With New Office in Del Mar, Elliman Looks to Catch Some Waves North of San Diego
by David Hay
September 2025
Until the latter part of the last century, the small coastal towns north of San Diego were the epitome of the laid-back lifestyle of the SoCal surfer. Board shorts and long boards, year-round tans, everyone talking in a slow, often cryptic drawl. Living was easy, even when it wasn’t. Housing was often modest, the most run-down elements perhaps hidden beneath overgrown bougainvillea.
Alas, the beachside aura—and the spectacular views from towns like Del Mar, perched on a steep bluff above the Pacific—were too alluring to be left to themselves. New and bigger houses were built; luxury homes became the order of the day. Once Bill and Melinda Gates (when they were still married) paid $43 million for a sprawling home in Del Mar, all of a sudden living in North County became highly desirable. While the dream of owning a wonderful home high above the Pacific was still very much alive, it was now very much more expensive.
Case in point: the six-bedroom house at 1834-1836 Ocean Front, which sits right on the sand in Olde Del Mar. Listed by Douglas Elliman’s Whitney Benzian, it’s in walking distance to Jake's and Poseidon, two local classics. Currently home to a duplex with great rental income, the oceanfront lot likely has a new ultra-luxury beach home in its future. Thus, its listing price: $13,999,000.
Somehow, however, despite these prices, the old North County beach ethos lives on, as I learned when I spoke with Dan Tomasi, who heads up Douglas Elliman’s recently opened office in Del Mar.
“The difference between a millionaire here and one in, say, the Hamptons,” Tomasi says, “is that the beach and surf culture is still very alive, rooted in community, so living on the coast still embodies the laid-back lifestyle that Southern California has long been known for.”
The towns that stretch along the ocean above San Diego are each quite different. Del Mar—with its views, winding streets, and spacious lots for larger, more private homes—is at the high end. Encinitas, to the north, is more modest. Unlike Del Mar, whose hillside plunges into the ocean, Leucadia features a wide strip of land, west of Highway One, where houses—many of them renovated if not entirely rebuilt—are spread out in typical suburban fashion. It may be flat, but crucially you can still walk to the beach.
Depending on traffic, these towns are perhaps 30 minutes from downtown San Diego, so the attractions of a larger city—from the famed Old Globe Theater and SDMOCA to the home of the Padres, Petco Park—are well within reach.
Elliman’s previous office in San Diego was located in Mission Valley, a sprawling commercial area through which I-8 heads east from the main north-south artery, Interstate 5. It’s home to upscale malls and many a chain hotel—one of the cheaper places to say in San Diego. “But,” notes Tomasi, “it wasn’t the most propitious location for the type of buyers Elliman is now catering to.”
Located on Del Mar’s main street, the four-lane Camino Del Mar, the new office is close to Del Mar Heights, the pathway to many of the luxury homes up on the bluff and behind. Yet, importantly, it is still walking distance to one of the coastal trails that access the beach. (This is a draw for Tomasi, a devoted surfer who donned a suit jacket and surf shorts and proudly carried a board for one of his marketing campaigns.)
Heading north up Camino Del Mar brings you to Solano Beach and one of the true landmarks of this area: the Del Mar Racetrack, legendary home of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club (DTMC). Its slogan, naturally: “where the turf meets the surf!”
The club is once again hosting the Breeder’s Cup, a major event on the horse-racing circuit, over the weekend of October 31. It is a big deal in Del Mar, too.
“Everything in the town goes purple,” says DMTC’s marketing chief Erin Martin, referring to the event’s signature color. “Our fans flood their hotels and restaurants.”
Although the local Elliman office has only “just opened our doors,” Tomasi assures me, having a DE brand presence at the Cup “is high on our list.”
The 20,000 daily visitors expected at the track during the Cup and on other race days during season may not be in the market to buy, but they certainly will be in a festive mood and more than ready to appreciate all the things Del Mar and North County have to offer.
And these oceanside towns hardly have a lock on luxury living north of San Diego. That honor would be rightly bestowed on Rancho Santa Fe, a rambling expanse of golf courses, gated communities, and even a horse trail or two located well east of the I-5 freeway.
According to Jenna Hoyas, an agent and member of the Del Mar-based Yost Quesada Team, homes in Rancho Santa Fe typically cost upwards of $80 million to as high as $100 million. They may not have the views of the Pacific Ocean, but they offer the size and privacy that luxury homebuyers look for.
After talking to her, Benzian, and Tomasi, I understand that these are not the hang-loose surfer towns they once were. Even in Leucadia and the artsy enclave (or, less euphemistically, “hippie haven”) of Encinitas, multimillion-dollar listings keep popping up.
“Let’s face it,” says Tomasi, who lives in Poway, 20 miles east of Encinitas. “There are fewer and fewer places in California where you can buy a home on the ocean, and almost none that come with the year-round weather we have.”
David Hay is a well-known architectural writer and playwright. His stories have been featured in The New York Times, Dwell and New York.
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