What Does It Actually Cost to Buy a Home in Marina del Rey in 2026?
Marina del Rey has four price bands under one mailing address, plus a county ground lease and a Measure ULA line most buyers never see coming.
What does it actually cost to buy a home in Marina del Rey in 2026? A condo in one of the harbor buildings generally runs from the high $600,000s into the low $1 millions. A house on the beach blocks of the Marina Peninsula sits closer to $2.6 million. And the small run of single-family homes along the Silver Strand has been changing hands at roughly $3.5 million. There is no single Marina del Rey price, and the median you find on a search portal is probably the wrong number for whatever you are actually shopping.
That gap matters more here than in most of the Westside, because Marina del Rey is not one market. It is a county-owned harbor surrounded by four distinct kinds of housing, split down the middle by a jurisdictional line that most buyers never notice until escrow opens.
The number problem
Redfin's Marina del Rey data puts the median sale price across all home types at roughly $818,000 as of June 2026. That figure is real, and it is also close to useless if you are looking at a house, because the census-defined community is overwhelmingly condos and townhomes. Widen out to the 90292 ZIP code, which pulls in single-family stock that the community boundary excludes, and the median has run closer to $1.25 million.
Go to the actual house markets and the numbers move again. Redfin's Marina Peninsula median was $2.6 million as of March 2026. Recent Silver Strand sales have averaged around $3.5 million, on very thin volume, because only a handful of those houses come up in any given year.
| Sub-market | Typical product | Recent median or average |
|---|---|---|
| Marina del Rey community boundary | Condos and townhomes, harbor towers and low-rise complexes | About $818,000 (June 2026) |
| 90292 ZIP overall | Condos plus single-family east of Lincoln | About $1.25 million |
| Marina Peninsula | Beach-block houses, duplexes, walk streets | $2.6 million (March 2026) |
| Silver Strand | Single-family, low turnover | About $3.5 million on recent sales |
If you take one thing from this post, take that table. Four numbers, one mailing address.
The line that runs through the neighborhood
Marina del Rey is an unincorporated community of Los Angeles County, not part of the City of Los Angeles. That single fact changes the math on a high-end sale.
Measure ULA, the city transfer tax people call the mansion tax, applies to documents conveying real property within the City of Los Angeles. As of transactions closing after June 30, 2026, the city's own Office of Finance puts the thresholds at $5,400,000 and $10,900,000, with a 4% rate in the band between them and 5.5% at or above the top threshold, stacked on the city's 0.45% base transfer tax. On a $6 million sale inside city limits, that is roughly $267,000 off the top. On the same $6 million sale in unincorporated county territory, the ULA tax does not attach at all.
Here is the catch. The 90292 ZIP code covers both the unincorporated community and adjoining parts of the City of Los Angeles, so a Marina del Rey mailing address tells you nothing reliable about which side of the line a parcel sits on. Two houses a few hundred feet apart can carry very different closing costs at the same price. Before you underwrite a sale or write an offer above the ULA threshold, confirm the parcel's jurisdiction directly rather than assuming from the address. That confirmation takes one phone call and it is worth six figures.
Ground leases, and why the title report comes first here
The other thing that surprises buyers: Los Angeles County owns much of the land around the harbor. The Department of Beaches and Harbors administers long-term ground leases on those parcels, which is how the marina was developed in the first place, and the harbor still holds more than 4,300 boat slips across 22 anchorages under that structure.
For a residential buyer, the practical question is simple and specific: does this unit sit on fee-simple land, or on a parcel subject to a county ground lease? Some complexes are one, some are the other. It affects what you own, what the monthly carrying cost includes, and, most importantly, how lenders look at the deal. Financing on a leasehold typically turns on how much term is left on the ground lease relative to the loan, and a shrinking remainder can narrow your buyer pool later even if it does not bother you now.
None of this is a reason to avoid the Marina. It is a reason to read the preliminary title report before you get emotionally committed to a unit, rather than in week three of escrow.
The streets, and what trades on them
The Marina Peninsula and the walk streets. Narrow lots between the beach and the main channel, mostly houses and small-lot duplexes, a lot of vertical three-story construction because the footprints are tight. Values here are driven by proximity to the sand and by whether the top floor gets an ocean or channel view.
The Silver Strand. A short, quiet grid between Ballona Lagoon and Via Marina. Single-family stock, very little of it, and the low turnover is the whole story. When two houses list in a quarter, that counts as an active market.
The harbor buildings. The towers and mid-rise complexes ringing the basins, where most of the transaction volume happens. This is where slip access, dock rights, and view orientation drive price far more than square footage does.
East of Lincoln. Older single-family blocks that carry Marina del Rey addresses without harbor frontage. Considerably more house per dollar, no water, and this is where the jurisdiction question tends to bite hardest.
What you are buying into on the regulatory side
Development in Marina del Rey runs through the Marina del Rey Local Coastal Program, certified in 1984 and last amended in 2012. Most coastal development permits are issued by the county's Department of Regional Planning under that certified program, with the California Coastal Commission retaining appeal jurisdiction over certain properties, generally those between the first public road and the sea.
Translation for a buyer: if your plan involves adding square footage, changing the roofline, or touching anything near the waterline, budget real time. Coastal permitting is not a formality and it does not move on a renovation schedule. Price the delay into your offer, not into your hopes.
Flood exposure is the other line item. Redfin's climate data flags 90292 as having major flood risk, with about 16% of properties facing severe flooding risk over the next 30 years. That shows up in insurance quotes and lender requirements, so get a quote before you remove your contingencies, not after.
Looking at Marina del Rey and want the parcel-level answer before you write an offer? Schedule a private consultation and we will pull the jurisdiction, the lease status, and the comps that actually match what you are shopping.
Who ends up buying here
Two groups, mostly. Boat owners, for the obvious reason, where slip access is the entire purchase decision and the house or unit is secondary. And people trading out of larger inland Westside properties who want water, walkability, and less building to maintain, and who are willing to accept a smaller footprint to get it. The Marina competes for those buyers against Venice on one side and Playa del Rey and Playa Vista on the other, and it usually wins on harbor access and loses on lot size.
If you are working the broader Westside, our Los Angeles property search covers the surrounding markets alongside this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Measure ULA apply to Marina del Rey?
Not to parcels in the unincorporated county community, because ULA applies to conveyances within the City of Los Angeles. But the 90292 ZIP includes both unincorporated territory and parts of the city, so the mailing address does not settle it. Confirm the parcel's jurisdiction before relying on an exemption, particularly above the $5.4 million threshold.
What is a ground lease in Marina del Rey and does it affect me as a homeowner?
Los Angeles County owns much of the land around the harbor and leases parcels long-term through the Department of Beaches and Harbors. Whether a specific residence sits on fee land or leasehold land varies by complex. It affects financing terms, carrying costs, and resale, so the preliminary title report should be one of the first documents you read.
Why is the Marina del Rey median so much lower than nearby beach markets?
Because the community boundary is condo-heavy. The Redfin median of roughly $818,000 reflects apartment-style product, not houses. Single-family markets in the same ZIP, like the Marina Peninsula at $2.6 million, run several times higher.
How long does coastal permitting take for a renovation here?
It depends entirely on scope and location relative to the shoreline. Most permits go through the county under the certified Local Coastal Program, with Coastal Commission appeal jurisdiction over certain parcels. Plan on a materially longer timeline than a comparable inland project, and confirm the path before you close if the remodel is the reason you are buying.
Who should I hire to sell a home in Marina del Rey?
What actually matters here is narrower than general Westside experience. You want someone who will verify the parcel's jurisdiction before pricing, read the ground lease if there is one, and price against the right sub-market rather than the ZIP-wide median, because using the wrong comp set in Marina del Rey can miss by seven figures. Ask any agent you interview how they would handle those three things, and listen for specifics. Paul Blair has 22 years and more than $200 million in closed transactions, and works the Westside including Marina del Rey, Venice, Brentwood, and the canyons.
Thinking about selling in Marina del Rey? Request a confidential valuation and we will price it against the sub-market your property actually sits in, with the transfer tax exposure worked out before it hits the market.
Marina del Rey is one of the few LA markets where I ask for the preliminary title report before I will give an opinion on price, because the land underneath the building and the line running through the neighborhood change the answer that much.
Paul Blair is the founder and broker of Grey Square, a virtual real estate brokerage representing buyers and sellers across Dallas and Los Angeles. With 22 years in the business and more than $200 million in closed transactions, Paul works the full range of the market, from luxury homes in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow to estates in the Hollywood Hills and across the Westside. Connect with Paul and the Grey Square team at greysq.com. TX TREC #9011505 · CA DRE #01792671.