The Long Beach Market Shift: How 2025’s Surprise Finish Is Fueling 2026
For those curious about the real estate market and trending conditions, I think the best way to really dissect and explain the market’s optimistic forecast for 2026 really starts with 2025 and how it ended. In a nutshell, 2025 was very unpredictable for the residential real estate market in Southern California as a whole.
Some homes expected to sell right away took 60 days to enter escrow, while others would be the first weekend without really a rhyme or reason. I personally made numerous phone calls to very successful colleagues of mine up in LA and down in OC to see if maybe there was something we were missing in Long Beach.
To my relief and also confusion, it was very much the same way for them. Fast forward to December of this past year. With no easily traceable patterns to sales leading into the holidays aside from slightly lowered interest rates, we had assumed it would be somewhat identical at the end of the year. To our surprise, as well as colleagues of ours, December ended up being one of the busiest and most consistent months of the entire 2025 market.
We personally opened multiple escrows, had constant calls from buyers and sellers alike about listing and seeing properties, and even had calls on Christmas Day to show listings of ours. What was looking like an all-around sporadic 2025 ended with an optimistic start to 2026, and sure enough, that hunch has proven true thus far.
As we write this, we’re lining up multiple listings to go live from inbound December and January calls, as the last true holiday of the season is the Super Bowl… (odd but true). We have many buyers all sitting and waiting for the right homes with their finances in line from December, ready to jump when the right home presents itself.
This isn’t just us; it’s the same agents we have been keeping in touch with, saying the same thing, north and south of Long Beach. What we’re seeing is a consistent rate drop for buyers and a shortage of specific homes for them to choose from. Inventory may seem to be coming back at a strong pace, but inventory is only ideal when the properties being listed fit buyers’ specific needs.
In 90803, we see a lot of this. Homes come up for sale regularly, but the specificities in style, layout, and location are only met so often, and when they do, we’re seeing those homes accept an offer typically within the first few weeks thus far in 2026. With the forecast seemingly optimistic, all we can do is best prepare those around us for a fruitful year while maintaining a reputable status amongst our peers. Many deals, especially in 90803, are put together through agent relationships with a mutual understanding that professionalism and Karma are much more real than any marketing will ever be. Here’s to a strong year ahead for our community and the values we all push upward together.
Ben is a Long Beach native who currently resides in Naples with his wife Kristen, their fur baby Watts, and their baby boy on the way, expected at the end of March. If you don’t see him in the office or on social media, there’s a good chance you’ll run into him on the golf course where he spends those few spare moments enjoying personal time before his son gets here.
