Marina del Rey Homes for Sale

Los Angeles, CA

Why People Move to Marina del Rey

You can walk from your front door to your boat. The harbor is cut into eight separate basins, and the buildings sit on narrow strips of land between them, with the docks running the length of both sides. Keep a boat here and it is tied up a minute from your door.
Low buildings over the water, towers set back inland. Nothing out on those strips is built tall, so a most homes have a view of the marina. The high-rises are along Via Marina and Admiralty Way instead, far enough back to see the whole harbor at once.
Between Venice and Playa del Rey, with Ballona Creek and the wetlands on the south side and Lincoln Boulevard inland. LAX sits a few miles down the coast, so you can leave the house an hour before a flight.
Parks, sand and open water inside the neighborhood. A ten-acre park on a point in the middle of the harbor, a swimming beach with no surf on it, and two bike paths that meet here and carry you up or down the coast without crossing a road.

The harbor was marshland at the mouth of Ballona Creek until the 1950s, when the federal government and the County dug it out together and dedicated it in 1965. One piece of that history still shapes every purchase here: Los Angeles County never sold the ground. The County owns the land and water of the marina and leases it to the companies that build and run the buildings on it.

Living in Marina del Rey

Burton W. Chace Park: ten acres on a point sticking straight out into the main channel at the end of Mindanao Way, open from six in the morning until ten at night. Picnic shelters with barbecues, wide lawns and the best vista in the marina. It is also where the free summer concerts, the movie nights, the Fourth of July fireworks and the Holiday Boat Parade all happen, and you can tie up at the guest docks and stay the night.
Marina "Mother's" Beach: almost half a mile of sand on protected water with no surf at all, so small children can actually swim. Volleyball courts, a playground, barbecues and showers, and it is the easiest place on this coast to put a kayak or a paddleboard in the water.
The Saturday farmers' market: nine until two on Panay Way, every Saturday of the year.
Two bike paths that meet: the Marvin Braude trail runs the sand from Pacific Palisades all the way to Torrance, and the Ballona Creek path comes in from Culver City and joins it. Ride north to Santa Monica for breakfast and never touch a road.
Boats go out from Fisherman's Village all day: sportfishing, harbor cruises and charters. Between the yacht clubs, the rowing and outrigger crews and the UCLA aquatic center on Fiji Way, getting on the water takes no more planning than walking down there.
Yvonne B. Burke Park: an eight-acre strip of green running along Admiralty Way with a full par course on it, and the whole thing is lit, so you can do the circuit after work in the dark.

Children here go to Los Angeles Unified schools, and the Lloyd Taber-Marina del Rey County Library sits on Admiralty Way opposite the park.

Neighborhoods in the Marina del Rey Area: the Water's Edge, Marina City Club and the Silver Strand

Marina del Rey proper is small, and all of it is unincorporated Los Angeles County. Several of the places people call Marina del Rey, and that carry a Marina del Rey 90292 address, sit in the City of Los Angeles instead. They are a few minutes apart on foot and worth walking before you choose between them.

The fingers of land, on Marquesas, Panay, Tahiti and Bora Bora Ways: the strips that run out into the water between the basins, and the closest thing in Los Angeles to living on a dock. Low-rise blocks, water on both sides of the street, and your slip right behind where you live. Marquesas is residential end to end.
Via Marina and the inland rim: the high-rise side, on the stretch between Via Dolce and the water. The towers are here, so this is the side to look at for a high floor and a long view over the whole harbor rather than a boat parked behind you.
The Oxford pocket, around Marina City Club: the one address inside the County marina where you can buy rather than rent. Towers set around their own health club, with pools, tennis and racquetball courts, on the inland side of Admiralty Way near the Ritz-Carlton.
Palawan Way and the north end: one place to live out on the point, the Wayfarer, surrounded by the hotels, the yacht club, the shopping center and the restaurants at the top of the marina. Mother's Beach is a short walk and the farmers' market is one street over.
Fiji Way, on the south side: mostly boatyards, the launch ramp and Fisherman's Village, with one residential building, the Breakwater, looking out over Basin H and the wetlands beyond it.
The Silver Strand (Marina del Rey address, City of Los Angeles): the grid of detached houses between Ballona Lagoon and the County line, with Via Dolce running through the middle of it. These are the single-family homes most buyers picture when they say Marina del Rey, and they are a few minutes' walk from the harbor.
The Marina Peninsula (Marina del Rey address, City of Los Angeles): the sand side, with the Pacific straight out the front and the lagoon behind. The streets run alphabetically and nautically, Anchorage, Catamaran, Driftwood and on down to Yawl, and you can walk to it along the jetty from the end of Via Marina.
Villa Marina (Marina del Rey address, City of Los Angeles): the gated townhome and condominium enclaves on the inland side, west of Lincoln Boulevard, where you get a garage and a front door of your own instead of a lobby.

Which side of the line a building sits on changes what you can own and who you file plans with. Inside the County marina the buildings are leaseholds and almost all of them are rentals. Cross Via Dolce or Lincoln and you are in the City of Los Angeles, where the land is owned outright, the houses are detached, and the Venice Coastal Zone Specific Plan sets the building rules. The City's own ordinance defines the Silver Strand's eastern edge as the Los Angeles County boundary, which tells you exactly where one ends and the other begins.

Homes for Sale in Marina del Rey

Marina City Club is where you buy inside the marina. It holds the condominiums on County ground, and the County's own roster lists it as a leasehold parcel like any other, which means you own the unit and the ground underneath stays with the County.
Nearly everything else inside the County marina is a rental. Eighteen apartment communities sit on the County's published list, from the Wayfarer and the Shores to Mariner's Village and the Breakwater.
There are no houses in the County marina at all. The County's Land Use Plan has only three residential categories and all three are multi-family. A detached house on the water here is in the City of Los Angeles, on the Strand or the Peninsula.
A leasehold means you buy the building and rent the ground. Ask for the actual lease, count the years left on it, and talk to a lender early, because the remaining term changes what financing is available and ground rent is a monthly cost that sits alongside any association dues.
Owning outright is a short walk away. The Silver Strand, the Marina Peninsula and Villa Marina all carry the Marina del Rey address and sit on land that is owned rather than leased, so you keep the harbor and own the ground under the house. Walk a leasehold tower and a Strand house in the same afternoon, then see what is available in each.

Most buyers never find out they are choosing between leasing the ground and owning it. A high floor on Via Marina and a house on the Strand sit a ten-minute walk apart and are bought in completely different ways. Work out which one you want before you fall for a specific unit, because the conversation with a lender starts somewhere else for each.

Leasing the Ground or Owning It: Choosing With a Marina del Rey Real Estate Agent

A condominium at Marina City Club, an apartment out over the water, a detached house on the Silver Strand and a townhome at Villa Marina all share one address and answer to two different governments. Reach out to Shen Realty and we will walk the harbor with you and tell you which side of the line each building is on, what the lease says where there is one, and what that means for your financing. We have sold on this coastline for almost 30 years, out of Sotheby's International Realty.

Common Questions About Marina del Rey

Can I actually buy a condominium in Marina del Rey?

Inside the County marina, at Marina City Club. Every other residential leasehold on the County's own roster is a rental apartment community. The rest of the buildings that come up in a search for Marina del Rey condominiums share the 90292 address but answer to City Hall, and their land is bought with the unit. Both are genuinely Marina del Rey to live in. They are different things to buy.

Is the Silver Strand in Marina del Rey?

By address yes, by jurisdiction no. The Strand is in the City of Los Angeles under the Venice Coastal Zone Specific Plan, and the City ordinance draws its eastern boundary at the Los Angeles County line. Everyone who lives there calls it Marina del Rey and the post office agrees, so the distinction only surfaces when you pull permits, check zoning or work out which rules apply to a remodel. A Strand remodel answers to City planners, not to the County.

What does it mean that the County owns the land?

You own the building, the County owns the ground beneath it, and you pay rent on the ground. That changes the price, because a leasehold is a different asset from land held outright. It changes the financing, because lenders look at how many years the lease has left. And it adds a monthly cost, because ground rent sits next to any association dues. None of this is unusual in a harbor, but read the lease before you offer.

Are there any houses in Marina del Rey?

Not inside the County marina. Its Land Use Plan only allows multi-family residential, so the marina is apartment and condominium buildings, out on the water and along the inland edge. The detached houses with Marina del Rey addresses are on the Silver Strand and the Marina Peninsula, both a few minutes from the water and both in the City of Los Angeles.

Is Marina del Rey a city?

No. It is governed directly by the County, which is therefore the landlord, the planning authority and the parks department at once. There is no city hall and no neighborhood council. The Board of Supervisors governs it, with a Design Control Board and a Small Craft Harbor Commission alongside. We cover the marina as part of our Santa Monica and West L.A. region.