Unlock Leisure World: Driving Tour of Seal Beach Living

But today we're going to drive around Leisure World and take a look at Leisure World. And then we're going to go down to Seal Beach and show you where everything is, how close everything is. So when you move in leisure world, you're not worried about getting around basically. [Music] So, right now we're starting out in front of the biggest uh community church in Leisure World. There's a several churches in here, but this is the largest one. So, this is right by the St. Andrews Gate. Um there are three gates, by the way. Um we're not going to go to all three of them, but I will show you one and then we'll go out the main gate when we're done. Just kind of just kind of give you a brief tour around. Um, if you look over to the uh right here, there is the St. Andrews Gate. Um, right outside this gate is um the right outside that gate is Seal Beach Boulevard. And right now we're going through mutual mutual one. So in Leisure World there are actually 16 mutuals. Mutual 1 through 17 they there is no mutual 13. Uh somebody must have been um you know a little uh what's the word? Scared of naming something 13. But anyway, right now

you can see on the um on the left and right as we're driving through the parking structure. So each unit in here when you buy the unit, it does come with one uh parking uh space in the covered So, now we're at the um main drag through Leisure World, uh which is um Golden Rain Road. If I if I were to take a right right now, I'm going to be heading out the main gate. Um on the right side, you can see the aquatic center. Uh and on the left side, you have a huge clubhouse. You also have um Optum Health which is um like an urgent care and over to the left as well there is the um the admin offices. So you know when you go to get your your stock certificate the stock transfer office is also in this um center right here. And then behind that center is the amphitheater. Um, you know, amphitheater is pretty good size amphitheater. Um, they they do have, you know, concerts in there um throughout the year. I had somebody asked me the other day if if they moved um like close to the amphitheater, are they going to be bothered with the noise? Maybe when they're having a concert. Um, but more than likely,

you know, you're not going to really hear a whole lot of noise out of there other than when they're having concerts. The other thing to take note of here, uh, to the right behind the aquatic, behind the aquatic center is the actual golf course, um, for Leisure World. So, you would actually go into basically over here by the aquatic center and then, you know, sign up for golf back there. Um, also on the Well, we're coming up to it right now on the uh Oh, actually, yeah, we just passed it. There was a another church right here as well. So, you know, a lot of a lot a lot of churches, a lot of clubs. Aquatic Center again over here to the left. You might be able to see part of it as we're driving through. And you know, now we're in basically your typical uh home style inside of Leisure World. So, these homes basically range from 600 some odd square ft for a a one-bedroom all the way up to I think the biggest you can get in here is I want to say about 13,400 ft². And it depends on where it is. U I'm going to take you down through uh Mutual 15 uh which has they're two-story buildings and those

units are all starting out at about 1,200 square ft. Uh some people build them out they they basically what they do is they enclose the um the patio on this one over to the left, you'll see that there is no patio where where those workers just went in. Um that patio has been enclosed and that added more square footage to the unit now. And you can see on these where the patio is actually there and there's like a side patio, too. So, you can add a lot of square footage. And you know, some of those units when you walk into them, I mean, they're incredible the the you know, what they've done to some of these units. So, um, you know, it it it it does pay off in the long run to buy a less expensive unit and then build it out yourself. Uh, but but it is some work and it takes some time and you have to use approved vendors inside of Leisure World. So, a lot of people don't want to go through that problem or that hassle. um you know it depends on the person. Right now we're also we're over here at clubhouse 4. So you can see like in front of me now there's a lot of um

you know there's a clubhouse over there. Uh Leisure World does have like a little post office. Um you know there's a veterans memorial back over this way. And we're not going to spend a whole lot of time inside of Leisure World. Um, I do have other videos where I go through Leisure World extensively, drive-thru, um, and talk about the community. This one's kind of, this video, what I'm going to do is I'm going to basically go to the front gate, go out the front gate, kind of show you, you know, how close everything really is to Leisure World because I do get a lot of questions about where is everything, how close is the, you know, grocery stores. Um, you know, so I I I you know, I felt like I needed to show that the as far as buying inside of Leisure What's the difference? So the ones that are at two and remember these units were built or this the usual was built back in n in the 60s or early 60s. So there's a lot of units in here that haven't been touched since then. Um and you know it it they require a lot of work when you move into them. Generally speaking a onebedroom is going to be you know

a a lower cost than a two-bedroom. um the units that have been built out are going to cost you more money uh you know because they're adding more square footage if there's a washer and dryer inside the unit. Now all these buildings again all these buildings do have uh building um or or like down at the end like where the buildings come together. Um, but if you actually have a a washer and dryer built in, that's an upgrade. Um, you know, I've been quoted about ,000 to add that, but when you're looking at them, you know, a lot of people want that already there. You know, it's an upgrade. Uh, real quick on the on the left here are the twotory buildings. Now, these are these are the ones that are about start off at 1,200 ft². Um, nice buildings. Uh the the only issue some people have is do I want somebody living above me or below me? Um to me, you know, they most of them have elevators in them, too, by the way. But to me, um if I were going to pick one, I would be on the top floor. That way, you know, somebody moves in above me that's loud, you know, I don't have to really deal with it

too much. Um, but then if you're allowed, you might have to deal with the neighbor down below you telling you, you know, to keep it down. Again, all these buildings, they do have um elevators in it with the exception of the one coming up on the left here. Um, this one, it looks like they're repainting the building. They they need to go come in and put an elevator in this last um uh entryway right here because there is no elevator in there. And there was a unit up for sale on the top floor in here. And yeah, there's still no elevator. There there was a unit for sale on the top floor and um it sat on the market for a long time and and it was really nice and I guarantee it's because of the elevator. Right here's the you know the main gate to Leisure World. uh your friendly gate guards there. Uh by the way, Leisure World does have a security 24/7 um which is part of what you're paying for. And straight ahead, you'll see that those buildings ahead are the only condos inside of Leisure World. They uh they're three stories. You can get a loan on those. The remainder of Leisure World, no loans at all. So, it's all

cash, by the way, in case I forgot to tell you that. But those buildings that you can get a loan on, um, they they uh they started about and again, you know, just keep in mind when this video is being filmed in 2025, you know, 10 years from now, they might start higher, but they're right now they're starting about 450 range. Um, and again, it depends on what kind of work was done on the actual unit, but there are some really nice units in there. It's a different type of unit. The way it's built, um, they, you know, there's um, you you basically walk into unit. So, you know, if you're if you if you want some if you if you need parking uh close by, those are probably not going to be the ones for you. But, you know, they're really nice. I mean, actually really nice uh units in there. So, here on the right, we have like a little shopping center. There's a golf store. There's another u urgent care in here. There's, you know, Carl's Jr., of course. Um there's a Dollar Tree over here to the right as well. Um, you know, as far as shopping goes, if you if we were to go the other way about, yeah, probably

less than a mile up over the freeway, there's going to be a Ralph's uh uh grocery store where a lot of people go to, but today we're going down to uh Main Street or down to Seal Beach. Again, the other thing too on the on the left here is u is the Navy base. So, this whole all the every all the way down on the left is a Navy base from from pretty much here on out. Uh over here to the right also you have um car chargers. If you have an electric vehicle, there's a few car chargers at this gas station. This extra mile gas station um which um you know there a lot more a lot more people are getting car chargers. There is a charging station right outside of the St. Andrews Gate, the one we kind of started at. Uh those chargers are slow chargers. These are faster chargers actually. Over here, of course, you got Starbucks over here as well. Uh Boeing, which is uh one of the largest employers in Seal Beach, is over here to the right. Again, we're we're still driving past the Navy base. Um this this whole complex to the to the right here is Boeing. Um, as we're driving down a little bit more,

coming up on the right over here, we're still still looking at Boeing. Um, we have a a storage facility right here. So, if you need storage, it's a self storage place right here. Huge storage place. And then right after that, you have the Seal Beach Police Department headquarters right there. Okay. So, the police are really close. You have storage. Shopping's uh abundant in the area. Um we're still driving past the uh Navy uh Naval Weapons Station. Here's the main gate right here to the Naval Weapons Station. And now we're starting to get into the Hill neighborhood of Seal Beach. Now, this area right here, um, these homes in in in this area are going to probably start out at in in uh Heron Point, which is a subdivision we just passed. They're starting about .5 million. Um, that's starting. So, when you consider that you're moving, you could move into Seal Beach for um 200 0,000 and be surrounded by million-dollar homes. I mean, that's a great uh deal. Um over here to your right, you have um the uh elementary school in Seal Beach. There's actually only one school and it's an elementary school. A lot of the kids that go to school in Seal Beach, um you know, if they if they go

to middle school or once they get to high school, they're actually um they actually go down to Los Alamos, which is right down the street here. And of course, you see an oil rig on the right side or the left side or oil pump on the right side. But yeah, this is Maggawa Elementary School on the on the right here. And again, we're coming down right now. We're actually coming up to uh Pacific Coast Highway and you'll start to see a lot of people on, you know, electric bikes and, you know, I mean, it's it's a gorgeous day. We're we're in July. Uh it's actually the middle of July. I'm sorry, the end of July and um it's 75 degrees at 1:00 in the afternoon, which I mean, it's incredible weather. I mean, you that that that's the thing about Southern California or living in this area, you can't beat the weather. I mean, we get up in the morning, you know, you have a sweatshirt on, you know, you go walk the dog, you're walking, it's it's actually kind of cool, you know, really nice liquor store on the right. On the left here, um there's a tackle shop, too, if you you know, if you're a if you like to fish, go in

there and get your uh your bait and your, you know, your fishing gear. We have 16 Street garage right here. There's a couple of uh garages if you have problems with your car. 16 Street's a smaller um um mechanic. Really nice guys that own the place. Um you also have um automotive excellence up here. Do a really good job too over there. You know, they they really take care. A lot of the residents of Seal Beach have been using them for years. Donut City. Uh go ahead and YouTube Donut City on uh uh and you'll see there's an awesome story about how the the residents of Seal Beach got together. On the right right now, we just passed Pavilion's grocery store. There's Finn Bars, which is like if you like Italian food, I I just got chills. That place is awesome. And I lived in Italy for a year and it's man, the food over there is 100% authentic. Uh again, another Chase Bank. And we are at the corner of Main Street and PCH um where all the action happens. I always tease people because um Seal Beach I would say that and you know this is just a guess but and I've I've actually done the numbers but I would say that about

70% of the residents in Sil Beach are seniors. Um you know because of Leisure World. Leisure World actually has about half the residents of Seal Beach live in Leisure World. There's, you know, last census there were like 23,000 people and there's probably about 10,000 in Leisure World. So, you know, I always tease people because, you know, when we come in from Huntington Beach into Seal Beach, it's like a vibe shift. It's very quiet, very calm in Seal Beach, but there's still plenty to do. Um on the left here, they just o they just opened up the Bay Theater um about a month and a half, two months ago. It had been closed for years and everybody was wondering when they were going to open it back up. Well, now it's open. So, you got a theater here. Um coffee shops. Um you know, you have the Catalina Cafe on the left here. Uh right to the left of this crosswalk is Crema Cafe. Unreal. Like if you like like I'm I have a sweet tooth. Um if you like um lemon mering pie or key lime pie, the best I've ever had anywhere. And that's saying a lot cuz every time I see lemon mering or key lime pie on the menu, I I I

want to order it. Um again, more restaurants. Uh on the, you know, on the left up here, you see there's a nail salon. And there's tons of nail salons in Seal Beach in case you know you need to get that done. Um, one other thing, another thing that I always tell people is on this one little strip, and you'll see how small it is, there's four Irish pubs. So, you know, I Yeah. Anyways, I I it that's a lot on know, there's there's uh Hennessy's up here on the right, which every Thursday they have a a special on um you buy a hamburger for like for a burger. And you know, back in back in the day that would have been a lot, but now it's that's a really good deal. Um, who knows in, you know, 10 years if this video is still up and you're still watching it, you know, it'll probably be more than that, but inflation. Um, Bay Hardware on the right here. So, a lot of people come down here and I mean, it's they they pretty much have everything you need in there. Um, you know, if you need like things for your charcoal grill, um, like anything to fix your house, like they have everything. It's not

it's not as big as um like Home Depot, but it's a small town hardware store. And the people in there are very very extremely helpful. I mean, they'll even, you know, there's I've I know people that have they've come over and helped people out at their house, too. Uh another um fixture in Sil Beach on the right here is Waltzswarf. Now, Walt Swarf um shoot I want to say maybe a little over a year ago had a fire in in the kitchen and Okay, come on. And uh the uh they just got they're just getting ready to open it back up. There's going to be a lot of people going to that uh grand opening for sure. Again, right here on the right is Hennessies. I was telling you about their burgers. Chapatinis, which we just passed, is a um also another fixture in Seal Beach. It's the coffee shop and um really good coffee. A lot of uh people hang out in front of um like seniors. Uh you know, just sitting around talking, having a good time. It's like it's like a little it's like a little crew that hangs out over there, which is kind of cool. Um, coming down the street again. Um, on the right you'll see uh right here

you'll see Sweet Jill's Bakery. Um, stay away. Cinnamon rolls in there will put weight on you. They are really like probably the best cinnamon rolls ever. Um, but I haven't been there in a while because if I eat one of their cinnamon rolls, I I feel like I'm going to have a freaking heart attack. It's like sugar. like but they are on point. And again in front of us oh one more thing to the left here is the hangout which is uh which is another fixture in SB. Really good food. Um it's it's kind of diner food but better. Um you know and that that Sil Beach does not lack um restaurants. There's restaurants everywhere and they're really close as you can see to, you know, Leisure World, which um, you know, there's again plenty of things to do. And I'm going to I'm right now I'm going to pull into one of the parking lots at the beach. Now, speaking of parking, when you move into Seal Beach, you are now a resident of Seal Beach, and they have a parking pass program, and the parking passes are currently . if you want to park. Well, let me let me back up because you have if you have a handicap placard, you don't really

and don't quote me on this because I don't have a handicap placard, but I've heard if you have a handicap handicap placard, you don't have to uh buy a parking pass. Check with the check with the city before you go on that. But, um if you know the parking pass is only for the year. If you want to park in the beach parking, um, it's a 0 a year. Plus, you still got to buy the one if you want to park on the streets outside of this area from what I understand. This is the Seal Beach Pier, which is one of the longest wooden peers in California. Um, pretty cool. A lot of activity. Again, we are in at the end of July. Um, so this parking lot is very busy. I've don't think I've seen it this busy in a in a while, but uh you know, and during the during the winter months, what they'll do is they'll put a burm up out here, like a high burm. So, if you come out here, you have to, you know, climb up the burm and then go down the other side or you can go around it or on the north end of the pier. Um, or you know, people in Seal

Beach call it the east end. There is no BM. So, but the beach is very long over there. Over here, it's not it's not as as deep, in other words. So, yeah. So, this is this is the the you know, parking down here. And then I'm going to get out of the parking lot real quick here and take you back up to um go down Main Street real from show you a couple of other things down there. And you know during during the summer when you're in Seal Beach um there are a lot of people that come in you know from the inner cities or inland and go to the beach. I mean it this is like I would this kind of a secret spot. You know it's not it's not as busy as like Huntington Beach or Lagouna Beach or Newport Beach. You know if you go down to Balo up here it's you know really busy down there. Um, but you know, this is for me it's a lot, you know, quieter, a lot less people during the summer, but still it's a there's an influx of people down here. You get old Cold Stone. I know where all the sweet spots are in Seal Beach. If you have any questions about that,

let me know. Um, we just passed Eisenhower Park back there. So, Eisenhower Park where they have concerts every Wednesday during the summer. um you know the concerts in the park. So, it's kind of cool. Up here on the left is you'll you'll be able to see I don't know if you can see it already, but that's City Hall. So, coming up to City Hall right now and it's, you know, it's it's your small town city hall. You know, a lot a lot of uh the locals call this place u Mayberry by the Sea and uh I've told that to some kids and they uh had no idea what I was talking about. What's Mayberry? If you're watching this video, you probably know what Mayberry is and you know what they mean by that. Although the police are not the same in Seal Beach, the police are actually very good and they do their job and I really appreciate it. Awesome. Awesome police department. They make sure the city is safe. Um, you know, and they take care of business. Um, across the street here, you'll see to the left is the library. Um, you know, they have internet, books, you know, computers, you know, everything you would expect in a library. And then you have

the Red Trolley Museum right here. Um, could couldn't tell you what's in it. Never been inside. Uh, it hasn't been open um for years that I know of. I'm sure, you know, people have gone in and, you know, taken a look at it, but uh I've never I've never actually seen it open. And again, we're back at Main Street. I'm going to go ahead and take a right. We're going to go one more time down to the end of Main Street and Main Street's uh well, post office is on the right here, too. A little post office. There is another post office. The main post office in Seal Beach is right outside of Leisure World. Um, and it's, you know, it's a a pretty goodiz post office. They you can, you know, get a PO box there. Um, which is kind of good to have again. Uh, back up to Javatinis on the on the left, on the right. Um, and we're going to go back down to ocean and I will show you kind of the rest of I mean, you know, it's it's not that big of a, as you can probably tell from the video, it's really not that big of a of a place, a little a city. Very quaint um

little city. But again, you know, park all the all this parking down here, I think it's a 2hour limit on these spots. Um, you don't need a parking pass for these, but you can only park there for a couple of minutes. But if you had a parking pass, again, we're at the pier and in Ocean. you had a parking pass. Um, on the both sides of the street, you can park all pretty much all day. Well, this one this one says 2hour parking still, but um I parked here for longer than that with the parking pass. And on the, you know, on the, as as we're driving down here, you can see some of these homes. Um, you know, these condos on the right here, they're going for about right now, the latest one was up for about 1.5 1.6 million. Um these homes on the left here uh they're going to be and again there there there has been uh one that sold on the water for about 7 million but there were extenduating circumstances with that house. If you want to know, call me. Don't want to put it out on video. But these houses over here are going to be, you know, 9 10 million plus on the on the

left. On the right side, you know, there's a lot of these are apartments over here. Um, as we're going down further, um, you know, coming up to Fifth Street right now on the corner of Fifth Street, there's a home for sale on the right side. Right now, it's going for right around 7 million. Um, you know, and again, don't quote me because, you know, I don't want anybody coming saying, "Hey, you said it was 7 million. I want it for It is what it is. Look it up on the online. It's on the corner of Fifth in the Ocean." But as we're going further down, um, you know, Seal Beach from one end of this street to the other is probably two miles, um, along the along ocean here. Uh, and at one end of it, we have, you know, we have a nice little park. Um, and at the other end is going to be the Navy base. So, the Naval Weapons Station. If you go straight out, if you could go straight out, you'd run right into the Naval Weapons Station. And, you know, again, nice homes on the on the left here. Oops. What are we doing? All righty. There we go. And all right, we're coming down to First Street. I'm

going to take a left. Off in the distance over there, you'll see uh Long Beach. Across the river, this is the San Gabriel River on the other side of the park. Across the San Gabriel River, there is u that's LA County. You can um all the cruise ship terminals. You can see them from here. You can see um the Queen Mary. You can see downtown Long Beach. Um, and we're coming down to the parking lot of uh one of my other favorite restaurants in Seal Beach, which is the Beach House. Um, it is one of the few uh restaurants actually on the beach in Orange County. Great place to come hang out on the weekend. They have music. So, you know, kind of cool little like beachy vibe um for the community. Um, and then as you can see here it is right straight in front of you. That's the beach house right there. And it has, you know, it has transformed over the years that you, you know, I heard and I never I was I wasn't here then, but I'd heard that it was like a little um kind of like a dive before, like a little small little restaurant. But, you know, things things have gotten better. Uh, straight ahead is where

a lot of people come. uh set up their they'll do like parasailing or um what do you what the hell? Yeah, I think it's parasailing. They'll set up all their boards out here and they'll walk all the way out down to the end of the beach over here and get in the water. So, you'll see a lot of that over here, too. But, I mean, this is pretty much, you know, Seal Beach in a in a nutshell. Um, again, if you're moving to the area, uh, I would love to help you make a move in into the area. I get calls all the time from people on, um, off of of YouTube and I really love it when you guys give me a call. I love answering questions. I love helping people out. So, if you're moving to the area, just pick up the phone. My number should be on screen right now. Stop the video, take a screenshot of it, write it down, give me a call, let me know how I can help. [Music]