Take a drive with us through real estate records.
Dreams come true, at least for those who live in the approximately 97 homes along Camino de la Costa.
Only about half a dozen homes are shown above in the undated photo, likely from the 1950s or 1960s when empty lots on the desirable street were still available.
Camino de la Costa, which runs about nine-tenths of a mile in the Lower Hermosa neighborhood north of Bird Rock from the south end of Windansea, is popular not only with its residents but those who choose to stroll or bike it for the ocean views.
The street is fully developed now, as shown in the updated photo taken earlier this month, and is often included in bike and other tours of La Jolla so visitors can appreciate the grand estates and proximity to the sea.
Camino de la Costa is often referred to as “The Street of Dreams,” a nickname with an unknown provenance but probably bestowed on the coveted address as a real estate marketing tool that stuck.
In the 1980s, along with “Street of Dreams,” Camino de la Costa was often referred to as “Street of Gold,” said historian Carol Olten.
The La Jolla Hermosa neighborhood was subdivided in 1924, when the first homes on Camino de la Costa began to appear. Over the last 100 years, lots have been developed and redeveloped, and most houses renovated, expanded, demolished and rebuilt.
7764 Camino de la Costa, c. 1925 via La Jolla Historical Society.
The early designs boast recognizable credits, including architects Edgar Ullrich, Thomas Shepherd, Cliff May, and Herbert Palmer, with other designs approved by Ullrich as tract architect.
It’s not only the homes that have historic value – like the arguably most-storied Casa de los Amigos at 6610 Camino de la Costa – but also the entire neighborhood that was named a potential historic district in a June 2004 survey prepared for the city of San Diego.
And along Camino de la Costa, the sprawling homes and gardens are done in “a variety of architecture,” Olten said, attracting those who “dream of fancy houses and … an ocean view.”
That unwaning attraction means those addresses command heft real estate prices.
The average home on Camino de la Costa “today and moving forward is going to be roughly $10 million,” said Realtor Weston Clark, adding prices are “much higher on the ocean side of the street.”
Camino de la Costa time capsule
That multi-million dollar estimate is a stark contrast to the numbers printed on the collection of original Multiple Listing Service cards Olten shared from the La Jolla Historical Society archives.
In 1954, an empty oceanfront lot at 6276 Camino de la Costa was offered at $22,500. “Remember, there aren’t many actual ocean front lots in the world,” the MLS card reads, “This is one of the few, and it’s in La Jolla. … Good luck.”
Today, that address holds a 9,068-square-foot home valued at $15.5 million, according to Zillow.
In 1955, a savvy dreamer could buy the lot “[adjoining] the Max Miller residence at 5930 Camino de la Costa” for $18,000.
A four-bedroom, three-bath house at 5939 Camino de la Costa, described in the MLS as having the “largest deluxe baths in La Jolla” and “not an old-fashioned home but of [the] finest in La Jolla” listed for $79,000 in 1957.
5910 Camino de la Costa, the “only remaining oceanfront lot in Lower Hermosa for sale” according to the MLS, went for $65,000 in 1963, while a two-bedroom home at 6266 Camino de la Costa listed for $165,000 the same year.
Raymond Chandler’s former house at 6005 Camino de la Costa, a single story, three-bedroom house where he lived and wrote from 1946 to 1955, sold in 1964 for $70,000.
The much larger home on that lot sold in 2012 for $6 million.
Two decades later in 1984, the closing price for a two-bedroom house at 414 Camino de la Costa was $274,500.
And the aforementioned Casa de los Amigos at 6110 Camino de la Costa? The “three-level Spanish-style dwelling” with a total of nine rooms sold in 1964 for $135,000; its current owners bought it in 2023 for $11.5 million.
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