Buying or selling in Port Hueneme

In the 90 days ending September 22, 2026, 55 houses, condos and townhomes sold in Port Hueneme, and the median sale price was $595,000, according to Redfin. Half sold for more and half for less.

The spread is wide. A one-bedroom condo by the beach, a townhome and a detached house sell at very different prices, so the median is a starting point, not a price for any one home. Tell me the neighborhood and the kind of home you want and I will send you what has actually sold there.

About a third of Port Hueneme's homes are detached houses, about 30% are attached single-family homes such as townhomes, and about 35% are in buildings of two or more units. Under 1% are mobile homes. Across Ventura County only about 11% of homes are attached, so Port Hueneme has nearly three times the county share.

The Census does not count condominiums as such, but the pattern shows in what owners live in: about 28% of owner-occupied homes here are attached homes and about 15% are in multi-unit buildings. The city's planning division oversees the rules of 31 homeowners associations.

The median home was built in 1974. About 34% of homes date from the 1970s, about 16% from the 1980s, about 15% from the 1960s and about 14% from the 1950s.

With a condo or townhome, read the association's budget, reserve study and rules during your contingency period, and get the dues and any special assessment in writing before you are committed to the purchase.

In practice there are two. For 2026-27, addresses south of Channel Islands Boulevard, in the Hueneme Elementary School District, are taxed at about 1.174% of assessed value. Addresses north of it, in the Oxnard School District, are at about 1.202%. The difference is the elementary school bonds.

Both rates include about 0.026% for the United Water Conservation District, which the county lists on a separate line for land and improvements. The county's summary table shows a low of about 1.148% for the city. That is the rate in two tax areas that have no water line, and the county's parcel map shows no parcels in either one.

On a home assessed at one million dollars, that is about $11,740 a year at the lower rate and about $12,020 at the higher one for 2026-27, before the small fixed charges covered in the next question.

After you buy, the assessed value normally starts at your purchase price and can rise no more than 2% a year until the home sells again or you add new construction.

No. The county's 2025-26 list of special charges shows no community facilities district, the legal name for Mello-Roos, in Port Hueneme.

What you will see on a tax bill are small fixed charges. Three are the city's: street lighting, parkway and median maintenance and, on a little over half of the parcels, drainage maintenance. On two 2026-27 bills for single homes these were about $17, about $24 and about $44.

The rest are regional: a county flood control charge of about $15 to $19, two county stormwater charges of about $4 to $5 together, vector control at about $4 to $7, a Calleguas Municipal Water District charge of about $5 and, on one of the two bills, a Metropolitan Water District standby charge of about $10. On those 2026-27 bills the whole set came to about $78 for a Hueneme Bay home with no drainage charge and about $121 for a home south of Channel Islands Boulevard with it.

Homeowners association dues are separate from the tax bill. Send me the address and I will check the tax bill before you write an offer.

Yes. For 2026 the conforming loan limit and the FHA loan limit for a single-family home in Ventura County are both $1,035,000. With your full entitlement, VA sets no loan limit: the amount depends on what your lender approves and what the home appraises for.

The Port Hueneme side of Naval Base Ventura County is inside the city. It covers about 1,600 acres and is home to the 30th Naval Construction Regiment, which supports four Seabee battalions. As of July 2026 the Defense Department lists Knott Gate as open around the clock, with weekday hours at the Victoria and Pleasant Valley Road gates.

The city is small enough that Knott Gate is roughly two miles or less by road from the beach condos, Hueneme Bay and City Hall.

One thing to check early: VA lends on a condo only in a VA-approved project, and Port Hueneme has many condos. I help veterans and active-duty buyers with VA purchases, and my Veterans page explains how.

The rules are changing. On September 8, 2026 the City Council adopted Ordinance 833, the city's first short-term rental law. It requires a city permit that costs $995 a year, a business license and the 10% hotel tax, and it caps permits at 10% of the city's housing units, with a lottery if applications exceed the cap.

A permit lasts one year, cannot be transferred and expires when the home changes owners, so a buyer does not inherit the seller's permit. Short-term rentals are not allowed in accessory dwelling units, affordable housing units or mobile homes, and occupancy is limited to two people per bedroom plus two, up to ten.

None of that is in force yet. The ordinance does not become operative anywhere in the city until the California Coastal Commission certifies the related change to the city's coastal program and the city announces a start date. Until then, the city's staff reports say operators need a business license and must pay the hotel tax but are otherwise unregulated.

An association's own recorded rules may restrict short-term rentals too, so read them. Surfside III, for example, says its rules do not allow rentals of under 30 days. Outside the Coastal Zone, state law lets an association prohibit rentals of 30 days or less. In the Coastal Zone it is less settled: in 2018 the Court of Appeal put a new association ban on short-term rentals of single-family homes in Oxnard on hold, saying that decision 'must be made by the City and Coastal Commission, not a homeowner's association.' That ruling gives no owner a right to rent, so do not assume either way before you count on rental income.

Mostly not in the high-risk kind. The city says its residential and commercial properties are mapped by FEMA as shaded Zone X, a moderate-risk area outside the special flood hazard area. About 90% of the land outside the Navy base is in that zone.

About 5% of the land outside the base is in a special flood hazard area: the beach itself, the edge of the harbor, and a strip along Channel Islands Boulevard at the north end of the city. FEMA's map shows no levee-protected areas here. Flood insurance is required in a special flood hazard area when the mortgage comes from a government-backed lender.

Moderate risk is not zero. The city tells residents near Bubbling Springs Creek, Hueneme Bay and other low-lying areas to give flood insurance particular consideration, and it notes that most new federal flood policies take 30 days to start. The city's Public Works Department will look up the flood zone for any address.

Part of it is. About a fifth of the land outside the Navy base is in the state's tsunami hazard area: the beach, the Port, the blocks closest to the sand, including Ocean View Drive and Sunfish Way, and a corner near Victoria Avenue and Channel Islands Boulevard.

The rest of the city is outside it, including City Hall and Hueneme Bay. The city's General Plan says the city is susceptible to tsunami inundation along the coast and in lower elevations, and it maps evacuation routes. Check the state's map for any address you are considering.

No. The state's 2025 fire hazard map for local areas shows no Moderate, High or Very High zone in Port Hueneme: the land outside the Navy base is classed as non-wildland. The city's own safety report says the wildland fire hazard here is low, though smoke from fires elsewhere in the county can affect air quality.

The Ventura County Fire Department serves Port Hueneme, and it says properties in the city have no local fire hazard severity zones. Its rule requiring a defensible space inspection when a home sells applies only in High and Very High zones, so on the current map it does not come up here.

Hueneme Beach Park is a 50-acre city park with a fishing pier, picnic areas, sand volleyball courts and a walkway that runs out to the harbor entrance and the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1941 and is owned by the Coast Guard.

Parking is paid, in the lots and on Surfside Drive. As of October 2026 the city's pages list $2 an hour or $8 for the day, with annual passes at $50 for residents and $100 for non-residents. On September 8, 2026 the City Council approved higher rates of $2.50 an hour, $10 a day, and $60 and $120 for the annual passes. They take effect after the Coastal Commission appeal period, so check the city's parking page for the current rate.

The sand is there because it is put there. The city's own history says the Port's jetties cut off the natural flow of sand and the shoreline receded 600 to 1,000 feet. Since about 1960 the Army Corps of Engineers has dredged sand from Channel Islands Harbor, usually every two years, and pumped it onto Hueneme Beach. When a cycle falls short the beach erodes: the city declared local emergencies in 1995 and 2013.

The Corps dredged again in 2025 and, as of spring 2026, planned to return later in the year. If you are buying near the sand, ask when the beach was last replenished.

About half of Port Hueneme is in the California Coastal Zone, according to the city's General Plan. Development there generally needs a coastal development permit.

The city has had a certified Local Coastal Program since 1984, so the city issues those permits through its own development review. The Coastal Commission keeps original permit authority in some mapped areas, and some city approvals can be appealed to it.

For a buyer this mostly matters if you plan to add on or rebuild. It is also why the new short-term rental law is on hold: it needs the Commission's sign-off. The General Plan also has a policy to require owners in areas exposed to sea level rise flooding to tell buyers about the hazard. Ask the planning division whether an address is in the Coastal Zone before you write an offer.

Yes. Hueneme Bay, north of Channel Islands Boulevard, is an age-restricted community. The city describes it as a senior housing development under Civil Code section 51.3, with 773 individually owned garden-patio and townhome lots and community facilities run by the Carefree Living Association. A newspaper report from 1963 has construction getting underway that year.

Under that state law, a senior citizen housing development is for residents 55 and older, with exceptions the law spells out. The age rule itself is in the association's recorded rules, which a buyer receives during escrow. Read them, and the monthly dues, before you remove your contingencies.

Two elementary districts, split at Channel Islands Boulevard. South of it, addresses are in the Hueneme Elementary School District, which runs transitional kindergarten through 8th grade and has four schools in the city: Bard, Hueneme, Parkview and Sunkist. North of it, addresses are in the Oxnard School District, which also enrolls transitional kindergarten and runs through 8th grade.

High school is the Oxnard Union High School District, 9th through 12th grade. The city lists Hueneme High School and Oxnard High School as the two that serve Port Hueneme, and both campuses are in Oxnard.

The elementary district also changes the property tax rate, so confirm the address with the district before you write an offer.

There is no freeway in Port Hueneme. By road, the nearest US-101 ramps are about 7 to 9 miles from City Hall and the nearest Highway 1 ramps are about 4 miles to the east. The Defense Department's directions to the base describe about six miles on Victoria Avenue between the 101 and Channel Islands Boulevard. Ventura Road, Victoria Avenue, Channel Islands Boulevard and Port Hueneme Road are the main roads out.

From City Hall it is about 63 miles by road to downtown Los Angeles, about 40 to Santa Barbara, about 13 to Ventura and about 11 to Camarillo.

The nearest train station is the Oxnard Transit Center, about four and a half road miles from City Hall. Metrolink's Ventura County Line runs from there to Los Angeles Union Station on weekdays, and Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner and Coast Starlight both stop there. Gold Coast Transit buses serve the city.

There is no airport in Port Hueneme. Oxnard Airport, about four road miles away, is a general aviation airport with no airline service today.

Port Hueneme, like Oxnard next door, has its own building records report. Here it is the buyer's right: the city code gives the buyer the right to a Report of Residential Building Records, which shows the authorized use, occupancy and zoning of the property. The seller must tell the buyer about that right when the sale agreement is made, and the buyer can waive the report in writing.

The duty is the seller's. The code says the owner may not close escrow until a receipt for the report, or the buyer's written waiver, has been filed with escrow and with the city's Building and Safety Division. It puts no duty on the escrow company, and it says a sale is not invalidated just because the step was missed.

The report costs $44 under the city's 2025 fee schedule, and the code calls for the city to deliver it within seven days of the application, or as soon as possible after that. A code compliance inspection can be requested along with it, at $81 an hour. The first sale of a home in a subdivision recorded within the past two years is exempt.

The city has its own transfer tax on the books, but state law credits it against the county's, so the total is the same $1.10 per $1,000 as the rest of the county. Before you list, I walk the home, show you what has actually sold nearby, and tell you what is worth fixing and what is not.

The city itself, for water, sewer and trash. Port Hueneme runs its own water system with about 6,500 connections. About 80% of the water comes from a treatment plant the city operates for the Port Hueneme Water Agency, and about 20% is imported through the Calleguas Municipal Water District.

City crews pick up trash and recycling, and the city's sewer lines carry wastewater to the regional treatment plant in Oxnard. The residential rates posted on the city's site as of October 2026 are $36.00 a month for sewer and $25.60 a month for trash. The city lists both as adopted in 2014, so confirm them with utility billing.

Southern California Edison delivers electricity. Since October 2025 the default power supplier is Clean Power Alliance, unless you opt out and stay with Edison. Gas comes from Southern California Gas. The city code adds a 4% utility users tax to electricity, gas and water charges.

Very few. The city's General Plan calls Port Hueneme largely built out, the Census estimate for 2020 to 2024 shows no homes built in 2020 or later, and the regional housing plan assigns the city 125 new homes for the eight years ending in October 2029.

As of October 2026 I found no builder selling a new-home community inside the city limits. The General Plan counts one larger project, 114 homes in a mixed-use development on South Victoria Avenue, as planned or approved as of mid-2021, and the county's parcel records still show a parcel of about 4.5 acres on South Victoria Avenue as land with no building value. The new-home communities nearby are in Oxnard, and my Oxnard page covers them.

At a new-home community the sales agent works for the builder. You can bring your own agent, but most builders expect that agent to be registered on your first visit, so call me before you tour.

It depends on price and condition more than on the city. Across Ventura County, my own 49 listings since 2022 sold in a median of 11 days on the market, at a median of 100% of the asking price.

Before you list, I walk the home, show you what has actually sold nearby, and tell you what is worth fixing and what is not.

I'm Jason Walters, and my office is in Camarillo, on Village Commons Boulevard. I have 22 years in real estate, the last 17 in Ventura County.

I have closed 41 homes in Port Hueneme: 18 for sellers and 23 for buyers. You work with me directly, from pricing strategy to closing day.