Downtown Santa Monica is equal parts shopping haven and street-performer stage. Near the Pier, the Third Street Promenade consists of three open-air, car-free blocks that are anchored by upscale Santa Monica Place. With everything from fresh farmers-market produce to designer fashions, it’s a shopper’s nirvana. Likewise, foodies rejoice in the numerous restaurants featuring locally sourced ingredients and craft cocktails. Life pulses around each corner with hotel guests, street performers, shoppers, office workers, diners, barflies, and moviegoers. New to the mix: The terminus of the Metro Expo Line, opened in 2016, ferries riders by light rail between Santa Monica and Downtown Los Angeles.
Along Ocean Avenue, alfresco dining spots, pastel-hued hotels, palm-lined Palisades Park, and the distinctive Tongva Park provide enviable beachfront hangouts. Ocean Front Walk, home of the Original Muscle Beach, still flexes its charm with a collection of rings, parallel bars, and balance bars plied by bodybuilders, yogis, and other assorted sun-worshippers. Bikes, skateboards, and even hoverboards drift down the Marvin Braude Bike Trail in an aimless procession of fun. Perched over the Pacific, the 108-year-old Pier, featuring the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel and the century-old Looff Hippodrome, attracts more than seven million visitors a year, each reveling in a delectable slice of West Coast nostalgia.
The Downtown Santa Monica Real Estate market is changing dramatically as new luxury condo buildings go up and as the city continues to bolster its tourism and public transportation.
2017 - Median Condo Price ~ $1.25M
