The median says Point Loma costs 26% more. Per square foot it is 7%. You are paying for more house, not better dirt.
Point Loma's median is $1.67M. Ocean Beach is $1.33M. That reads like a 26% gap and it sends people straight to OB on the assumption that Point Loma is a different tier.
Per square foot the two are $986 and $918. A 7% difference.
You are not paying for better dirt in Point Loma. You are paying for more house. Once you correct for size these are nearly the same market, and the decision comes down to which one you want to live in rather than which one you can afford.
| Point Loma | Ocean Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $1.67M | $1.33M |
| Price per square foot | $986 | $918 |
| Months of supply | 3.0 | 2.2 |
| Median days on market | 13 | 15 |
| Percent of original list | 99.9% | 98.8% |
| Median, 5 years | up 26% | up 27% |
| Price per square foot, 5 years | up 32% | up 20% |
Trailing three month medians from closed MLS sales through September 2026. Source and method at the bottom.
Look at the last two rows together.
Over five years the medians moved almost identically. Point Loma up 26%, Ocean Beach up 27%. Anyone comparing those two numbers would conclude the two markets appreciated the same.
The per square foot numbers moved 12 points apart. Point Loma up 32%, Ocean Beach up 20%.
That means Point Loma's growth is in the price of the real estate itself. Ocean Beach's median rose faster than its per foot number did, which happens when what is selling changes rather than when values change. More of OB's median growth came from the mix of homes that traded than from the dirt going up.
I will flag that as a read rather than a proven cause. The data shows the divergence, not the reason for it. But if you are weighing these two as a hold, that gap is the most useful line in the table and it is the one no other comparison of these two neighborhoods includes.
Ocean Beach runs 2.2 months of supply against Point Loma's 3.0. Less inventory relative to the pace of sales.
Point Loma sells at 99.9% of original list. That is effectively asking price, on a $1.67M market, and it is one of the firmest numbers of any expensive area in the county. Ocean Beach is at 98.8%, which is still strong and still means almost nobody is getting a deal.
Thirteen days against fifteen. Both move.
So OB has the scarcity and Point Loma has the pricing discipline. Neither is a buyer's market and you should not go into either expecting to negotiate much.
Ocean Beach is about one square mile, 642 acres by the city's count, and it knows exactly what it is. Newport Avenue, the pier, the dog beach, the farmers market on Wednesdays. The housing stock is older and smaller, a lot of it pre-1950, with beach bungalows and a deep stock of small multi unit buildings. Parking is a daily negotiation. There is a height limit and a long institutional memory about keeping it.
Point Loma is much bigger and it is really several places. Roseville and La Playa sit on the bay with the marinas. Sunset Cliffs faces the open ocean and has the views people fly in for. Loma Portal is the flat part with the Spanish and craftsman houses near the airport. The Wooded Area is what the name says. Liberty Station is the old Naval Training Center turned into shops, restaurants and a public market.
That is why Point Loma's houses are bigger and why its median is higher without its dirt being much more expensive.
Planes leaving Lindbergh take off to the west, out over the peninsula toward the ocean. Loma Portal and parts of Roseville sit under that departure path and hear every one. It is real, it is loud, and it is priced in. Ocean Beach is off the end of the same line and hears them too, depending on the day and the turn. Whether that trade is worth it is a thing you decide standing in the yard at four in the afternoon, not from a listing.
OB also has the 8 freeway ending at its north edge.
Both are San Diego Unified. Point Loma High serves most of the peninsula including OB. Elementary boundaries split finely across the peninsula, and Silver Gate, Loma Portal and Ocean Beach Elementary each pull from different pockets.
Check the boundary for the specific address. The lines do not follow the neighborhood names and a block changes the answer.
If your budget is around $1.33M you are shopping Ocean Beach and the smaller end of Loma Portal. If it is $1.67M and up, most of Point Loma opens and OB starts to look like a lot of money for a small house.
If you want to walk to everything and you do not need square footage, OB is the better buy and the per foot number says you are not overpaying for it.
If you need four bedrooms, a garage and a yard, Point Loma is the only one of the two that has them in quantity, and you will pay for the extra feet rather than for a better address.
And if you are buying to hold for a decade, the twelve point gap in per square foot growth is the number I would think hardest about.
Compare the full reports: Point Loma market report · Ocean Beach market report · Pacific Beach · Mission Hills · Clairemont · Downtown
Local history on both: The 1915 Point Loma road race ran 300 miles through the streets you are looking at · A fifty foot wooden bridge ran from Ocean Beach to Mission Beach · The city tried to ban surfing and the surfers wore neckties to stop them
InfoSparks / CRMLS (ShowingTime Plus), residential, attached and detached combined, data through September 2026. Median sale price is the mean of the last three monthly medians. Price per square foot is the latest monthly median. The five year figures compare the average of the last twelve monthly values against the average of the first twelve, measured separately for the median and for price per square foot, which is why they differ. Ocean Beach acreage from the City of San Diego's Ocean Beach Community Plan. School attendance boundaries from San Diego Unified. General market information, not a valuation or an offer. Verify any attendance boundary with the district before you rely on it.
Bryen Beglinger, REALTOR®, DRE 01327404. 25 years selling in San Diego. 619-889-0708