High Price Paid for Apartments Near the Beach

A Palo Alto-based real estate investor said Wednesday that it had purchased a Huntington Beach apartment community in one of the priciest deals since 1990.

Essex Property Trust paid $30.4 million--or $88,888 per unit--for the Huntington Breakers, the third highest price per unit paid this decade for an apartment complex in the county.

Essex purchased the 342-unit complex on Beach Boulevard from an affiliate of Glenborough Realty Trust, another California real estate investment trust.

The deal reflects a growing confidence in the Orange County apartment market, where the number of properties is limited and the amount of available land for future development is scarce, said Ray Eldridge of CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. in Laguna Hills.

“Rents have only one place to go here and that’s up,” Eldridge said. The two other record-setting deals that garnered prices of more than $89,000 a unit were in Huntington Beach and Irvine.

Essex officials said the 13-year-old Huntington Breakers was an attractive buy because it is newer than most of the other properties in the area and is near the ocean.

“It is an irreplaceable location,” said spokeswoman Wendy Carhart. “Residents there can walk to the beach.”

The complex is Essex’s third purchase in Orange County. It also owns complexes in Anaheim and Fullerton.