Santa Cruz Real estate and MLS property search
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Rio Del Mar Real Estate
Find the right Rio Del Mar neighborhood home, search for Rio Del Mar homes and beach condos.
Rio Del Mar is a great little beach community. It is located off of Rio Del Mar boulevard and is mainly accessed off of this or Clubhouse Drive. This quiet community has the most homes on the beach in Santa Cruz County. The homes vary from luxury beach homes on the sand with great ocean views to those on the golf course or the bluffs overlooking the ocean.Some of the nicest ocean front luxury homes are on the beach or on the Rio Del Mar bluffs,or in Seascape. If you want a quiet little beach community with a great beach, it's own amenities and easy freeway access,this is the spot. The homes vary from early 20's Spanish style homes to ultra modern beach homes and vary from the $700,000's to about 5 million dollars. There is something for everyone, and even condominiums with great ocean views. Some of the best neighborhoods are in Rio Del Mar.
Search for Rio Del Mar/Seascape homes under area 48, zip code 95003. The communities of Seascape, Rio Del Mar, Seacliff and Aptos all are under the postal code of 95003. Search these areas more specifically by area and then by price or features. |
Rio Del Mar Real Estate and Rio Del Mar MLS home search
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Rio Del Mar Beach and Rio Del Mar history
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Rio Del Mar was an area that Claus Spreckels owned most of when it didn't have that name. After his death, Seacliff Park and Rio Del Mar Country Club were developed in the late 1920's. Rio Del Mar Country Club included a clubhouse, a grand hotel on the bluffs, a beach club, a fresh water pool in the Aptos Creek,a polo field, and a golf course. The Inn's greatest fame derived from the big name bands that broadcast dance music nationally from within its doors. The club has several incarnations, but never was much of a moneymaker. However, it’s original premise to draw people to the area, thoroughly succeeded. Many good times were had at the club, which tragically burned down in the early 60’s.
For more than three decades the Aptos Beach Inn had occupied its perch overlooking the Esplanade from the bluff above Beach Drive. It was the first major structure in Rio del Mar and had a rich interior. It was built before the freeway isolated the area from Aptos and before Rio del Mar even existed as anything more than a name.
The hotel was originally to have been called the Hotel Don Rafael de Castro, after the area's first and largest land owner. Its whole purpose, when it was built in 1927, was to act as a nucleus to attract upscale residential development to the neighborhood. Its name was eventually changed to Aptos Beach Inn, as the developers considering the word "beach" to be a crucial in attracting attention to the area. While the tactic worked, and the community of Rio del Mar slowly evolved around it, the Inn itself never really settled upon a name or an identity of its own. It was home to many big name bands and had a great dance floor and a great oceanview.
Development along Beach Drive in Rio Del Mar -- where million-dollar houses are common today -- didn't begin until 1935. Plans to develop the area were setback by the Depression, which also had a significant effect in Capitola on Frederick Hihn’s Capitola by the Sea. The golf course, however, was built in the late 1920's and was part of the lure to get the rich to buy lots and build their summer houses by the beach. Beach homes sprang up around 1937 when Rio Del Mar began to grow as a recreational center for out of area folks seeking to escape the heat in the summer. The largest stretch of Beach Front homes exists in Rio Del Mar than anywhere else in and was the county. All these homes are in the 3 million dollar and up range as of 2006. Some are in the section behind the gates. This is still an up and coming area despite those prices.
Aptos Seascape Golf Club is located off Clubhouse Drive in Rio Del Mar. It has many uses including weddings. The 18 hole course has been redesigned three times since it was originally built, the latest by Garrett Gill and George B. Williams in the early 1990's This course is nestled in the coastal highlands and is a shotmaker's delight. With only one par 5 measuring more than 500 yards, it would appear that birdies would come easily. But, accuracy and not distance is the key when playing this course This winding course is ringed with million dollar homes and gives a place for local wildlife to flourish.
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