Point Fermin Homes for Sale, San Pedro

Point Fermin is the southern tip of San Pedro, and of the whole Los Angeles coastline: the bluff where Gaffey Street ends, the lighthouse park, Angels Gate, and the streets of Craftsman cottages and bungalows that run back from Paseo del Mar toward the harbor. It is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, not a city of its own, and that fact governs who you deal with on permits, schools and services.

In CRMLS it is listed as Point Fermin, one of six San Pedro areas the MLS breaks out separately.

Where exactly is Point Fermin?

Commonly described, it is the blocks between Pacific Avenue and the ocean south of about 30th Street, with Paseo del Mar along the bluff, Point Fermin Park at the end of Gaffey and Angels Gate Park on the hill above Cabrillo Beach. The neighborhood sits inside the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council, whose western edge is the Rancho Palos Verdes city line and whose eastern edge is the Port of Los Angeles, and inside Los Angeles City Council District 15.

The City’s San Pedro Community Plan, adopted October 4, 2017, describes Point Fermin as a neighborhood where a beach influence shows in California Craftsman and Bungalow architecture, and counts it among the coastal neighborhoods that were essentially built out by the mid 1960s. That is the housing stock: original cottages, additions to them, and a scattering of rebuilds, on lots that were platted for a small beach town.

What is at the end of Gaffey Street?

Point Fermin Park, 807 Paseo del Mar, open 6 am to 10 pm, run by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The lighthouse in the park was built in 1874, is listed on the National Register, and reopened as a museum in 2002; guided tours run Tuesday through Sunday at 1, 2 and 3 pm, free with donations welcome.

Up the hill, Angels Gate Park at 3601 Gaffey Street holds the Korean Bell of Friendship, open 7 am to 7 pm and rung ceremonially five times a year, including July 4 and New Year’s Eve. The Fort MacArthur Museum shares the same address. Below it, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium at 3720 Stephen M. White Drive is a Recreation and Parks facility founded in 1935, open Tuesday through Friday noon to 5 pm and weekends 10 am to 5 pm, with a suggested donation rather than a ticket price.

What is Sunken City, and does it affect the neighborhood?

Sunken City is the old 600 block of Paseo del Mar. The Community Plan states it was once fully developed before it began sliding into the sea in 1929, and that the area is considered geologically unsafe with public access prohibited. The City’s Community Plan environmental review maps landslide zones along the western and southern coastal cliffs of San Pedro and identifies the Palos Verdes fault as a fault rupture study area, without any Alquist-Priolo zone in the plan area.

None of that makes Point Fermin an unusual place to buy. It makes the geologic report the first document to read, not the last. For any bluff-side parcel we pull the City’s hazard layers and the parcel’s history before an offer is written, and we would rather you read those with us than discover them in escrow.

Does the coastal zone apply here?

Yes. Point Fermin sits in the California Coastal Zone. San Pedro has a certified Land Use Plan but no fully certified Local Coastal Program, so the City issues local coastal development permits and, in the dual permit jurisdiction area, a second permit from the California Coastal Commission is also required. Whether a given parcel is single or dual jurisdiction is a parcel-level question answered through the City ZIMAS lookup, and it changes the timeline for any exterior work. Check it before you plan a remodel, not after.

Which schools serve Point Fermin?

Point Fermin is inside the Los Angeles Unified School District. The schools in and nearest the neighborhood are Point Fermin Elementary Marine Science Magnet at 3333 Kerckhoff Avenue, Richard Henry Dana Middle School at 1501 South Cabrillo Avenue, which opened February 6, 1928, and San Pedro High School at 1610 South Leland Street. Point Fermin Elementary is a magnet, so its enrollment works differently from a neighborhood school. Attendance assignment is by address and changes; confirm any specific address with LAUSD’s resident school lookup rather than a listing or this page.

What should buyers verify here?

Geology first, because the bluff is the reason the neighborhood exists and the reason a few of its blocks no longer do. Coastal permit jurisdiction, single or dual. Permit history on a cottage that has been added to more than once. Fire hazard severity, which the City’s current mapping places over the White Point open space rather than these residential blocks, but which is parcel-specific and worth confirming on the state map. And the view: Paseo del Mar homes look at Catalina, and the City of Los Angeles has no private view ordinance, so confirm what sits between the house and the water and who owns it.

Working with a Point Fermin agent

Chhabria Real Estate Company has sold homes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and in the Beach Cities since 1984, and San Pedro is the Peninsula’s eastern edge. If you are weighing a specific address here, we are glad to walk it with you, including the parts of the bluff that do not photograph well.

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