La Jolla's south end: tide pools, a three-block main street, and small lots that reward a smart remodel.
Bird Rock is the southern end of La Jolla, between the La Jolla Hermosa coast and the Pacific Beach line. Nearly all of it lies in La Jolla's community plan area in the City of San Diego, and it is named for the rock formation just off the foot of Bird Rock Avenue.
This page uses the boundary of the City's Bird Rock Maintenance Assessment District, the same one the Bird Rock Community Council publishes: La Cañada on the north, the ocean on the west, the base of the hill along Folsom Drive, Bellevue and Linda Rosa avenues on the east, and roughly Turquoise Street on the south. Inside it, you'll find bluff-top homes on the ocean side, condos along La Jolla Boulevard, and single-family streets climbing toward the hill. For the rest of La Jolla, see our La Jolla guide.
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| 2026 so far | Sales | Median price | $ / sq ft | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family | 23Same | $3,200,000▼ 3% | $1,719▼ 1% | 23+7 days |
| Condos | 12Same | $1,322,500▼ 19% | $998▼ 17% | 34+8 days |
Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026. Small lines = change from the same dates in 2025.
| Closed sales, Bird Rock | Sales | Median price | $ / sq ft | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All homes · Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026 | 35 | $2,600,000 | $1,508 | 30 |
| All homes · Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2025 | 35 | $2,795,000 | $1,481 | 25 |
| All homes · 2025 | 40 | $3,035,000 | $1,487 | 24 |
| Single-family · Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026 | 23 | $3,200,000 | $1,719 | 23 |
| Single-family · Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2025 | 23 | $3,300,000 | $1,745 | 16 |
| Single-family · 2025 | 28 | $3,618,688 | $1,701 | 13 |
| Condos · Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026 | 12 | $1,322,500 | $998 | 34 |
| Condos · Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2025 | 12 | $1,635,000 | $1,202 | 26 |
| Condos · 2025 | 12 | $1,635,000 | $1,202 | 26 |
A small market: about 40 sales a year, so a few sales swing the medians. Medians dipped in 2026, while single-family price per square foot held near $1,700. Early 2025 included a $10 million oceanfront sale; no 2026 sale through November 10 topped $6.5 million.
In La Jolla, Compass was the #1 brokerage in 2025, with a 27% share of closed residential sales volume (San Diego MLS, 2025, both sides of each sale). That figure is for all of La Jolla, not Bird Rock alone.
Source: San Diego MLS, closed residential sales, Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026 vs. Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2025, and full-year 2025. Homes inside the City of San Diego's Bird Rock Maintenance Assessment District boundary, placed by map location into the four areas on our map below (houses, condos and townhomes; "Condos" includes townhomes; manufactured homes and timeshares not counted). Medians; "Days" is median days on market.
Based on all 75 Bird Rock sales from January 1, 2025 through November 10, 2026. Under $2M is almost entirely condos and townhomes on La Jolla Boulevard. From $2M up, nearly every sale was a house, and the ocean side holds the top of the market.
~$1.5M
Nearly all were condos and townhomes, 18 of them in buildings along La Jolla Boulevard, a short walk to the shops and the coast. Houses under $2M are rare here.
~$2.84M
The core of Bird Rock: houses on lots of about 5,500 square feet (median). The largest group (13 of 36) was in Upper Bird Rock, mostly along Linda Rosa Avenue at the base of the hill, followed by Central Bird Rock (10).
~$4.98M
Half (9 of 18) were on the ocean side, on streets like Calumet, Chelsea, Dolphin and Abalone. Eight were in Central and Upper Bird Rock, and one was in the La Jolla Boulevard strip. The top sale in this period closed at $10 million in January 2025.
Source: San Diego MLS, closed residential sales inside the Bird Rock boundary described above, Jan 1, 2025 – Nov 10, 2026 (manufactured homes and timeshares not counted). Medians. Areas are the map's four areas, assigned by each home's map location.
The blocks between the boulevard and the bluffs. Homes here sit closest to the tide pools, Calumet Park and the street-end ocean views at Forward and Midway streets. Bluff-top lots carry extra setback and coastal permit rules, and this is where Bird Rock's highest prices are set.
Get ocean-side homes ›Bird Rock's main street: a small business district of a little more than three blocks, with cafés, restaurants and shops. Condo and townhome buildings line the boulevard on both sides, and they account for most of Bird Rock's sales under $2M.
Get La Jolla Blvd homes ›Single-family streets such as Beaumont and Waverly avenues, crossed by Forward, Midway and Bird Rock Avenue. Lots are typically zoned RS-1-7, the City's small-lot single-family zone, which makes floor-area math central to any remodel.
Get Central Bird Rock homes ›The streets at the base of the hill, along Linda Rosa, Taft and Bellevue avenues and Folsom Drive. Every sale here since 2025 was a house.
Get upper Bird Rock homes ›One median hides a lot. Here is how each part of Bird Rock has actually sold, area by area. Tap an area on the map or read the list.
2025: 8 sales, median $3.93M, $2,459 / sq ft
Get ocean-side homes ›2025: 12 sales, median $1.64M, $1,202 / sq ft
Get La Jolla Blvd homes ›2025: 10 sales, median $3.44M, $1,701 / sq ft
Get Central Bird Rock homes ›2025: 10 sales, median $3.12M, $1,339 / sq ft
Get upper Bird Rock homes ›Source: San Diego MLS, closed sales of houses, condos and townhomes. "Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026" = Jan 1 – Nov 10, 2026; map shading uses Jan 2025 – Nov 2026. Medians. Typical range = the middle half of sales (25th to 75th percentile). "Days" = median days on market. Areas with fewer than 5 sales in a period show "too few sales to report." Area outlines are approximate; see below.
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A stairway at the end of Bird Rock Avenue leads down the bluff to the tide pools. Just offshore is the rock formation that gave the neighborhood its name, long used as a perch by pelicans. A 2010 storm knocked out its arch.
A small bluff-top park between Midway Street and Colima Court, with a walkway along the bluff and wide ocean views. The street ends at Forward and Midway streets are vista points too.
The neighborhood's business district runs a little more than three blocks along the boulevard. The La Jolla Community Plan calls it the gateway into La Jolla from the south.
Developer Michael Francis Hall subdivided the area and gave it its name in 1906. Its full name, used by the Bird Rock Community Council, is "Bird Rock City by the Sea."
Tourmaline Surfing Park, with public parking and beach access, sits just south of Bird Rock at the Pacific Beach line.
Bird Rock Elementary is part of the San Diego Unified School District's La Jolla cluster, with Muirlands Middle School and La Jolla High School. Boundaries vary by address, so confirm with the district.
General information, not legal advice. Every rule below is cited to the San Diego Municipal Code (SDMC) or the La Jolla Community Plan. Rules depend on the exact parcel, so we confirm the details with the City and the right professionals on every deal.
Yes. Bird Rock north of Turquoise Street is inside the City of San Diego's La Jolla community plan area, and the La Jolla Community Plan treats it as its own subarea for coastal access. The boundary used here also takes in a few blocks south of Turquoise Street near La Jolla Boulevard, which are in Pacific Beach's plan area. In the part inside La Jolla's plan area, the same La Jolla plan policies apply as in the rest of La Jolla.
There is no single official "neighborhood" line. This page uses the City's Bird Rock Maintenance Assessment District, which the Bird Rock Community Council also uses to describe the neighborhood.
Source: La Jolla Community Plan and Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan, Appendix G, Subarea H (Bird Rock); City of San Diego community plan and Maintenance Assessment District maps; Bird Rock Community Council.30 feet. Proposition D, approved by San Diego voters in 1972, bars any building or addition over 30 feet in the City's coastal zone, meaning everything west of where Interstate 5 ran on January 1, 1971. All of Bird Rock is west of that line. Height is measured using the 1970 Uniform Building Code, the code allows no exceptions here, and only a citywide vote can change it.
Source: SDMC §132.0505(a)–(d), (i) (Coastal Height Limit; codifies Proposition D).Many Bird Rock lots are zoned RS-1-7, which has a 5,000 square foot minimum lot. In that zone, the floor area ratio (FAR) shrinks as the lot gets bigger: 0.60 on lots of 4,001 to 5,000 square feet and 0.59 on lots of 5,001 to 6,000. For example, a 5,500 square foot lot allows about 3,245 square feet. Garages count toward the total.
The FAR is a ceiling, not a guarantee. The La Jolla Community Plan asks new homes to preserve the bulk and scale of the street and to step back upper stories. When a project needs a coastal permit, the City must find that it conforms to that plan.
Source: SDMC §131.0446(a) and Tables 131-04D, 131-04J; §113.0234(d)(3)(A)(i) (garages count as floor area); §126.0708(a)(3); La Jolla Community Plan and Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan (adopted 2003, certified by the Coastal Commission 2004), Residential Land Use element, Community Character policies 2.a and 2.e.It depends on where the home is and how much you change. Bird Rock is in the City's Coastal Overlay Zone, where the City issues coastal permits. Remodels of existing homes are usually exempt, unless the work:
is on a beach or within 50 feet of a coastal bluff edge; adds 10% or more to interior floor area, or raises the height more than 10%, on a lot between the sea and the first public road (or within 300 feet of the beach); removes 50% or more of the exterior walls; or adds an ADU beyond a conversion inside the existing house.
If you need a permit, it is a staff-level decision (Process Two) in the non-appealable area. On the oceanfront, which is in the "appealable" area, it goes to a Hearing Officer (Process Three) and can be appealed to the California Coastal Commission.
Source: SDMC §126.0702(a); §126.0704(a)(1), (2), (5), (9); §126.0707(a)–(b); §126.0710(a).On sensitive coastal bluffs, new homes, accessory structures and additions must sit at least 40 feet back from the bluff edge. The City can allow 25 to 40 feet if a geology report shows the site is stable at that distance and no seawall or other shoreline protection will be needed.
On a lot that contains or borders a coastal beach or bluff edge, an older home that doesn't meet today's rules loses its protected "previously conforming" status once 50% of its exterior walls are removed (counted cumulatively since October 13, 2016) or 50% of its structural system is replaced. After that, the whole house has to meet current rules.
Source: SDMC §143.0143(f); §126.0704(a)(1), (5); §127.0104(e).Only with a City license. Any stay of less than one month needs one. Renting the whole home for more than 20 days a year takes a Tier Three license, with a two-night minimum stay. Tier Three licenses are capped at 1% of the City's housing units outside Mission Beach and issued by lottery when demand is high. A host may hold only one license, and licenses are not transferable, so a license does not come with a home you buy.
Source: SDMC §510.0102; §510.0103; §510.0104(a), (d); §510.0106(c), (e).Enter an address to see its zone, the Prop D height limit, setbacks, floor-area room left, and ADU and lot-split options. Every rule is cited to the San Diego Municipal Code.
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