the water is usually calm enough for a long swim or a paddleboard straight off the sand.
- The tide pools: anemones, urchins and crabs in the rock shelf at the west end. Go an hour either side of low water and take the kids.
- The break off the point: a right-hander that needs a real south swell, so it is a summer wave. When it works you will have more room than you would at the better-known spots down the coast.
- The walk both ways. At low water you can go west around the point to Escondido Beach and the shoreline below Malibu Cove Colony. East in summer the sand runs on to Dan Blocker Beach, the county beach most people still call Corral.
- Solstice Canyon: half a mile east and straight up, a shaded streamside loop past the ruins of a burned ranch house. The least demanding walk on this part of the coast, and the best one.
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified runs the schools, and that district is in the process of dividing. There are no shops on the street itself, which is the trade people make for the quiet, and the nearest are a few minutes along the highway toward Malibu Road.
Neighborhoods in Latigo Beach: the Shore, the Bluff and the Canyon
Three different places share this name, and a listing headed "Latigo" can mean any of them.
- Latigo Shore Drive: the beach-level street, inside the City of Malibu, with two rows of property along it. One row sits on the sand and the other sits across the road looking over it, and both carry the same street name. Latigo Shore Place is a second short street beside it.
- The bluff above: houses set back and up, trading direct sand access for elevation and a longer view down the coast. A bluff house and a beach house can be neighbors and are not remotely the same purchase.
- Latigo Canyon Road: runs from the highway miles up into the Santa Monica Mountains and crosses out of the City of Malibu into unincorporated Los Angeles County on the way. Horse property, oak canyons and no ocean at all, several minutes' drive above the beach that shares its name.
Homes for Sale in Latigo Beach
- Beach-level houses on the ocean row, engineered for the sand they sit on, most of them built between the 1940s and the 1990s and rebuilt at least once since.
- Ocean-view houses on the inland row, across a private street from the water rather than on it.
- Condominiums. Several buildings sit right at the entrance to the street, and they are the only way onto this beach without buying a house.
- Bluff houses above the road, set back and up, with a longer run of coastline in the window.
- Canyon property up Latigo Canyon Road, on acreage, under hillside rules that have nothing to do with the beach.
It is a small street, so little changes hands in a year and a good deal of what does never reaches a portal. Which row a parcel sits on sets the price, and you read that off the title and the parcel number, because the address is the same either way.
Buying at Latigo Beach with a Malibu Real Estate Agent
The address tells you less here than almost anywhere on this coast. Ocean row or inland row, house or condominium, beach or bluff or canyon, all under one name. Reach out to Shen Realty and we will meet you at the accessway, where it takes about a minute to see which houses are on the sand and which are across the road. We grew up on this coast and have sold it for almost 30 years.
Common Questions About Latigo Beach
Is the beach public?
Almost all of it, and unusually clearly. The easements here are well defined rather than disputed, so nearly all the sand is public, wet or dry, with one marked private strip in front of the condominiums at the entrance. The Coastal Commission's Malibu access guide maps it. Park on the highway rather than past the private-street signs.
How do I get down to the sand?
By the public stairway just inside the entrance to Latigo Shore Drive, next to the condominiums on the left as you come in off the highway. Coastal accessways do get closed for repair, so check the current status before you make a trip of it.
Can I swim here?
Usually, yes. Latigo Point blocks the west swell and the beach faces southeast, so the surf in front of the houses is gentler than it is a few hundred yards either side. Avoid it for three days after rain, as anywhere on this coast.
Is a Latigo Canyon Road address the same as Latigo Beach?
No. They are several minutes' drive apart and under different jurisdictions. Latigo Canyon Road climbs inland for miles and crosses the city boundary partway up, so a canyon house can answer to the County rather than the City of Malibu, with different permits, different services and no beach. Confirm the jurisdiction on the parcel before you compare anything up the canyon to anything on the shore.