Long Beach Apartments: LA County's Waterfront Value Play

Long Beach sits at the southern edge of LA County and consistently offers one of the better waterfront-to-price ratios in the region — worth a direct look if Santa Monica or Venice's premiums don't fit your budget.

Downtown Long Beach and the waterfront anchor the city's most walkable, amenity-dense area — restaurants, the Pike Outlets, and direct water access, at pricing that's meaningfully softer than comparable LA coastal neighborhoods.

Belmont Shore, a distinct neighborhood within Long Beach, offers a quieter, more residential beach-town feel with its own walkable commercial strip along Second Street.

The Metro A Line connects Long Beach directly to Downtown LA — a genuinely useful rail option if you're commuting into central LA without wanting to drive the full distance daily.

Proximity to the Port of Long Beach and aerospace employers in the area makes this a practical option for anyone working in logistics, shipping, or the aerospace corridor that extends into nearby Hawthorne and El Segundo — see housing near SpaceX and the South Bay aerospace corridor for that angle specifically.

The honest tradeoff: real distance from central LA and the Westside — Long Beach functions almost as its own city, similar in spirit to how Pasadena does on the opposite end of the county.

See current Long Beach listings on RentNova →.