Seaside

Seaside is the city most people drive right past on Highway 1 on their way to Monterey or Carmel, and they are missing something. It is an incorporated city in Monterey County with 32,366 residents as of the 2020 Census, sitting between Sand City and the bay on the west, Monterey and Del Rey Oaks to the south and Marina to the north. Inland it climbs onto the hills of the old Fort Ord, so a lot of Seaside has bay views that would cost far more a few miles down the road. It is a working town with deep military roots, a university on its doorstep and some of the most diverse neighborhoods on the Monterey Peninsula.

Seaside History: From East Monterey to Fort Ord

The town got its start in 1888, when Dr. John L. D. Roberts, a physician from New York, laid out a resort subdivision called East Monterey on 160 acres he bought from his uncle, right next to the old Hotel Del Monte. By 1899 the name had changed to Seaside. In 1910 Roberts invited the U.S. Army to set up Camp Gigling on part of his land, and the Army used the area from 1917 to 1994 as it grew into Fort Ord. Seaside incorporated as its own city on October 13, 1954, with Jack Oldemeyer as its first mayor.

The base closure in 1994 reshaped the city. California State University, Monterey Bay now sits on part of the old post, and Seaside bought the Army’s Bayonet and Black Horse golf courses in 1997 and opened them to the public. Both are par 72 layouts overlooking Monterey Bay, and they hosted the 2012 PGA Professional National Championship. Much of the rest of the base became open space, which is why Seaside today mixes older town streets near the water with newer neighborhoods up the hill.

Parks, Trails and Recreation in Seaside

The biggest backyard in town is the Fort Ord National Monument, designated on April 20, 2012, with 14,658 acres of public land and more than 86 miles of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding. Seaside is its front door. Closer to the water, Roberts Lake, named for the town’s founder, and Laguna Grande sit along the Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, the paved path that follows the old Southern Pacific rail line toward Cannery Row in one direction and Marina in the other. It is flat, it is beautiful and it is one of the easiest walks on the coast for anyone who wants level ground.

The city’s Recreation Services division runs classes, swim lessons, youth sports and day camps, and the community calendar stays busy with things like drop in pickleball and the Seaside Farmers Market. Every Fourth of July a crowd heads up Scribble Hill, the big dune off Fremont Boulevard and Highway 1 that technically sits in Sand City, to watch the fireworks, and the Seaside versus Monterey high school football game draws close to 5,000 people a year.

Senior Services and Healthcare in Seaside

Seaside’s recreation department offers programs for mature adults alongside everything else, including a Monday morning senior knitting group and regular bingo, and the Oldemeyer Center hosts community events and gallery nights through the year. It is smaller than what the big South Bay cities offer, but it is friendly and close to home. For getting around without a car, Monterey-Salinas Transit’s mobility services include RIDES paratransit, which operates out of a facility in Seaside, along with senior shuttles, taxi vouchers and travel training for older riders learning the bus system.

For healthcare, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula on Holman Highway in Monterey is the hospital for the peninsula, with an emergency department open around the clock. Montage Health, which runs Community Hospital, also has an outpatient campus at Ryan Ranch off Highway 68, which keeps a lot of specialist visits and imaging within a short drive of Seaside.

Seaside Schools

Seaside is part of Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, which also serves Monterey, Del Rey Oaks, Sand City and most of Marina. Seaside High School and Seaside Middle School are in town along with several neighborhood elementary schools. Higher education is unusually close for a city this size, with CSU Monterey Bay right next door and Monterey Peninsula College’s public safety training center, home to its fire and police academies, located in Seaside.

Getting Around Seaside

Highway 1 runs along the western edge of the city, and Highway 218 cuts through Del Rey Oaks to connect with Highway 68, which is the usual route to Salinas and the Monterey Regional Airport. Downtown Monterey is about ten minutes away, Salinas is roughly 20 to 25 minutes, and San Jose is around 70 miles, a bit over an hour without traffic. MST buses connect Seaside with Monterey, Marina, Salinas and the CSUMB campus, so older residents who give up driving still have real options.

Seaside Neighborhoods and Housing

The older part of town sits on the flatter blocks closer to the bay, around Fremont Boulevard and Broadway Avenue, with modest single level homes on standard lots, much of it built in the decades when Fort Ord was an active post and military families needed housing. As you move east and uphill, lots get a bit bigger and the bay views open up. Newer neighborhoods include Seaside Highlands, a planned community of single family homes built around 2003 to 2005 with an HOA, and The Enclave, a newer Shea Homes community off Bay View Drive.

Seaside remains one of the more affordable places to own on the Monterey Peninsula compared with Monterey, Pacific Grove or Carmel, and it sits right next to Marina, which has a similar mix of older homes and newer construction. For longtime Peninsula homeowners thinking about downsizing, Seaside is often where the numbers start to work without leaving the area entirely.

Is Seaside a Good Fit for Downsizers?

Seaside works well for a lot of downsizers, mostly because of the housing stock. The older blocks near the bay around Fremont Boulevard and Broadway Avenue have plenty of modest single level homes on flat lots, which is exactly what many people want once stairs start to matter. The Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail gives you a level place to walk, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula is about 10 to 15 minutes away, and MST RIDES operates right here in Seaside for anyone who stops driving. Farther up the hill the newer neighborhoods have better views but more slope, and places like Seaside Highlands come with an HOA and its own rules and fees.

The senior programs in town are smaller than in the bigger cities, but Scholze Park Center in Monterey is only about ten minutes away for a fuller class schedule. Compared with Pacific Grove or Carmel, your dollar goes noticeably further here, and before buying into any HOA I have clients read the budget, reserves and rules with care. If you are 55 or older and selling a longtime home elsewhere in California, Prop 19’s base-year transfer may let you bring your current property tax base to Seaside.

The Seaside Housing Market

The market has firmed up this year. In the three months ending September 2026, the median sale price in Seaside was about $800,000, up 7.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to Redfin’s Seaside housing market data. Homes sold in a median of 25 days, down from 32 days the year before, closed at about 99.1 percent of list price, and about a third went over asking. Seaside is a small market, so these numbers can swing from month to month, but the picture is one where well priced homes move quickly and anything overpriced gets negotiated.

Frequently Asked Questions About Seaside

If you have owned your Seaside home since the Fort Ord days, you are likely sitting on a lot more equity than you expected, and what to do with it usually comes down to capital gains taxes, timing and family more than whether the house will sell. That is the work I do every day with older adults and their families, and I am happy to talk it through with no expectation that you list anything. Book a call with me or reach me at 408-413-3087 for a straight conversation about your options.