{"id":521000,"date":"2026-11-06T21:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T21:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/521000\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T21:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T21:44:09","slug":"no-one-wanted-this-long-beach-home-till-waves-crashed-into-living-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/521000\/","title":{"rendered":"No one wanted this Long Beach home till waves crashed into living room"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Andy Carter\u2019s latest listing<\/a> on the Long Beach peninsula has it all: four stories, ocean views, even a private elevator. But when the house hit the market for $4.95 million in August, it couldn\u2019t find a buyer.<\/p>\n

Turns out, the missing piece was a red tag deeming it unsafe for occupancy.<\/p>\n

After Tropical Storm Rachel battered the oceanfront home in October, sending waves crashing into the living spaces<\/a>, the sellers decided to keep the property on the market, but with a new price tag: $2.9 million. Now, buyers are swarming.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been getting five to six calls per week from developers,\u201d Carter, a real estate agent with Fiv Realty Co.<\/a>, said, adding that two developers already made offers.<\/p>\n

When the home relisted on Oct. 14, it featured a new line at the top of the listing description: \u201cProperty has been RED TAGGED and is LAND VALUE.\u201d It sent developers into a tizzy.<\/p>\n

Carter said developers and builders he has spoken to are looking to purchase as many homes as possible that were damaged by the storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big market for it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting property to pencil if you\u2019re planning to sell it. It depends on if you can save the home or scrap it and rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said 70% of the house is salvageable. There\u2019s a crack in one of the home\u2019s two foundations, and interior damage from waves breaking into the lower levels.<\/p>\n

\"Waves <\/p>\n

Waves pound homes on the Long Beach peninsula.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange market, Carter said. High interest rates are keeping many buyers at bay, and the threat of more damage from a potentially historic El Ni\u00f1o this winter is causing further fear.<\/p>\n

The disaster market \u2014 when real estate speculators scoop up properties in the wake of a disaster \u2014 happens quite often in Southern California, a region battered by fires, earthquakes, landslides and floods. Last year, Altadena\u2019s burned-out lots were flying off the shelves<\/a> in the wake of the Eaton fire.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s potentially a bigger gamble to buy up homes along California\u2019s eroding coastline, which experts say is in danger given the forecast of a super El Ni\u00f1o in the months to come.<\/p>\n

However, with the state of the housing market \u2014 high interest rates and soaring construction costs \u2014 many developers have stopped building altogether<\/a>. Profit margins are too tight for many projects to make sense, so the only way a project can pencil out is if the initial investment is lower.<\/p>\n

That means for some, buying a flooded-out, red-tagged house potentially in danger of even further damage might make sense \u2014 at the right price.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s too early to tell what that price will be; Carter\u2019s listing is the only flooded home on the Long Beach peninsula on the market. Though with intense interest from investors, more likely will follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome buyers are hitting pause,\u201d Carter said. \u201cBut others see opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Carter\u2019s latest listing on the Long Beach peninsula has it all: four stories, ocean views, even a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[199421,59769,3021,199423,3802,131459,194582,1073,9172,131,133,199422,132,5990,7215,7790,1009,18060],"class_list":["post-521000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-andy-carter","tag-buyer","tag-developer","tag-disaster-market","tag-fire","tag-high-interest-rate","tag-historic-el-nino","tag-home","tag-house","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-home","tag-long-beach-news","tag-market","tag-property","tag-real-estate-agent","tag-southern-california","tag-wave"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}