Malibu jumbo loans and 2026 loan limits.

Malibu became a city in 1991. It is long and narrow: Pacific Coast Highway is its main street, and nearly everything is either on the ocean side of the highway or in the canyons and hills on the land side. From east to west the highway passes the Malibu Pier and Surfrider Beach, Malibu Lagoon and the Civic Center, Point Dume, Zuma Beach and Trancas.

Beach houses stand side by side on narrow lots between the highway and the sand, some on pilings over the beach. On the bluffs and mesas there are houses on larger lots, and in the canyons there are ranch properties and hillside homes on acreage, often on private roads. Much of Malibu is not on a sewer, so many homes have their own septic system. There are also condominiums, mostly near the highway.

Fire has shaped the housing here. The Woolsey fire of November 2018 burned many homes in western Malibu, and the Palisades fire of January 2025 burned homes along the eastern end of the coast (CAL FIRE’s 2025 incident list is the public record). Some lots are being rebuilt, so a property for sale can be a finished house, a house under construction or a lot. Rebuilding after a fire? Please call Sam with any fire rebuild questions: (323) 902-1112.

Insurance first, then the appraisal, the septic system and how the home will be used. Coastal and canyon properties each bring their own questions.

A lender will not close without homeowners insurance. In the canyons and hills that means cover in a mapped fire hazard zone, which can be slow to arrange. On the beach it can also mean flood insurance: when a home is in a flood zone on FEMA’s maps, a lender requires a flood policy. Ask for quotes on both before you write an offer.

Beachfront houses are hard to compare, because the frontage on the sand, the height above the water and the state of the sea wall or pilings all differ. An appraisal can take longer, and a lender may ask for a second one. New work near the shore usually needs a coastal development permit, so ask what was permitted. Many homes here are second homes. A lender expects a second home to be for your own use for part of the year, and one that is mainly rented is treated as an investment property. The city has its own rules on short-term rentals, so check them before you count on rental income.

Point Dume is the headland that juts into the ocean at the northern end of Santa Monica Bay, between Paradise Cove to the east and Zuma Beach to the west. Point Dume State Beach and a nature preserve occupy the tip, with trails along the bluff. The neighborhood is the mesa behind it, on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway, reached by streets such as Dume Drive and Heathercliff Road.

Homes are houses on fairly level lots, many of an acre or so, some on the bluff edge and most set back from it. Some properties come with a deeded right to use a private path to the beach below, which is recorded on title. The Woolsey fire of 2018 burned many houses here, so the neighborhood now mixes rebuilt homes with older ones. Lenders look at insurance in a fire hazard zone, at the septic system, and, on bluff-edge lots, at what a geology report says about the bluff.

Carbon Beach is the stretch of sand east of the Malibu Pier, running along Pacific Coast Highway toward Carbon Canyon Road. The houses stand in a single row between the highway and the beach, most on narrow lots that are deeper than they are wide, with a garage or gate at the highway and the living rooms facing the water.

For a lender this is beachfront in its plainest form. The home may be in a flood zone on FEMA’s maps, and if it is, a flood policy is required along with homeowners insurance. The appraiser weighs the width of the lot on the sand, the age and design of the house, and the sea wall or foundation beneath it, and sales to compare with are few. Expect the appraisal to take time, and a second appraisal on a larger loan. The Palisades fire of January 2025 burned many beachfront homes on the eastern Malibu coast, so along this part of the highway some lots are empty or being rebuilt. A lot or an unfinished house is financed differently from a finished home.

Malibu Colony is a row of beachfront homes on a private road, Malibu Colony Road, just west of Malibu Lagoon and a short walk from the Civic Center and the Malibu Country Mart. It began in the late 1920s, when beach lots here were first leased and then sold, which makes it one of the oldest groups of houses in Malibu.

The houses sit close together on narrow lots, those on the ocean side opening straight onto the sand and those across the road a few steps from it. The road is private and the entrance is staffed, and the owners share the cost through an association, so a lender adds those dues to the monthly housing cost. As elsewhere on the beach, check FEMA’s flood map for the address, because a flood policy is required in a mapped flood zone. Older houses may have been remodeled many times. An appraiser notes work without permits, and coastal permits matter for anything built toward the water. A lender treats a home as a second home when you use it yourself for part of the year.

Broad Beach is in western Malibu, along Broad Beach Road, which leaves Pacific Coast Highway west of Zuma Beach and Trancas Canyon and runs beside the ocean for more than a mile. The houses line the ocean side of the road on deep lots that step down to the sand, with public paths to the beach between some of them.

Despite the name, the beach has narrowed over the years. The owners had a geologic hazard abatement district set up, a kind of local agency, to fund work to protect and restore the shore, and properties inside it are charged assessments. A lender counts a recurring assessment as part of the monthly housing cost, so ask the seller for the current figures. The other questions are the beachfront ones: flood insurance where FEMA’s map calls for it, the state of the rock wall or other protection in front of the house, and an appraisal with few sales to compare. The Woolsey fire of 2018 burned in this end of Malibu, so ask about fire-zone insurance too.