South Redondo Beach

Where does South Redondo actually begin?

The city’s own council districts are numbered, not named north and south, so “South Redondo” is common usage rather than a legal line. The most documentable proxy is the ZIP split, 90277 to the south, 90278 to the north, and that is a postal boundary, not a city one. In practice the dividing line is generally drawn along the 190th Street, Anita Street, Herondo Street and Torrance Boulevard corridor.

It is not drawn at the pier, despite how often that gets repeated. If a listing or a search depends on the distinction, confirm the actual address and ZIP rather than relying on the label.

Who governs it?

The City of Redondo Beach, through its Community Development Department and Planning Division. Redondo Beach is a full-service city with its own police, fire and public works departments and a municipal harbor. Voters adopted cityhood in April 1892.

What should a buyer verify here?

Coastal Zone. The coastal strip falls within the California Coastal Zone under the city’s certified Local Coastal Program, whose Land Use Plan was certified in 1981. The city has been processing a focused General Plan, Zoning Ordinance and LCP amendment, so confirm the current standards rather than an older summary.

The former AES site. Roughly 50 acres at 1100 North Harbor Drive, adjacent to King Harbor, is a documented redevelopment site inside the coastal zone. What happens there affects nearby property, and it is worth knowing the current status before you write.

Which schools serve South Redondo Beach?

South Redondo is served by Redondo Beach Unified, a single district covering the entire city. There is no separate South Redondo district.

The district was formed in 1993 by consolidating the Redondo Beach City School District with the South Bay Union High School District, the same Proposition V reorganization that gave Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach their own arrangements.

It runs eight elementary schools: Alta Vista, Beryl Heights, Birney, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Tulita and Washington. There are two middle schools, Adams and Parras, plus Patricia Dreizler Continuation High School and the South Bay Adult School.

And one high school. Redondo Union serves the whole city, north and south. That is worth understanding in context, because the three beach cities each solved high school differently. On the Palos Verdes Peninsula families choose between two high schools. In Hermosa Beach the district runs K-8 and students then choose between Mira Costa and Redondo Union. In Redondo there is no choice to make and no boundary to buy into, because there is only one.

Elementary and middle assignment is by address. One thing worth knowing, because it is the opposite of what a listing implies: an address is a strong indicator of assignment, not a guarantee. Districts finalize elementary placement through the enrollment process, and where a school of residence is impacted a student may be placed at the nearest school with space. That is normal, it is manageable, and it is much easier to plan around in March than in August.

Attendance areas are set by the district and they change. Verify with the district rather than a listing, a map pin, or this page.

Which MLS areas make up South Redondo?

Three, and they are drawn off Torrance Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway rather than off any neighborhood name.

• 155, S Redondo Bch N of Torrance Bl
• 156, S Redondo Bch S of Torrance Bl
• 157, S Redondo Bch W of PCH

Area 157 is the one that matters most to price. West of Pacific Coast Highway is the coastal side, which takes in the Esplanade bluff, the streets above King Harbor and the blocks around Riviera Village. It is a different product from the inland side of PCH and it should be compared against itself, not against South Redondo as a whole.

North Redondo carries four areas of its own, 151 through 154. If you are pulling comparable sales, work at area level rather than city level or the numbers will blend two very different markets. More on the inland half on the North Redondo Beach page.

What is the Hollywood Riviera, and why does its address say Redondo Beach?

The Hollywood Riviera is CRMLS area 128. Many of its homes carry a Redondo Beach 90277 mailing address, others carry Torrance 90505, and none of them are in Redondo Beach. The land sits inside the City of Torrance.

The mailing address comes from a decades-old postal delivery arrangement, which is the kind of administrative leftover that quietly outlives its reason. The envelope says Redondo Beach. The jurisdiction does not.

This is the single most consequential address quirk in the South Bay, so it is worth being blunt about what follows from it.

Schools are Torrance Unified, not Redondo Beach Unified. Homes here are zoned to Riviera Elementary, Richardson Middle School and South High School. A buyer who assumes a Redondo Beach envelope means Redondo Union High School is mistaken, and it is a costly thing to discover late.

Zoning and permits run through Torrance. Planning, building permits and code enforcement are handled by the City of Torrance, not Redondo Beach. If you are planning a remodel or an addition, you are working with a different city than your mail suggests.

City services are Torrance. Police, fire and utilities come from Torrance.

Upper and Lower Riviera are both Torrance. The neighborhood splits into two micro-markets. The Upper Riviera sits higher on the hillside, farther from the shops, and holds the bigger views along the original 1940s streets. The Lower Riviera sits closer to the village and the beach. A persistent local misconception treats Palos Verdes Boulevard as the city line. It is not. Both micro-markets are inside Torrance regardless of which side of that boulevard a street falls on, so check the parcel record rather than the street, the zip or the listing.

None of this makes the Hollywood Riviera a lesser place to buy. It is one of the most sought-after pockets in the South Bay, with an ocean outlook, a genuine village center and a school district that aligns cleanly with the city limits. The point is simply that the address tells you where the mail goes and nothing else. Confirm the jurisdiction and the district for the specific parcel before you write an offer, and the rest is straightforward.

More on the city that actually governs it, including the full Torrance Unified roster, on the Torrance page.

What kind of homes are in South Redondo Beach?

The housing stock runs from original 1920s and mid-century beach cottages through substantial remodels to full rebuilds, with a large share of attached product close to the water.

Lot sizes are modest by regional standards and generous by beach-city standards. South Redondo lots are typically larger than what you find on the Manhattan or Hermosa walk streets, which is a large part of why the same budget buys more usable ground here than it does two cities north.

Three things drive value more than square footage. The first is which side of Pacific Coast Highway the parcel sits on. The second is elevation, because the bluff above the Esplanade holds a view that the flats do not. The third is whether the property is detached, a townhome, or one unit of a small complex, since those three trade on different terms and are easy to conflate in a search.

New construction here is mostly infill rather than tract. Older cottages come down and are replaced individually, and attached townhome projects appear on assembled parcels. That means new build quality varies lot by lot rather than by development, so permit history and the builder matter more than the year built.

What is the Esplanade?

The Esplanade is the oceanfront street running along the top of the South Redondo bluff, and it is the closest thing this city has to a Strand address.

The relationship is worth understanding. Through Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, the coast is flat and homes front the sand directly on The Strand. At Redondo the land rises, and the Esplanade carries the same oceanfront role from the top of the bluff instead. Elevation and a view corridor in place of direct sand frontage. The beach path itself continues below and ends at Torrance Beach.

One naming caution: Playa del Rey has an Esplanade too, so scope any street search to the city or you will pull both.

Chhabria Real Estate Company has represented more than 130 transactions along The Strand and The Esplanade, a record that began with Raju Chhabria, licensed in November 1984 and the number one agent at Shorewood Realtors every year from 1995 to 2014, and continues under Neil and Anand Chhabria. Selling on the bluff is a different job from selling on the sand two cities north: the buyer is paying for elevation and a view corridor, and the comparable set is area 157, not South Redondo as a whole. More on how the two connect on the The Strand page.

Where South Redondo sits

South Redondo is part of Redondo Beach, one of the four Beach Cities. It borders the Palos Verdes Peninsula at its southern end.

What is there to do in South Redondo Beach?

South Redondo Beach carries two of the city’s three certified farmers markets, plus a year-round calendar run by the Redondo Pier Association and the Riviera Village Association.

• Redondo Beach Certified Farmers Market. Thursdays, 8am to 1pm, year-round, on George Freeth Way at the south side of Veterans Park, 309 Esplanade.
• Riviera Village Certified Farmers Market. Sundays, 8:30am to 1pm, year-round, at 1801 South Elena Avenue.
• Summer Concerts on the Pier. Thursdays and Saturdays through July and August, 6pm to 8pm, on the main stage at the west end of the Pier. There is no cover.
• Riviera Village Summer Festival. A Friday through Sunday in late June, across Catalina Avenue, Avenue I, Avenida del Norte and Vista del Mar. Admission is free.
• Redondo Beach Pier Kite Festival. A Sunday in early March from noon, on the beach immediately south of the Pier.
• Car Show on the Pier. A Sunday in late September.
• Halloween on the Pier. Late October.
• Holiday Concert on the Pier. A Saturday in mid-December.
• Yoga on the Pier. Second Saturdays monthly, with an additional Sunset Yoga series on Wednesdays in September.
• Free Family Movie Night. Thursdays in September on the Pier.
• Super Bowl Sunday 10K and 5K. Super Bowl Sunday in February, with the 10K starting at 7:30am from 200 Portofino Way. A two-day expo runs the day before, and the race has been held for 49 years.
• King Harbor Holiday Boat Parade. December, from King Harbor Marina, 208 Yacht Club Way.

Two notes. The Redondo Beach Lobster Festival is on hiatus. The Chamber stepped back after 23 years and no new dates have been announced, so do not plan around it. Separately, the North Redondo Beach Farmers Market runs Wednesdays, 2pm to 7pm, beside the North Branch Library at 2000 Artesia Boulevard, which is in North Redondo rather than here.

Details verified September 2026. Confirm with the organizer before you go.

What should buyers know about South Redondo Beach?

There is no official boundary between North and South Redondo. The line most people use runs along 190th Street, Anita Street and Herondo Street, but it is a convention rather than a municipal designation. That matters when reading listings, because agents draw it slightly differently.

Within South Redondo Beach the market splits further. The Esplanade and the blocks above it behave differently from the Riviera Village area, and both differ from the streets near the Pier and King Harbor. Proximity to the water, street noise and view exposure all change within a few blocks.

The Pier is an active commercial and event venue rather than a residential edge. For properties near it, that is worth experiencing on a summer weekend as well as a weekday morning before committing.

Jurisdiction, zoning, coastal standards and school assignments change. This page was verified September 9, 2026. Confirm current status for any specific property before relying on it. General information, not legal, tax or insurance advice.

Looking in South Redondo? Get in touch, send us the address and we will confirm the ZIP, the coastal status and the parcel-level checks before you write.

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