Torrance Real Estate

Planned in 1912 as an industrial town, with hills and a beach to the southwest

Torrance (mainly ZIP codes 90501, 90503, 90504 and 90505, with part of the southwest in 90277) is a charter city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles County, California, founded in 1912 as a planned industrial town and incorporated on May 12, 1921. It covers about 20.5 square miles of land between Gardena, Lawndale and unincorporated El Camino Village on the north, the Harbor Gateway and Harbor City areas of Los Angeles on the east, Lomita, Rolling Hills Estates and Palos Verdes Estates on the south, and Redondo Beach and the Pacific Ocean on the west.

Los Angeles County, California · ZIP codes 90501, 90503, 90504, 90505, 90277

Market Snapshot

Market data as of September 24, 2026 · updated daily from the MLS

Homes in Torrance sold for a median $1,015,000 ($700 per square foot) over the 30 days ending September 24, 2026, closing at 100.2% of final list price on average, per CRMLS.

Median Active Price: $899,888
Active Listings: 181; low inventory
Days on Market (active): 40
Recent Sales: 73; Past 30 days
Median Sold Price (30d): $1,015,000; $700/sq ft

Neighborhoods in Torrance

Old Torrance

The General Plan bounds it by Dominguez Street, Van Ness Avenue and Torrance Boulevard on the north, Western Avenue on the east, Plaza Del Amo on the south and Crenshaw Boulevard on the west, and notes its historic structures, narrower streets and small, narrow lots around the city's original commercial core from the early 1900s. It holds the original Torrance Tract, where the Olmsted plan ran a landscaped common down El Prado Avenue from Carson Street to Cravens Avenue, aligned on a view of Mt. Baldy and the San Gabriel Mountains. Residentially zoned lots with a house the historic survey counts as contributing or altered-contributing fall under the Torrance Tract Overlay, and a separate small-lot overlay covers the blocks near Arlington and Andreo Avenues between Carson Street and Plaza Del Amo. On the City's water-provider map, Torrance Municipal Water serves all of it.

North Torrance

From 190th Street to the northern city line, which the General Plan describes as a mix of single-family homes, apartments and condominiums near the refinery and the I-405 freeway. The City maps expansive clay soil, which swells when wet and shrinks when dry, under most of North Torrance, about 97 percent of the district on its own soil layer, and the building code sets minimum footings and slabs for light-frame construction where that soil is present. Torrance Municipal Water serves the whole district.

Central Torrance

South of 190th Street and north of Sepulveda Boulevard, between Prairie and Western Avenues, apart from Old Torrance. The General Plan lists the refinery, the Civic Center and the Madrona Marsh Nature Center among its uses and names two neighborhoods: Pueblo, on Del Amo Boulevard between Crenshaw Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue beside the refinery, which the plan says went from unpaved streets in the early 1970s to an area divided by a four-lane street, and Torrance Gardens, a low-scale subdivision of 1950s and 1960s single-family homes next to the Civic Center. The plan also notes several planned unit developments from the 1980s and 1990s along Plaza Del Amo.

West Torrance

South of 190th Street and west of Prairie Avenue, north of Sepulveda Boulevard to the western city line, taking in Del Amo Fashion Center and the Hawthorne Boulevard commercial corridor. The General Plan describes mostly detached homes, with multifamily pockets mainly between Torrance Boulevard and Spencer Street and along Anza Avenue from Torrance Boulevard to Del Amo Boulevard. On the City's provider map, California Water Service rather than Torrance Municipal Water serves about 86 percent of the district, and a strip along the Redondo Beach line is in the Hillside Overlay.

South Torrance

Between Sepulveda Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway, east of Calle Mayor and Anza Avenue. The General Plan calls Torrance Airport the district's focal point, bordered by light industry and Torrance Memorial Hospital, and describes mostly single-family neighborhoods, with multifamily pockets west of Crenshaw Boulevard along Pacific Coast Highway. Inside Torrance, the airport's influence area on the county's map, its runway protection zones and its only mapped noise contour fall on the airport and on land zoned for industry and commerce; one runway protection zone continues east across Crenshaw Boulevard over homes in Lomita. The City maps expansive soil under about 40 percent of the district.

The Hillside and Seaside Ranchos

The General Plan's Hillside district takes in the land south of Pacific Coast Highway and, north of it, the land west of Calle Mayor and Anza Avenue to the western city line. The plan describes narrower, tree-lined winding streets, hillsides and views, and homes that are almost all single-family, and it names the Seaside Ranchos area, the Riviera and Walteria within it. On the City's own layers, about two-thirds of the district is in the Hillside and Local Coastal Overlay and about a third is served by California Water Service rather than the City.

Riviera (Hollywood Riviera)

The General Plan's Riviera neighborhood, whose hillsides look over the Pacific; the plan's Community Resources Element calls it the Hollywood Riviera and notes pine, eucalyptus, palm and bottle brush trees planted there in the late 1920s. The land came into Torrance with the Meadow Park annexation, which the county's annexation map dates to March 1927, together with the beach and the airport site. Many parcels here carry ZIP 90277, which Torrance shares with Redondo Beach: county assessor data put 2,576 of the 40,821 parcels whose tax-rate city is Torrance in that ZIP, nearly all in the southwest corner, though the assessor lists most of them as Torrance addresses. The strip seaward of Palos Verdes Boulevard is the city's coastal zone, and a band along the Palos Verdes Estates line holds the only fire hazard severity zones in the city on CAL FIRE's 2025 map, which the City adopted in June 2025.

Walteria

A neighborhood the General Plan names within its Hillside district and calls one of the city's earliest, with a collection of homes built before the post-World War II housing boom; the Housing Element places a Walteria district on and near Hawthorne Boulevard south of Pacific Coast Highway. North of the highway near Hawthorne Boulevard, the Walteria Detention Basin holds the remains of Lake Walteria, a seasonal lake and wetland, and the City maps expansive clay soil in the Walteria Lake area. The Walteria branch, established in 1937, is the oldest in the Torrance Public Library system.

Living in Torrance

Torrance Beach, which Los Angeles County's Department of Beaches and Harbors lists at 40 acres of sand between Redondo Beach and Malaga Cove, has over 300 parking spaces, restrooms, showers, a concession stand, volleyball nets and the beach bike path, with lifeguards in daylight hours.

Madrona Marsh Preserve is managed by the City with the Friends of Madrona Marsh; the City's history says a compromise over the surrounding Park del Amo development provided a 34.4-acre donation of land for the marsh and the sale of another 8.5 acres to the City, which received state wetland preservation funds for the acquisition.

Charles H. Wilson Park covers 44.1 acres on Crenshaw Boulevard and is home to the Torrance Certified Farmers' Market, which as of September 2026 the City lists every Tuesday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Torrance Cultural Arts Center, which the City opened in 1991, groups the James R. Armstrong and George Nakano theatres, the Toyota Meeting Hall, the Torino Festival Plaza, the Pine Wind Japanese Garden and the Torrance Art Museum.

Columbia Park covers 52 acres on 190th Street with soccer fields, community gardens and bocce courts.

Del Amo Fashion Center began as the Del Amo Shopping Center in the 1960s; the City's history says that joining it by a bridge over Carson Street to the 1970s Del Amo Fashion Square produced the largest indoor mall in the United States, until the Mall of America was built.

Torrance Transit, the City's bus system since 1940, began with service between Torrance and downtown Los Angeles, and the library says a 1967 bond established the six-branch Torrance Library System, with the Katy Geissert Civic Center Library dedicated in April 1971.

Schools Serving Torrance

Adams Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Anza Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Arlington Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Arnold Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Carr Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Edison Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Fern Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Hickory Elementary, Torrance Unified School District (elementary)

Lincoln Elementary

Buying & Selling in Torrance

For Buyers

Start with the parcel's zoning and overlays, which the City's online property records show, and its water provider on the City's provider map. In the Hillside and Local Coastal Overlay, a second story, a one-story addition over 14 feet or above the lowest part of the existing house, a floor area ratio over 0.50 or a roof deck needs a Precise Plan from the Planning Commission, with a silhouette and a hearing. A Minor Hillside Exemption also requires no roof-mounted equipment, although the City's process chart sends solar panels directly to a building permit. The City approves ADUs and SB 9 projects ministerially, though a two-story ADU there must be attached to the house; the View Equity Ordinance can restore a view blocked by a neighbor's vegetation only to what existed at purchase or on March 7, 2002, whichever is more recent. West of Palos Verdes Boulevard, a coastal permit, including for an ADU or SB 9 project, comes from the Coastal Commission, not the City. In the original Torrance Tract, demolishing or changing the facade of a house the historic survey counts as contributing or altered-contributing goes to the Planning Commission, and a designated landmark carries its own approvals and any Mills Act contract, which binds a new owner. Ask which utility supplies the water, since California Water Service rather than the City serves most of West Torrance, and ask about drainage and foundation work where the City maps expansive soil. A short-term rental needs a City permit, is allowed in residential zones only as a home share with the host living on site, and is barred in an ADU. The natural hazard disclosure includes items that reach only small parts of the city: High and Very High fire hazard severity zones along the Palos Verdes Estates line, state seismic hazard zones for landslides in the southern hills and for liquefaction in small areas, and FEMA flood zones, and the disclosure report adds an airport notice only inside the airport influence area. Neither a Redondo Beach mailing address nor a Torrance one settles which city a home is in, so confirm the jurisdiction, and run the address through Torrance Unified's School Locator; a small area on Pacific Coast Highway near Crenshaw Boulevard is in Los Angeles Unified instead.

For Sellers

State the parcel's rules and records rather than describing the neighborhood: whether it is in the Hillside and Local Coastal Overlay, the coastal zone, the Torrance Tract Overlay or a designated landmark, and the permits, Precise Plans or Coastal Commission approvals behind past work. Disclose any Mills Act contract, whose rehabilitation plan binds the buyer, and any short-term rental permit, which in a residential zone covers only a hosted home share. Name the water provider. If the home is in a High or Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, which in Torrance means part of the band along the Palos Verdes Estates line, Civil Code section 1102.6f calls for a fire-hardening notice for a home built before January 1, 2010, and section 1102.19 requires defensible-space documentation where a local ordinance requires it or, absent one, where an agency or qualified nonprofit provides inspections with documentation for the jurisdiction; a seller without it signs a written agreement for the buyer to obtain it, and the statute defines the buyer's duty only for those same two cases. The Torrance Fire Department takes requests for what it calls AB38 inspections. A natural hazard disclosure report carries the Notice of Airport in Vicinity only for property inside an airport influence area, and on the county's map the part of the Torrance influence area inside the city holds no residentially zoned land.

Local Market Insights: Torrance

The 1912 plan, the Torrance Tract and historic review

The City's history says Jared Sidney Torrance and his investors formed the Dominguez Land Company, which acquired some 3,500 acres of ranchland from the Dominguez family and hired the Olmsted Brothers firm to design what the City calls a planned modern industrial city. Groundbreaking was in October 1912. The City describes the Olmsted Tract as 109 city blocks with residential, commercial and industrial sub-districts, most notable for an axial landscaped mall aligned on a view of Mount San Antonio in the San Gabriel Mountains; the General Plan places that landscaped common down El Prado Avenue from Carson Street to Cravens Avenue. Irving Gill, appointed chief architect in June 1912, designed the Pacific Electric depot, homes for workers, several downtown buildings and the arched bridge over Torrance Boulevard, which its National Register nomination says was built in 1913; the bridge was listed on the National Register in 1989. The town was privately held until residents voted 355 to 11 to incorporate; the county dates incorporation to May 12, 1921.

The Torrance Tract Overlay Zone, created by an urgency ordinance on March 15, 2016 whose one-year sunset clause was later repealed, covers residentially zoned lots in the original tract, bounded by Dominguez Street, Western Avenue, Plaza del Amo and Crenshaw Boulevard, that hold a house the 2011 to 2013 Historic Resources Survey identified as contributing or altered-contributing. Development on those lots goes to the Planning Commission, with notice to owners within 500 feet, unless the project stays at or under a floor area ratio of 0.5 including garages, involves no whole or partial demolition of the historic house, makes no change to its exterior facade and adds no street curb cut. Emergency repairs, historically accurate reroofing and window replacement, routine maintenance, fences and walls, and a detached accessory structure that does not contribute are also exempt.

Separately, the Historic Preservation Ordinance adopted on December 12, 2017 lets the City designate a landmark with its owner's consent and a historic district only with the written consent of the owners of every parcel in it. A designated landmark needs approval for exterior alterations, additions, relocation or demolition, and full demolition requires a certificate of demolition, treated as a discretionary permit under the California Environmental Quality Act and filed with an economic hardship application. As of September 2026 the City's register listed ten landmarks designated since October 2022 and no historic districts. The code lets the City enter a Mills Act contract with the owner of a landmark; the City's Mills Act page says a contract runs ten years and renews each year unless either side gives notice of non-renewal, that its rehabilitation plan binds later owners, and that the county assessor revalues the property annually with no guaranteed tax reduction. As of September 2026 a draft update to the Torrance Tract Historic Preservation Plan, adding downtown's commercial properties, was out for public review.

The Hillside and Local Coastal Overlay: when a project goes to the Planning Commission

The R-H Hillside and Local Coastal Overlay Zone, which the City adopted in 1977, covers much of the city's southern and western hillside land: on the City's own map layer it takes in about 12 percent of the city, from a strip along the Redondo Beach line north of Sepulveda Boulevard through the southwest corner to the hills south of Pacific Coast Highway, and roughly two-thirds of the General Plan's Hillside district. Among its stated purposes is preventing adverse impacts on the view, light, air and privacy of other properties.

By default any development on a lot in the overlay needs a Precise Plan approved by the Planning Commission, although the City's process chart sends routine work, such as a reroof, solar panels, an in-ground pool or an interior remodel that adds no floor area or openings, straight to a building permit. The code exempts building, remodeling or enlarging a house from a Precise Plan only if the new or enlarged part is one story, no taller than 14 feet and, for an addition, no taller than the lowest part of the existing house, has no roof deck and no equipment on the roof, keeps the interior area including the garage at or below half the lot, and the Planning Director finds no adverse effect on nearby properties and no significant public controversy; the City processes that path as a Minor Hillside Exemption, with a comment period for nearby owners. In the City's February 2026 staff report, a new two-story house, a second-story addition, a one-story addition over 14 feet, a floor area ratio over 0.50 or a roof deck needs a Precise Plan. The City's process chart calls for a silhouette and a survey and mails notice to owners within 500 feet, while the code itself requires notice within 300 feet. The Commission must find, among other things, that the project will not adversely affect neighbors' view, light, air and privacy and was designed to intrude on them least, and the City says a court has read "adverse impact" to mean substantial impact.

State housing law narrows the review. The City's staff report says accessory dwelling units, junior units and SB 9 units need only a building permit, even in the overlay, and its process chart exempts SB 9 lot splits from overlay review; in the coastal zone all of these also need Coastal Commission review, and a two-story ADU in the overlay must be attached to the house. The report says the overlay's subjective findings cannot be used to deny or reduce the density of a housing development project of two or more units, which it says includes a house with an ADU, if the project meets the underlying zone's objective standards, while they still apply when a single house alone is built or enlarged. The View Equity Ordinance of 2017, which applies only in the overlay, lets an owner seek to restore a view blocked by a neighbor's vegetation, but only to the view that existed when the property was bought or on March 7, 2002, whichever is more recent.

The coast: a narrow coastal zone, permitted by the Coastal Commission

Torrance's coastal zone is a strip in the southwest corner seaward of Palos Verdes Boulevard, about 1 percent of the city on the City's own map layer. The Coastal Commission described it in 2020 as about 104 acres, two to four blocks deep, with about a mile of shoreline between Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes Estates and about 1,076 housing units; the Commission's boundary line follows Palos Verdes Boulevard, and a 2026 City staff report says every property west of the boulevard is in the coastal zone.

As of the Commission's status chart for June 30, 2024, Torrance had no certified Local Coastal Program. The Commission approved a Land Use Plan with suggested modifications in 1981, the City did not accept them, and the approval lapsed. So the Coastal Commission, not the City, issues coastal development permits here, and the City asks for a copy of the Commission's permit, waiver or exemption with the building permit application. That includes accessory dwelling units and SB 9 projects, which the City says need Commission review in the coastal zone regardless of their distance from a bluff or the beach. Improving an existing house needs a coastal permit in some cases, among them work within 50 feet of the edge of a coastal bluff.

The City's hillside code adds its own considerations west of Palos Verdes Boulevard: multifamily buildings should not exceed 35 feet above existing grade, nothing may be built seaward of the safe building line on Lots 149 through 164 of Tract 18379, and construction between that line and Paseo de la Playa needs a soils and geologic investigation on file. The Commission's 2006 report on a fence at the toe of the bluff says that under a 1988 boundary agreement the sandy beach below the bluff-top lots on Paseo de la Playa is subject to a public easement for beach and recreational use, with the owners keeping the right to an eight-foot fence at the toe of the bluff.

The water hazards are mapped narrowly. The state's Tsunami Hazard Area covers about 23 acres of the city, mostly the beach, with about two and a half acres of residentially zoned land at its edge on the City's zoning layer, and the state says the map does not meet disclosure requirements for real estate transactions. FEMA's flood maps put about 47 acres, under half a percent of the city, in special flood hazard areas, at the beach and in a few pockets inland, with under two acres zoned for homes. As of September 2026 the county's beaches department said its beach evacuation lights and sirens, whose messages include a tsunami warning, were being piloted at Torrance Beach.

Torrance Municipal Airport–Zamperini Field: curfew, noise rules and disclosure

The City's 1940s history says the federal government bought 480 acres of the Weston Ranch in the southern part of the city in 1941 and built the Lomita Flight Strip as a training base for Army Air Corps P-38s; the City's airport chronology instead dates a Bureau of Public Roads purchase to 1939, puts the runway's construction in 1943 and calls the field a staging base for P-38 squadrons. The City applied for the field after the war, named it on December 7, 1946 for Louis Zamperini, a Torrance High graduate and Olympic athlete, and received quitclaim deeds from the United States in 1948 and 1956. The City describes it as a general aviation airport and the headquarters of Robinson Helicopter Company.

The municipal code bars takeoffs from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. on weekends and six holidays, with exemptions for federal and state aircraft, public-safety and emergency flights, and a takeoff the City Manager finds performs a vital economic function that could not otherwise be done, if it is expected to meet the night noise limits; landings are not curfewed. Unless exempt, aircraft taking off or landing may exceed neither a single-event noise exposure level of 88 dBA nor a maximum of 82 dBA by day, nor 82 and 76 dBA at night, measured at ground level outside the area bounded by Lomita Boulevard, Crenshaw Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway and Hawthorne Boulevard. Touch-and-go landings are banned, and three violations in three years can bar a pilot from the airport for the next three years. The City monitors aircraft noise around the clock and takes complaints online, but says it does not control how high planes fly or their flight paths, which the Federal Aviation Administration manages.

Los Angeles County's Airport Land Use Plan, adopted December 19, 1991 and revised December 1, 2004, draws an airport influence area around the field, and state law requires a natural hazard disclosure report to carry a "Notice of Airport in Vicinity" for property inside such an area. Inside Torrance, the county's influence area, its four runway protection zones and its only mapped noise contour, a 70 CNEL line taken from the 1991 plan, cover the airport and land zoned for industry and commerce, with no home inside. The runway protection zone off the east end of the runway continues across Crenshaw Boulevard over homes in Lomita, and the influence area touches a few Lomita home parcels at its edge. The City's separate airport hazard zoning chapter limits heights in five zones around the field but sets no height limit on anything under 35 feet above the ground.

The refinery on 190th Street and how its hydrofluoric acid is regulated

The Torrance refinery at 3700 West 190th Street began operating in 1929 and lies inside the city limits. Torrance Refining Company LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of PBF Energy, operates it; PBF's purchase from ExxonMobil closed on July 1, 2016. The operator says it produces gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gases, coke and sulfur. On September 9, 2026 PBF closed its purchase of the two hydrogen plants at the refinery from Air Products.

On February 18, 2015, when ExxonMobil owned the plant, an explosion in the electrostatic precipitator of the fluid catalytic cracking unit threw debris that, in the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's words, nearly hit tanks in the alkylation unit that uses modified hydrofluoric acid; the board put the precipitator about 80 feet from that unit. Its final report, released May 3, 2017, says four contract employees sought first aid for injuries sustained while fleeing and catalyst dust was reported outside the refinery, and that the board could not analyze whether the unit's safeguards could prevent a release beyond the property because ExxonMobil had not provided the documentation.

The refinery uses modified hydrofluoric acid under a consent decree the Los Angeles Superior Court issued in a City of Torrance case in the early 1990s, and later court orders. The South Coast Air Quality Management District adopted a rule in April 1991 that set a phase-out of hydrogen fluoride unless a performance standard was met, and a court invalidated it for a procedural error in its environmental review. A new Proposed Rule 1410 began in 2017 and ended on September 6, 2019, when the district's board voted 8 to 3 to accept voluntary safety commitments from the Torrance and Wilmington refineries and stop the rulemaking. In March 2022 the district reported that, by the company's account, all of the promised upgrades were finished at the end of 2021, and that an inspector had confirmed those that could be seen. The City Council's Resolution 2017-23, adopted unanimously on March 29, 2017, supports the refinery-safety efforts of listed stakeholders, among them the air district, elected officials, the refinery's operator and Southern California Edison.

Under the district's Rule 1180, adopted in December 2017 and amended in January 2024, the refinery runs real-time fenceline air monitoring and publishes the data online. The district's February 2025 community monitoring plan lists stations at Guenser Park and on Elm Avenue and says hydrogen fluoride is continuously monitored at the station nearest the refinery. On January 7, 2025 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency objected to the refinery's renewed federal operating permit, issued by the district, granting in part a petition from the Del Amo Action Committee.

Del Amo and Montrose: Superfund sites near Torrance, not in it

Two Superfund sites carry Torrance's name in EPA records, and neither is in the city. The EPA's site descriptions place the Montrose Chemical and Del Amo sites in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles, between Torrance and Carson, although its pages also use Torrance addresses and in places say "in Torrance". Montrose made the pesticide DDT at its plant on Normandie Avenue from 1947 to 1982, and the site was added to the National Priorities List in 1989; Del Amo is a 280-acre area where synthetic rubber was produced from 1943 to 1972, which the EPA's site page says was placed on the list in 1997. The EPA's own mapped Del Amo boundary comes no closer than about 3,000 feet to the Torrance city line.

The EPA lists the Montrose site at a Torrance, CA 90502 address, but ZIP 90502 lies wholly outside the city: on the Census Bureau's ZIP tabulation areas it covers parts of unincorporated West Carson and of Harbor Gateway and no part of Torrance, no parcel whose tax-rate city is Torrance has that ZIP, and the Montrose plant address and the EPA's own site point both fall in the City of Los Angeles.

The one mapped overlap is a groundwater plume outline. The EPA manages contamination from both sites as a single dual-site groundwater unit, and the plume outline it publishes for Montrose, a responsible-party delineation linked to a 2020 monitoring report, touches about 6 acres at Torrance's eastern edge, most of it zoned for heavy manufacturing. As of September 2026 the EPA's site pages say the contamination currently has not been detected in groundwater used for drinking water, and name Torrance among the cities whose supply the EPA is protecting. The EPA completed its latest five-year review of the groundwater cleanup in September 2025, and on March 5, 2025 it removed 46 acres of Del Amo from the National Priorities List.

Torrance Unified: schools by address, and two exceptions at the edges

Torrance Unified serves almost all of the city: the state's and the county's district maps each place more than 99 percent of its area in the district. The district assigns each student a home school by address, which families look up with its School Locator. Tested for this guide against the locator's own boundaries in September 2026, 38,144 of the 38,160 residential parcels whose tax-rate city is Torrance fall in exactly one attendance area, each with one elementary, one middle and one high school; of the 16 others, three are the Los Angeles Unified parcels described below, twelve sit on the Lomita line just outside the locator's boundary though inside the district on the county's map, and one has no address. Of the 2,557 residential parcels with a 90277 ZIP, all but a 31-unit condominium complex near the Redondo Beach line fall in the Riviera Elementary, Richardson Middle and South High area. The district has 17 elementary schools, 8 middle schools and four comprehensive high schools, North, South, Torrance and West, all inside the city; Kurt T. Shery High is a continuation school and Gene Drevno a community day school.

Residents of the district can ask for a different Torrance Unified school through an open enrollment lottery, which depends on space, allows one requested school per student and comes without district transportation; once the student attends, the placement becomes the student's permanent school unless the family moves out of the district or accepts a spot through a later lottery. Among programs entered by application are Spanish dual-language immersion, which for 2026-27 took transitional kindergarten and kindergarten students at Carr and Torrance elementary schools, with priority for children whose home school is one of them and the program school then becoming the home school, and an Early College program with El Camino College at North and Torrance high schools. Families outside the district need a release from their own district and a Torrance Unified inter-district permit, which the district decides case by case on space, grades, attendance and behavior.

Two small areas fall outside the district. The state's and the county's maps put about 15 acres along Pacific Coast Highway near Crenshaw Boulevard, by the Lomita line, in Los Angeles Unified; the parcels include a 91-unit apartment property and part of a mobile home park, and Torrance Unified's locator returns no school for either. Los Angeles Unified's lookup assigns 2442 Pacific Coast Highway to Eshelman Avenue Elementary and Alexander Fleming Middle School in Lomita, with Narbonne High in Harbor City as a zone of choice, but does not place the mobile home park's address in its district. About 41 acres of golf course at the Rolling Hills Estates edge are in Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified. Check any address in the district's own tool before relying on a school.

Metro's K Line extension: an approved route and no committed date

Metro plans to extend light rail 4.5 miles from Redondo Beach (Marine) Station to the Torrance Transit Center, with two new stations, and now calls the project the K Line Extension to Torrance. On January 22, 2026 its Board certified the Final Environmental Impact Report and approved the Hawthorne Option. That route leaves the rail right-of-way to follow Interstate 405, runs elevated in the median of Hawthorne Boulevard with a station beside the South Bay Galleria, returns to the Metro right-of-way south of 190th Street and ends at an at-grade station at the transit center. The Board chose it, by motion, over the locally preferred 170th/182nd grade-separated "Hybrid" alternative it had selected in May 2024, which its staff recommended and the City of Torrance supported; the City said it was deeply disappointed by the vote.

As of September 2026, Metro's project page, FAQ and Board reports set no construction start or committed opening date; Metro says the project is in design and that staff will return to the Board with costs, schedule and delivery plans at 30 percent design. Its project page gives an estimated completion of late 2036, pending funding. Its January 2026 staff report estimated an opening in December 2036 if federal and Caltrans approvals took two years, which it said would likely take longer, or by the end of 2038 if they took up to four, and Metro's FAQ conditions the 2036 date on full funding. A March 2026 committee report says staff will return to the Board to award a contract for utility relocation, freight realignment, grade crossings and early civil works, with Board action tentatively planned for 2029.

The planned terminus, the Mary K. Giordano Regional Transit Center at 465 Crenshaw Boulevard, has been Torrance Transit's hub since it opened in June 2023. Current bus service includes Line 4X to downtown Los Angeles and Union Station and Line 8 to the LAX/Metro Transit Center.

A charter city with its own police, fire, water and buses

Voters ratified Torrance's charter on August 20, 1946, and it was filed with the Secretary of State on January 7, 1947; voters approved a recodified charter on April 17, 1973. It sets a City Manager form of government. The Mayor is elected citywide and six council members by district, a system the Council adopted by ordinance on June 19, 2018 and phased in at the 2020 and 2022 elections, and general municipal elections fall on the date of the statewide primary in even-numbered years.

The City has its own police and fire departments and lists six fire stations. Torrance Municipal Water, a City utility and a founding member of the Metropolitan Water District, says it serves about 78 percent of the city; on the City's provider map, California Water Service serves most of West Torrance and about a third of the Hillside district, and the City of Lomita's water department serves small slivers. Torrance Transit, established in 1940, runs the City's buses; the library system has six branches; the City collects trash from residential homes, while multi-family properties and businesses arrange their own haulers; and it maintains 287 miles of City-owned sewer lines, while each property owner maintains the private lateral.

The ground varies too. The City maps expansive clay, a soil that swells and shrinks with moisture, under most of North Torrance and in the Walteria Lake area, about 31 percent of the city on its own layer. Where that soil is present the building code sets minimum continuous footings and reinforced slabs for light-frame construction, and the City advises owners to keep water from ponding near foundations and not to plant trees within about ten feet of the house.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Torrance listings are new this week?

26 homes the MLS lists in Torrance that went on the market on or after September 17 were still for sale as of September 24, 2026.

How many homes in Torrance are waiting to close?

As of September 24, 2026, the MLS listed 94 homes in Torrance as pending or active under contract, meaning a seller had accepted an offer and escrow had not yet closed.

What is the typical asking price for a home in Torrance?

Across 181 active listings the MLS files under Torrance as of September 24, 2026, the median asking price was $899,888. The MLS files a listing by the city in its address, so these figures can include some homes with Torrance addresses outside the city and leave out some Riviera homes listed under Redondo Beach, and the median shifts with whatever is on the market.

How many months of supply are on the Torrance market?

The MLS showed 2.3 months of supply in Torrance as of September 24, 2026, which this site's thresholds label a seller's market: under 3 months counts as a seller's market, 3 to 6 as balanced and over 6 as a buyer's market. Supply here is the count of active listings divided by the average number of closings per month over the previous 90 days.

How quickly are Torrance homes selling, and at what price per square foot?

For closings in the 30 days ending September 24, 2026, homes the MLS lists in Torrance spent a median of 18 days on the market and sold for a median of $700 per square foot, at 100.2% of their final list price on average.

Are the Del Amo and Montrose Superfund sites in Torrance?

No. The EPA's site descriptions place both in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles, between Torrance and Carson, and its mapped Del Amo boundary comes no closer than about 3,000 feet to the city line. The Montrose site's EPA address reads Torrance, CA 90502, but that ZIP covers parts of unincorporated West Carson and Harbor Gateway, not the city. The one mapped overlap is a groundwater plume outline: the responsible-party outline the EPA publishes for Montrose touches about 6 acres at Torrance's eastern edge, most of it zoned for heavy manufacturing.

Who operates the refinery in Torrance?

Torrance Refining Company LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of PBF Energy, which bought the refinery from ExxonMobil in a sale that closed on July 1, 2016. The refinery at 3700 West 190th Street began operating in 1929 and is inside the city. It uses modified hydrofluoric acid under a Los Angeles Superior Court consent decree in a City of Torrance case from the early 1990s, and in September 2019 the South Coast Air Quality Management District accepted the company's voluntary safety commitments and dropped a proposed rule on that acid; the company reported the upgrades complete at the end of 2021.

Which parts of Torrance are in the coastal zone?

Only the strip in the southwest corner seaward of Palos Verdes Boulevard, which the Coastal Commission put at about 104 acres in 2020, about 1 percent of the city on the City's own map layer. Because Torrance had no certified Local Coastal Program as of the Commission's June 30, 2024 status chart, the Coastal Commission itself issues coastal development permits there, and the City asks for the Commission's permit, waiver or exemption with a building permit application, including for ADUs and SB 9 projects.

Do homes near Torrance Airport get an airport disclosure?

A natural hazard disclosure report must carry a Notice of Airport in Vicinity only for property inside an airport influence area. Inside Torrance, the county's influence area around Torrance Municipal Airport, its runway protection zones and its only mapped noise contour cover the airport and land zoned for industry and commerce, with no home inside; the runway protection zone off the east end of the runway continues across Crenshaw Boulevard over homes in Lomita. The City still regulates the airport closely: most takeoffs are barred overnight, noise limits apply to takeoffs and landings, and touch-and-go landings are banned.

What does the Hillside Overlay require in Torrance?

In the overlay, which covers about 12 percent of the city across the southern and western hills, most development needs a Precise Plan approved by the Planning Commission. A one-story project no taller than 14 feet, and for an addition no taller than the lowest part of the existing house, with interior area including the garage at or under half the lot and no roof deck or roof-mounted equipment, can go through a Minor Hillside Exemption instead if the Planning Director finds no adverse effect on nearby properties and no significant public controversy. A second story, a taller one-story addition, a floor area ratio over 0.50 or a roof deck needs the Precise Plan, with a silhouette and notice to neighbors; the City's process chart separately sends solar panels directly to a building permit. The City approves ADUs and SB 9 projects ministerially, though a two-story ADU in the overlay must be attached to the house, and west of Palos Verdes Boulevard they also need Coastal Commission review.

Is Torrance in a fire hazard severity zone?

Only a small part of it. The City adopted CAL FIRE's March 24, 2025 map by Ordinance 3949 on June 17, 2025, and on that map about 1 percent of the city, a band of homes along the Palos Verdes Estates line, is in Moderate, High or Very High zones, while the rest is outside any zone. Older City documents describe earlier state maps: the 2010 Safety Element said they showed the southern portion next to the Palos Verdes Hills as Very High. For a home in a High or Very High zone, a pre-2010 house needs a fire-hardening notice at sale, and defensible-space documentation depends on Civil Code section 1102.19's local-ordinance or inspection-provider conditions.

Which school district serves Torrance?

Torrance Unified serves almost all of the city and assigns each student a home school by address, which families look up with its School Locator; district residents can also apply to other Torrance Unified schools through an open enrollment lottery. It runs 17 elementary schools, 8 middle schools and four comprehensive high schools, all inside the city. On the state and county maps, about 15 acres along Pacific Coast Highway near Crenshaw Boulevard are in Los Angeles Unified instead, so check an address there with both districts.

Are short-term rentals allowed in Torrance?

Yes, with a City permit and within limits. The municipal code treats a stay of 30 consecutive days or less as a short-term rental and requires a Planning Administrative Action for each short-term rental, or a conditional use permit if it involves new construction or significant remodeling, along with a business license and the transient occupancy tax. In residential zones a short-term rental is allowed only as a home share, with the host living on site for the whole stay, and a multifamily building may have only one per 30 units, except in residential zones of the coastal overlay, where every unit may be one. Accessory dwelling units and SB 9 units may not be used as short-term rentals, and operating without a permit is a public nuisance.

When will the Metro K Line reach Torrance?

Metro has not committed to an opening date. Its Board certified the extension's environmental report and approved a route along Interstate 405 and Hawthorne Boulevard on January 22, 2026, and its project page estimates completion in late 2036, pending funding; a January 2026 staff report said a December 2036 opening assumed two years for federal and Caltrans approvals, which would likely take longer, and gave the end of 2038 on a more conservative schedule. The line would end at the Mary K. Giordano Regional Transit Center on Crenshaw Boulevard, Torrance Transit's hub.

Who provides water in Torrance?

It depends on the address. Torrance Municipal Water, the City's utility, says it covers about 78 percent of the city. On the City's provider map, California Water Service serves most of West Torrance and about a third of the southwest Hillside district, and the City of Lomita's water department serves small slivers, so check the provider for a specific address.

Is the original Torrance Tract a historic district?

Not a designated one. The Torrance Tract Overlay Zone sends development on residentially zoned lots in the original tract that hold a contributing or altered-contributing house to the Planning Commission, unless the project stays at or under a 0.5 floor area ratio including garages, demolishes nothing of the house, leaves its facade alone and adds no curb cut; routine maintenance and some minor work are also exempt. Separately, the City can designate a historic district only with the written consent of the owners of every parcel in it; as of September 2026 its register listed ten landmarks and no districts.

What are the ZIP codes for Torrance?

Torrance uses ZIP codes 90501, 90503, 90504, 90505, and 90277. Only part of the southwest corner around the Riviera uses 90277, a ZIP code Torrance shares with Redondo Beach, so an address there can read Redondo Beach even though the home is in Torrance. The reverse also happens: addresses reading Torrance, CA 90502 lie mostly in unincorporated West Carson, with a smaller part in the Harbor Gateway area of Los Angeles, and El Camino College's Torrance, CA 90506 campus lies almost entirely in unincorporated El Camino Village. Confirm the jurisdiction for a specific address with the county.

City	Median Price	30-Day Trend	Active Listings	Median DOM	Supply
Palos Verdes Estates	$5,543,000	Not available	24	70 days	1.5 mo · low
Manhattan Beach	$5,449,500	Not available	62	35 days	2.2 mo · low
Rancho Palos Verdes	$2,249,000	Not available	121	55 days	3.7 mo · medium
Hermosa Beach	$2,199,000	Not available	31	35 days	2.2 mo · low
Redondo Beach	$1,499,000	Not available	132	48.5 days	2.5 mo · low
El Segundo	$1,294,000	Not available	26	31 days	2.1 mo · low

Market Snapshot

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About Torrance