Long Beach, California has always been a great place to live and work. The location and weather can’t be beat! Jobs in the area are plentiful and there’s always something to do, no matter what types of activities you’re into. New restaurants and bars seem to pop up almost daily. The school district isn’t bad either, and Long Beach State and Long Beach City College are both highly rated institutions of higher education.
Maybe the only downside of living in Long Beach is the cost of living. If you were fortunate enough to buy a home before prices got completely out of control, you may now be considering making some updates to make your home more comfortable and suitable for you and your family long term. For many homeowners, remodeling their existing home is a much more affordable prospect than selling their current home and buying something that meets their needs.
Since many of the single-family homes in Long Beach were built in the last century, they don’t have some of the amenities modern homeowners want, such as open floorplans, large closets, indoor-outdoor spaces, indoor laundry facilities, and more. These types of changes typically require hiring an architect to make the desired changes.
Mark Grisafe, an architect in Long Beach, CA, says he has definitely seen an increase in home remodeling projects recently at his firm, Grisafe Architecture. He says, “We’re working with a lot of homeowners right now who like their neighborhood, but not necessarily the size or floorplan of their current home. They also have a low interest rate on their current mortgage, and know that selling and buying something larger would substantially increase their monthly payment.”
Grisafe continued, “We’ve worked with homeowners who just want to make a few changes to the layout of their home, but we’ve also taken on remodeling projects where the homeowners basically ended up with a completely new house! Some of our clients come to us with a lot of ideas about how they want their home remodeled, but others just have vague ideas and say things like, ‘We need more space, or we really want an open floor plan.’ We are happy to work with either type of client and design a space that they can enjoy for many years to come!”
In addition to inquiries about home remodeling projects, Grisafe says his Long Beach architecture firms is getting a lot of calls about adding accessory dwelling units—also known as ADUs—to single-family properties in Long Beach. Homeowners are having them built in their backyards or over their garages to house aging parents, their young adult children, or simply to use as a rental unit to bring in some side income.
