Belmont Heights

Belmont Heights sits on the rise between the flat grid of Belmont Shore and Recreation Park, roughly from Redondo Avenue east to Nieto Avenue and from 7th Street south toward Ocean Boulevard and Livingston Drive. It's mostly houses on shaded, gently sloping streets, with a business strip on Broadway east of Redondo. Compared with Second Street, it's quieter and more local: fewer visitors, more weeknight regulars.

The name is left over from a real city. Belmont Heights incorporated in 1908 and voted to join Long Beach in 1909. The story locals tell, and the Orange County Register repeated, is that Long Beach was dry at the time, so people crossed into the Heights to drink at its taverns. After annexation the name stayed, and people still call it the Heights.

Two city historic districts protect the oldest blocks. The Belmont Heights Historic District, adopted by the City Council on May 7, 2002, covers the streets from 4th to 7th between Newport and Roswell avenues. Of 304 homes surveyed for it, 206 were contributing Craftsman bungalows and 125 of those were judged nearly unaltered. The Eliot Lane Historic District, adopted on September 9, 2003, is a single block of 30 small homes built in 1923 by Boland & Smith, most of them 600 to 900 square feet.

Green space is close. Recreation Park, 210.9 acres on the north side, has an 18-hole and a 9-hole golf course, the Billie Jean King Tennis Center and lawn bowling greens that date to 1929. Colorado Lagoon, an 18-acre saltwater lagoon with a small swimming beach, sits at the northeast edge, and the beach and Belmont Shore's Second Street are a short ride downhill.

The Belmont Heights Community Association, a volunteer nonprofit, runs neighborhood events and weighs in on preservation. Houses don't come up often: in September 2026 only four were listed in the whole neighborhood.

The land was part of the Alamitos Beach Townsite that John W. Bixby laid out in 1886, and it was subdivided and built on in the 1900s. In 1908 Belmont Heights incorporated as its own city, and in 1909 it annexed to Long Beach. The city's 2002 historic district ordinance describes the district as commemorating that old City of Belmont Heights.

Long Beach itself had an on-and-off fight over alcohol in that era: the city briefly disincorporated in the 1890s, partly over prohibition. That background is why the story of thirsty Long Beach residents crossing into the Heights for a drink has stuck around, even if it's local lore more than a documented cause.

Most of the houses came after annexation. The oldest surviving homes date to 1905, and the city says construction peaked between 1918 and 1923. The Long Beach Greenbelt follows the right-of-way of the Pacific Electric Red Car line that once ran through here, and residents saved that land as open space starting in 1998.

As of September 2026, 22 homes were listed in our Belmont Heights map with a middle asking price around $1.3 million, against about $899,000 for Long Beach as a whole. The four houses listed asked about $940,000 to $3.95 million, condos asked about $460,000 to $700,000, and duplexes to fourplexes asked about $1 million to $2 million.

Four houses for a whole neighborhood isn't much. When a well-kept bungalow comes up at the right price, expect competition. Price it off recent sales on the same few blocks, not last year's averages.

Broadway, 4th Street and Recreation Park are walkable from most blocks, and the ride down to the beach and Alamitos Bay is short. The Greenbelt path and the city's bike routes make car-free errands realistic.

For regional trips, Broadway, 7th Street, Redondo Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway feed toward the 405, usually 10 to 15 minutes away. Downtown Long Beach is about 12 to 18 minutes by car and LAX usually 30 to 45. Most households keep a car for bigger trips; Orange County starts just across Alamitos Bay in Seal Beach.