Buying a Home in Long Beach, CA: The Astronaut Islands, the Queen Mary, the Naples Canals and a City-Run Gas Bill

Out in San Pedro Bay, palm trees and tall screens hide the drilling rigs on four man-made islands named for astronauts. Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil and Shell built them together in 1965, and their initials spell THUMS. Visitors are not allowed on them. The city required the rigs to be disguised and their noise masked, so landscape architect Joseph Linesch, who had done earlier work at Disneyland, dressed them up. Since 1967 the islands have carried the names of Theodore Freeman, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, four astronauts who died in service, as Atlas Obscura's write-up tells it.

Long Beach is a city of 466,742 people on San Pedro Bay in Los Angeles County, with a working port, its own airport, a downtown waterfront and neighborhoods that run from the Naples canals to Bixby Knolls. That is the 2020 count in the Census Bureau's QuickFacts.

The rest of the metro, from the Westside to south Orange County, is on my Los Angeles area page, so this one stays in Long Beach. I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in California through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work from Bluffton, South Carolina, so what follows comes from public sources I checked on November 2, 2026, and I name them as I go.

Oil under the city and a bay with no surf

The city says the Wilmington Oil Field was discovered in 1932, and all the pumping that followed made the ground sink. The city's own subsidence history describes a bowl up to 29 feet deep in and around the Port. A water-injection program started in 1953 steadied the pressure underground and stopped the sinking.

The water in front of downtown is flat for a different reason. The Navy built the breakwater in the 1940s for a deep-water port, and Long Beach has had no surf since. In 2016 the Army Corps of Engineers began studying whether to cut notches in it, with the city paying half. The Corps found that bigger waves would affect the Navy's operations and proposed restoring habitat in the open ocean instead, as the Long Beach Post reported.

The Queen Mary and a new amphitheater beside her

In 1967 the City of Long Beach bought an ocean liner. It paid Cunard $3.45 million for the RMS Queen Mary, and she came in that December after a 39-day voyage from England. She has been on the downtown waterfront ever since.

On June 6, 2026, an 11,000-seat amphitheater opened next to her. The city owns it, its official name is the F&M Bank Amphitheater, and Long Beach native Snoop Dogg headlined the sold-out first night, as Pollstar reported.

Every April, downtown streets close for a car race. Chris Pook, a former travel agent from England, staged the first Grand Prix of Long Beach in September 1975, according to the Grand Prix's own track history.

New housing is going up downtown too. West Gateway, at 600 W. Broadway, is 756 units in six buildings of 7 to 30 stories on a former parking lot north of the Hilton. The city's 2024 Downtown Plan report lists it as under construction. The city is also realigning Shoreline Drive and replacing the Shoemaker Bridge, with bike and pedestrian paths across the 710 corridor.

Naples, the Peninsula and a Christmas boat parade since 1946

In 1903 the land that became Naples was a marsh island in Alamitos Bay that flooded at high tide. A developer named Arthur M. Parsons started selling lots that year anyway, on the promise of an Italian-style village with canals and gondolas. There was no road to the site, so the gravel and cement for the sidewalks came across the bay by barge. Naples today is three islands divided by canals, as LA Mag's CityDig history tells it.

Every December since 1946, those canals fill with lit-up boats for the Naples Island Christmas Boat Parade. The boats loop around Alamitos Bay and past Belmont Shore, and the 2025 parade ran on Saturday, December 20. Visit Long Beach suggests watching from the 2nd Street Bridge, the Appian Way Bridge or Alamitos Bay Marina. The 2026 date had not been posted when I checked.

The Peninsula is a narrow strip with water on both sides, and Ocean Boulevard runs its whole length to the Alamitos Channel. Belmont Shore's Second Street is about 15 short, walkable blocks of shops and restaurants, by Visit Long Beach's count.

Olympic rowing at Marine Stadium, 1932 and 2028

Marine Stadium, off Appian Way, held the rowing races at the 1932 Olympics. It gets them again in 2028, along with canoe sprint, on a 1,500-meter course that is shorter than the 2,000 meters used in 1932. The city says it is confirmed to stage 11 sporting events across seven venues for the 2028 Games. Beach volleyball is going to Alamitos Beach, handball to the Long Beach Arena, and sailing to the water off Belmont Shore, as the city's announcement and local reporting lay out.

The city's plan to get ready for the Games has grown to more than $1 billion for nearly 200 projects. One of them is the new Belmont Plaza Pool, which the Signal Tribune reported broke ground on May 30, 2026, aiming to finish in spring 2028.

The ranchos, Bixby Knolls and Retro Row

Away from the water, two adobes from the old cattle ranches still stand inside the city, and the city owns both. Rancho Los Cerritos, on Virginia Road, is a Monterey Colonial adobe finished in 1844, and the city bought it in 1955. The Bixby family gave the historic core of Rancho Los Alamitos, on Bixby Hill Road, to the city in 1968.

Bixby Knolls opened to home buyers on March 9, 1930, and its shopping center dates to 1948, according to the city's cultural heritage survey. Bixby Knolls and California Heights together go by Uptown. Closer to downtown, the vintage shops along East 4th Street go by Retro Row, and the Art Theater there first opened in 1924.

A record year at the port, and Anduril by the airport

The Port of Long Beach moved 9,881,595 TEUs in 2025, a record and up 2.4% from 2024, according to Container News. A TEU is one twenty-foot shipping container or its equivalent, and the port's goal is 20 million a year by 2050.

On November 29, 2015, the last C-17 Globemaster III built in Long Beach flew out of Boeing's plant near the airport, ending aircraft production there. In January 2026, Anduril announced a campus of about 1.18 million square feet near the airport, spanning Long Beach and Lakewood, roughly a $1 billion project. It expects about 5,500 direct jobs there, with the campus due to open in 2027, as Manufacturing Dive reported.

Long Beach Airport, LGB for short, reopened its restored 1942 terminal in July 2024, and a 1995 city noise ordinance caps its flights.

Getting around on the A Line, the 710 and the Traffic Circle

The Metro A Line, the old Blue Line, opened between downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach on July 14, 1990, and the downtown Long Beach loop opened that September. Its Wardlow and Willow Street stations are in the Wrigley neighborhood.

Metro's $4 billion plan for the I-710, the Long Beach Freeway, covers the 19 miles from East LA to Long Beach, and Metro says nothing it funds will widen the freeway. Out on the east side, the Traffic Circle where PCH meets Lakewood Boulevard and Los Coyotes Diagonal was built in 1930 and rebuilt by Caltrans as a modern roundabout on June 30, 1993. It carries about 60,000 vehicles a day.

Schools, Cal State Long Beach and the hospitals

At 5:54 p.m. on March 10, 1933, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on the Newport-Inglewood fault damaged about three quarters of the area's schools. One month later the Legislature passed the Field Act, California's first statewide seismic law for new school construction, as the California Geological Survey records.

Long Beach Unified reported 61,679 students for 2025-26. Its voters approved Measure Q in November 2024, a $1.7 billion bond for school repairs and facilities. The school that serves a home depends on its exact address, so please confirm it with the district. Cal State Long Beach opened fall 2025 with a record of more than 42,000 students.

Long Beach Memorial has a trauma center, and Miller Children's & Women's Hospital is on its campus. St. Mary Medical Center was founded in 1923, destroyed in the 1933 earthquake and reopened in 1937. Today it is a 389-bed Level II trauma center on Linden Avenue. The Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center, a teaching hospital, covers 100 acres on East 7th Street.

Thousands of new homes approved, and ADUs on pre-approved plans

In December 2025 the city said it had approved 5,210 housing units over the past three years, 1,117 of them affordable, against 2,111 in the three years before that. The city's release counts approvals, and an approved unit still has to be built. Onni's Marina Shores, at 6500 E. Pacific Coast Highway next to the 2ND & PCH center, is 600 apartments in two five-story buildings, and the Planning Commission moved it ahead.

If you'd like to add a backyard unit someday, the city's Pre-Approved ADU program offers city-approved plans for accessory dwelling units, which are small second homes on the same lot. Seven designs were offered at launch in August 2024, including a 415-square-foot "Casita." The city's PAADU page has the plans and the ADU rules they still have to meet. If you already own in Long Beach and want to pay for one with your equity, a cash-out refinance in California is one way we can look at it.

Signal Hill, the San Gabriel River and the county line

Signal Hill is its own city, and Long Beach surrounds it completely. Shell's Alamitos #1 well came in there on June 23, 1921, and Signal Hill incorporated on April 22, 1924. The City of Signal Hill's history says the town voted to incorporate to avoid Long Beach's per-barrel oil tax. So a home in Signal Hill answers to Signal Hill's city government and gets Signal Hill's city services, even with Long Beach on every side of it, though its natural gas still comes from Long Beach Utilities.

Orange County lies just to the east. Long Beach itself is entirely in Los Angeles County. The county assessor's record for a parcel shows the city it is in, and I would pull that up with you on any address you are weighing near those edges.

Property tax and the transfer tax on a Long Beach home

California's base property tax under Proposition 13 is 1% of the assessed value, plus voter-approved debt such as Long Beach Unified's school bonds. The total rate on a Long Beach home depends on its Tax Rate Area, which is the part of the county that shares one combined rate. Parcel taxes and assessments can be added on top, and the parcel's own county tax bill shows all of it.

Los Angeles County charges a documentary transfer tax of $1.10 per $1,000 of the sale price when the deed records. The county recorder's list names five cities in the county that add their own tax, and Long Beach is not one of them. I found no Long Beach transfer tax measure, so from what I can see, a Long Beach sale pays the county rate only. Who pays it is a term of the purchase contract, and the usual Southern California customs are on my California page.

Water, sewer and gas from the city, electric from Edison

Long Beach runs its own utility for water, sewer and natural gas. On November 8, 2022, about 64% of voters approved Measure BB, a charter amendment that merged the three into one public utility, now called Long Beach Utilities. A Utilities Commission oversees it, and its rates go to the City Council for approval, as the Long Beach Post explained. The same gas utility serves Signal Hill too. Electricity comes from Southern California Edison.

Neither the city bill nor the Edison bill goes into the mortgage payment a lender qualifies you on. If you'd like a feel for what they run on a particular home, it's fair to ask the seller for a year of both.

Flood, tsunami and fault maps to check by address

The city points owners to its Flood Zone Map, or FEMA's map, to find a property's flood zone by address. The Long Beach Post has reported that Belmont Shore, Belmont Park, Naples and the Peninsula already see some flooding at high tides and in storm surge. If a home is in one of FEMA's high-risk A zones and the loan is federally backed, the lender will require flood insurance, and that premium becomes part of your monthly payment.

State tsunami maps include Belmont Shore, Naples, the Convention Center and the ports, and Los Angeles County has an address lookup. A tsunami zone is about disclosure and evacuation routes, and by itself it does not make a lender require flood insurance.

The Newport-Inglewood fault, the one behind the 1933 earthquake, still runs under the city. Its surface trace shows as a chain of low hills from Culver City to Signal Hill. Every California sale comes with a Natural Hazard Disclosure report that says whether a property is in a mapped earthquake fault zone. The state's EQ Zapp map also looks it up by address. Earthquake coverage is a separate policy from homeowners insurance, so it helps to get a quote before you make an offer.

Buying a duplex, triplex or fourplex in Long Beach

Long Beach has no rent control of its own. The state's rent cap, AB 1482, applies in the city, with exemptions written into the state law, and the city also has a just-cause ordinance for ending a tenancy, Chapter 8.99 of its municipal code. How those apply to a specific two- to four-unit building, including one you plan to live in, is a question for the city's Housing Authority and a California attorney before you write the offer.

For a Long Beach duplex, triplex or fourplex, the loan limit rises with each added unit. A conforming loan is one Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac will buy, and in Los Angeles County the 2026 conforming limits are the same as in the most expensive counties in the country. The FHA limit here matches the conforming limit at every size from one to four units. You'll find both sets of figures in the loan limits box at the end of this page.

A Long Beach address and your mortgage payment

A lender qualifies you on the full payment, with the parcel's property tax, your homeowners insurance, any flood or earthquake coverage and any association dues included. I'd like to see your documents early, so that when you find a home in Naples or Bixby Knolls you already know what you're approved for. Pre-approval in California explains what the letter is based on.

If you already own a home in Long Beach and want to change your loan, refinancing in California walks through how that works.

Once you're ready, you can run your numbers for a Long Beach purchase and see pricing for your scenario along with California closing costs. Choose a rate option that works best for you, and the selection can change as your plans do. The application opens from there. If you'd rather talk it through with me first, please give me a call. I'm happy to help.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax or legal advice. The assessed value and any special taxes on a specific parcel are set by Los Angeles County, so please confirm them with the assessor and the treasurer-tax collector.

Common questions

Is Signal Hill part of Long Beach?

No. Signal Hill has been a separate city since April 22, 1924, and Long Beach surrounds it on every side. Its natural gas still comes from Long Beach Utilities.

Does Long Beach have a city transfer tax?

The county recorder lists five cities in Los Angeles County that add their own transfer tax, and Long Beach is not one of them. As far as I can find, a Long Beach sale pays the Los Angeles County documentary transfer tax only.

Who provides gas and water in Long Beach?

The city does. Long Beach Utilities, created when voters approved Measure BB in 2022, runs water, sewer and natural gas, and the City Council approves its rates. Electricity comes from Southern California Edison.

Do I need flood insurance in Naples or Belmont Shore?

It depends on the flood zone for the exact address. If FEMA's map puts the home in a high-risk A zone and the loan is federally backed, the lender will require flood insurance. The city's Flood Zone Map and FEMA's map both look it up by address, and a tsunami zone alone does not trigger the requirement.

When is the Naples Island Christmas Boat Parade?

It runs every December, as it has since 1946. The 2025 parade was on Saturday, December 20, and the 2026 date had not been posted when I checked, so Visit Long Beach and the city's Marina Reader are the places to watch for it.