September 2014

Dana Point Craftsman style homes with ocean views are best found in the South Strand community in Dana Point.  There are a couple locations in Dana Point that offer stunning Craftsman style homes like the Bal Harbor and Capistrano Beach neighborhoods but don't offer any views of the Pacific Ocean.  Since the inventory of the Craftsman architectural style is very limited your best bet for finding ocean views homes is the brand new community called The Strand.  

The Strand is divided into two sections with luxury ocean front homes situated on the North Strand and ocean view homes located in the hills in the South Strand community.  A brand new Craftsman style home has been built in the South Strand that offers wonderful ocean views as pictured below.

Capistrano Bluffs is a small section of homes located in the Capistrano Beach area of Dana Point.  Located on the ocean side of the 5 freeway and south of Pacific Coast Highway is a small pocket of homes located in this quaint neighborhood.  The area is very unique and offers a wide variety of homes from single level ranch homes to large scale estate homes.  Residents love living here due to the homes having their own custom personality and a location that is just blocks to the beach.  Homes date back to the early 1920's where you wind small Spanish style beach cottages to newer construction homes.  Price range will normally start in the $600,000 range and can go as high as several million dollars for large estate home that offers ocean views.

The

The Encantamar community in Dana Point and is a great place to find ocean view condos in the low $600,000 range.  I just had a chance to preview a condo in Encantamar and was pleasantly surprised by the panoramic ocean views that stretched from the Monarch Beach area and continued to the Lantern Village area of Dana Point.  This was a top floor unit that offered nice vaulted ceilings, outdoor view deck and two large bedrooms with highly upgraded bathrooms that you would see at a luxury resort.  

This is a great neighborhood for those who like to live in a location where you can walk to local grocery stores, banks, theater, gym and restaurants.  Located directly across the street from this community is the Ocean Ranch shopping center that has a Ralph's

Dana Point currently has 15 duplex properties on the market for sale ranging in price from $865,000 to $1,245,000 with one exceptional ocean front property listed at $4,995,000.  Ocean Front duplex properties are only located in one place in Dana Point which is known as "Capistrano Bay" or "Beach Road."  Beach Road is a secure guard gated neighborhood with a majority of residential single family homes.  However, there are a small handful of properties located in this community that are duplex properties that allows for two separate living quarters.  Since the community does allow for homes to be rented on this street it makes it very attractive to rent one unit and keep the other unit for the owner.   

Since Beach Road is a vacation destination point

Driving through the center part of Dana Point and you will notice many streets that are named in the nautical theme.  Streets names like Golden Lantern, Amber Lantern, Silver Lantern, Cooper Lantern, Violet Lantern and Blue Lantern are some of the oldest existing streets in the Dana Point area that date back to the 1920's when some of the first homes were built here in Dana Point.  The city has always had a very strong maritime connection with the Dana Point harbor where you will find many of the property owners yachts parked here today.

The street of the Golden Lantern is large street that starts at the Dana Point harbor and goes all the way to the Dana Point and Laguna Niguel city limit line.  Golden Lantern basically cuts through the middle of the