Pier Bowl and Southwest San Clemente · CRMLS Closed Sales, January 2022 to September 2026
West of the freeway, you pay for the walk to the water.
This is the ocean side of Interstate 5, from Linda Lane Park by the pier south to Avenida Calafia and the State Beach. Houses here sold for $1,312 a square foot, 73% over the city, and most of them were built before 1970. Here is what the area has actually sold for, year by year beside the whole city, and what to check if you are counting on rental income or a rebuild.
The short version
Smaller, older houses at 73% more per square foot.
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$1,312
Median price per sq ft, houses
All of San Clemente: $758. 191 house sales here, Jan 2022 to Sep 2026.
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$2.40M
Median house
For a median 2,000 sq ft. All of San Clemente: $1.80M for 2,435.
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60%
Of houses sold were built before 1970
All of San Clemente: 20%. The median house here was built in 1963.
This is the part of San Clemente closest to the water: the pier, the train station and the beach are all on this side of the freeway. You pay for that per square foot, not in total. The median house here costs more than the city's, and it is smaller and about 25 years older.
Houses, year by year
The premium has held every year.
1. A square foot here costs far more than the city's, every year. The gap has run from about $410 to $760 a foot since 2022. It is the price of the location, and it has not narrowed.
2. Houses here sell at least as fast as the city's. Even in 2025, the slow year everywhere, the typical house here went under contract in 16 days, against 21 citywide.
Single-family houses, CRMLS closed sales. *2026 runs through September 11. "All of San Clemente" includes this area.
Older houses, older lots
Most of what sells here is a 1950s or 1960s house.
60% of the houses sold here since 2022 were built before 1970, against 20% citywide. The newer houses on these same streets are twice the size and sold for about $1.44M more at the median.
| Houses here | Sold | Median | Sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built before 1970 | 114 | $2.13M | 1,601 |
| Built 2000 or later | 38 | $3.57M | 3,496 |
Single-family houses in this area, CRMLS closed sales, January 2022 through September 11, 2026. The two groups are different houses on different lots, not before-and-after sales of the same property.
Small income buildings trade here too. 12 of the 26 duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes sold in San Clemente since 2022 were in this area.
If you are weighing a rebuild, the rules matter as much as the lot. The Pier Bowl sits entirely inside the coastal zone, where the City's Local Coastal Program governs what gets built, and the Pier Bowl Specific Plan adds its own standards on top.
Condos and townhomes
Attached homes here sold for a median $1.72M across 108 sales, against $998K citywide, at a similar size (1,553 square feet against 1,489).
See every number behind these charts
Houses
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pier Bowl and Southwest houses sold | 30 | 41 | 43 | 42 | 35 |
| San Clemente houses sold | 356 | 423 | 494 | 477 | 325 |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest houses median price | $2.42M | $2.00M | $2.30M | $3.06M | $2.50M |
| San Clemente houses median price | $1.70M | $1.73M | $1.81M | $1.88M | $1.95M |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest houses price per sq ft | $1,217 | $1,256 | $1,358 | $1,224 | $1,600 |
| San Clemente houses price per sq ft | $724 | $685 | $758 | $810 | $842 |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest houses cut price before selling | 17% | 29% | 23% | 33% | 17% |
| San Clemente houses cut price before selling | 31% | 32% | 29% | 34% | 23% |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest houses median days on market | 11 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 8 |
| San Clemente houses median days on market | 12 | 16 | 14 | 21 | 11 |
Condos and townhomes
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pier Bowl and Southwest condos sold | 13 | 20 | 21 | 35 | 19 |
| San Clemente condos sold | 123 | 113 | 146 | 131 | 107 |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest condos median price | $2.00M | $1.82M | $1.27M | $1.79M | $1.75M |
| San Clemente condos median price | $905K | $1.01M | $969K | $1.07M | $1.10M |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest condos price per sq ft | $1,056 | $1,156 | $1,017 | $1,258 | $1,113 |
| San Clemente condos price per sq ft | $605 | $713 | $698 | $782 | $772 |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest condos cut price before selling | 8% | 20% | 33% | 37% | 26% |
| San Clemente condos cut price before selling | 20% | 26% | 29% | 36% | 27% |
| Pier Bowl and Southwest condos median days on market | 7 | 10 | 18 | 29 | 12 |
| San Clemente condos median days on market | 8 | 10 | 16 | 20 | 13 |
Medians from CRMLS closed sales, January 2022 through September 11, 2026. Sales with flagged prices are excluded, and a sale recorded twice under two listing numbers is counted once.
Short-term rentals
Close to the pier does not mean you can rent it by the night.
If you are buying here with rental income in mind, three things the City of San Clemente confirmed:
- It is the parcel, not the neighborhood. A home either sits inside the City's mapped short-term lodging allowed areas or it does not. Single-family homes in low-density residential zones generally do not qualify. Check the allowed-areas map for the exact parcel.
- The permit dies at sale. A short-term lodging permit is void as of the date the property conveys. You cannot buy the seller's rental income; you apply for your own permit.
- The HOA gets a vote. Where there is an association, its written approval is part of the application.
The full rules, fees and timelines are on Short-Term Rental Rules in San Clemente.
The place
What the Pier Bowl is.
The City's Pier Bowl Specific Plan covers about 56 acres where the coastal bluff opens into a natural amphitheater facing the ocean, bounded by Linda Lane Park to the north, Trafalgar Canyon to the south, the ocean to the west and the residential neighborhoods inland. Founder Ole Hanson chose it for the pier in his plan for the "Spanish Village by the Sea."
- The pier. The original was under construction in 1928.
- Casa Romantica, Ole Hanson's home, is now a cultural center and gardens.
- The train. The San Clemente Pier station serves Amtrak and Metrolink, and the rail line runs along the beach.
- A mix of uses: housing of several types, lodging, and beach- and community-serving shops, per the plan.
- The coastal zone. The whole Pier Bowl is inside it, and the plan is written to carry out the City's sea level rise vulnerability and resiliency studies.
How this page draws the line. The Pier Bowl alone is too small to read on its own, so this page covers the ocean side of Interstate 5 from Linda Lane Park south to Avenida Calafia and San Clemente State Beach, with the Pier Bowl at its north end. Downtown north of Avenida Del Mar, and everything on the inland side of the freeway, is outside it.
Questions people ask
Pier Bowl and Southwest, answered.
How much does a house near the San Clemente pier cost?
On the ocean side of the freeway from Linda Lane Park south to Avenida Calafia, the median house sold for $2.40M from January 2022 to September 2026, for a median 2,000 square feet. That is $1,312 a square foot, against $758 for San Clemente as a whole.
What is the Pier Bowl in San Clemente?
The Pier Bowl is the roughly 56-acre area around the San Clemente Municipal Pier, between Linda Lane Park and Trafalgar Canyon, governed by the City's Pier Bowl Specific Plan. It includes the pier, Casa Romantica and the Amtrak and Metrolink station.
Can I buy a house near the pier and rent it on Airbnb?
Only if the specific parcel is inside the City's short-term lodging allowed areas, and even then the seller's permit is void at sale, so you apply for your own. Single-family homes in low-density residential zones generally are not eligible.
How old are the homes in Southwest San Clemente?
Of the houses sold on the ocean side of the freeway south of Avenida Del Mar since 2022, 60% were built before 1970, and the median was built in 1963. Citywide, 20% were built before 1970.
Sources
Where these numbers come from.
- Sales: CRMLS closed sales, San Clemente, January 1, 2022 to September 11, 2026. This area is defined by map boundary (the ocean side of Interstate 5 from Linda Lane Park to Avenida Calafia, south of Avenida Del Mar), not by the MLS subdivision field, which leaves most sales here tagged "Other." Medians of individual sales. A sale recorded twice under two listing numbers is counted once.
- City of San Clemente, Pier Bowl Specific Plan, Chapter 1: Introduction (area, boundaries, history, uses, coastal zone and Local Coastal Program, sea level rise studies).
- City of San Clemente, short-term lodging unit rules as confirmed with the City in August 2026, and the allowed-areas map. Full detail on this site's STR rules page.
Run it on a real address
Looking at a home near the pier?
Send me the address. I will pull what that block has actually sold for, check it against the City's short-term lodging map, and tell you what the numbers look like as a home, a rental or a rebuild. If the number does not work, better to know before the offer. I live in San Clemente. Text or email is the easiest way in.
Phone 949.541.8247
Email [email protected]
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License Adam Boehrer, Real Estate Agent, DRE #02419464, Pacific Sotheby's International Realty
Keep Reading
- Short-Term Rental Rules in San Clemente, and why the permit dies at sale.
- San Clemente Home Prices and Market Report, the current citywide median and expected market time.
- Neighborhoods, every neighborhood guide on this site.
- House Hacking in South Orange County, making a purchase carry part of its own weight.