Carmel-By-The-Sea, California

Carmel-by-the-Sea's 3,275 parcels sit on Monterey County's open assessor layer with values and deed numbers but no owner names, so its inns, shops and cottages are owned by whoever the recorded deeds say — readable only one document at a time.

7 buildings · 6 with an owner established · 11 sources · 6 tier B · 1 tier A · prepared 2026-11-03

Can you find out who owns it?

California has no public title register: ownership is proved by deeds recorded with the Monterey County Recorder, and the County Assessor keeps the roll. The County's open parcel layer, refreshed from the Assessor's database, gives each Carmel parcel's number, acreage, land and improvement value and its current deed number and date, but no owner name. The County's own web pages, including the Assessor and Recorder, sit behind an Akamai block and could not be read. Under Proposition 13 a sale resets a parcel's assessed value to its price, so a recent deed date usually means a value close to the price paid.

Is ownership public?Public, but one paid search at a time

Cost of one title searchNot available at any price

Bulk ownership dataNo open owner file. Monterey County's 'Land_Records/Parcels' layer gives values, land-use code and deed numbers for all 3,275 parcels coded City 'CARMEL BY-THE-SEA', without names; the County's 'County_Owned_Parcels' layer names County-held parcels only

Sale pricesEvery sale, with its address

Sites that forbid taking their data

papercitymag.com — “introduce software or automated agents or scripts to the PaperCityMag.com so as to produce multiple accounts, generate automated searches, requests and queries, or to strip, scrape, or mine data from the PaperCityMag.com”

The marquee buildings

The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.

Building	Use	Owner	Owner type	Last price paid
Carmel Plaza 526 Ocean Ave (block of Ocean Ave, Junipero St, Mission St and 7th Ave) 111,980 sq ft (Wikipedia); 112,000 sq ft (Macerich); parcel 1.98 GIS acres · 3 floors	Retail	O'Connor/Wafra Retail Partners (O'Connor Capital Partners and Wafra joint venture), as buyer in 2012 The highest-valued parcel in the city: APN 010086006000, land $20.5M + improvements $46.0M = $66.5M, land-use code 5Q. Macerich's 2012 10-K: sold 28 June 2012 for $52.0M. REBusinessOnline: buyer O'Connor/Wafra Retail Partners. Caveat: the roll's current document is No. 2026015609, recorded May 2026, and that deed was not read (the Recorder is closed to automation). It could be a transfer or a change in how title is held, so the owner today is not confirmed. The 2026 value is roughly the 2012 price carried forward at Prop 13's 2% a year, which suggests no reassessing sale.	Private equity	$52.0M 2012-06-28 Seller Macerich's 10-K states the sale and price; the buyer is named in REBusinessOnline's report of the same deal. B The Macerich Company via SEC EDGAR
Carmel-by-the-Sea City Hall Monte Verde St between Ocean and 7th Aves	Civic	City of Carmel-by-the-Sea The City gives its offices' address as 'Monte Verde Street between Ocean and Seventh Avenues'. The County layer names no owners. On that block the only parcel with zero assessed value and land-use code 7A, the code of the City's known civic sites (Forest Theater, Sunset Center, Harrison Library), is APN 010191006000 at 662 Monte Verde St (0.27 GIS acres). Matching the building to that parcel is this research's own inference from address and code; the roll does not state it.	Government	—B City of Carmel-by-the-Sea
Sunset Center (former Sunset School) San Carlos St at 9th–10th Aves (situs 908 San Carlos St) 718-seat auditorium (1931); parcel 2.07 GIS acres	Civic	City of Carmel-by-the-Sea Wikipedia: in April 1964 the Sunset School District 'opted to sell the school to the City of Carmel for $550,000'. The 2001–02 renovation cost $22M: $9M from the City and $13M from private donors. The centre is home to the Carmel Bach Festival. The building's coordinates fall on APN 010143001000 (2.07 GIS acres), which carries zero assessed value and land-use code 7A, as public land does.	Government	$550,000 1964-04 Sale by the Sunset School District to the City, per Wikipedia; a 25-year bond paid off in 1989. B Wikipedia
Harrison Memorial Library Ocean Ave at Lincoln St (situs 345 Ocean Ave) parcel 0.21 GIS acres	Civic	City of Carmel-by-the-Sea Bernard Maybeck's 1928 building houses the City's public library (Wikipedia; the City site runs the library pages and a 'Library Restoration Project'). A restoration and modernisation was announced in 2026. The building's coordinates fall on APN 010139007000, which carries zero value and land-use code 7A. Wikipedia describes the City's library but does not state title, so the owner is tier B.	Government	—B Wikipedia
Forest Theater Mountain View Ave at Santa Rita St (situs 707 Mountain View Ave) 540-seat outdoor amphitheatre; parcel 1.57 GIS acres	Civic	City of Carmel-by-the-Sea Wikipedia's infobox gives the owner as 'City of Carmel-by-the-Sea'. In 1937 the Carmel Club of Arts and Crafts 'deeded the theater to the City' to obtain WPA work. From 1968 to 2010 a children's theatre leased the facility. Its coordinates fall on APN 010043008000, which carries zero value and land-use code 7A.	Government	—A Wikipedia
Carmel Beach Foot of Ocean Ave to Scenic Rd (situs 5 Ocean Ave and Scenic Rd parcels) 10.44 GIS acres on APN 010321007000 alone	Land	City of Carmel-by-the-Sea The City says Carmel Beach 'is maintained by City staff' and counts nine designated park, open-space and recreation areas. On the County layer, 5 Ocean Ave (APN 010321007000) is the largest zero-value 7A parcel at the beach (10.44 acres), with 1391 Scenic Rd (2.47 ac) and Del Mar Ave (3.63 ac) along the same shore. Title to the beach is not stated on any page read; the City maintaining it plus the public-land code makes this tier B.	Government	—B City of Carmel-by-the-Sea
La Playa Hotel Camino Real at 8th Ave (SW corner); parcel situs 827 Camino Real parcel 1.16 GIS acres · 2 floors	Hotel	Not established a paid title search would answer it Wikipedia: the 1905 Jorgensen mansion 'on the southwest corner of El Camino Real and 8th Avenue', a hotel since the 1920s; its ownership history stops in the 1980s. The parcel matched to it here, APN 010264007000 (827 Camino Real, code 5N, 1.16 acres), is valued at $18.7M (land $14.6M, improvements $4.1M), current document No. 2013074120 dated Dec 2013. The match is by address. Its current owner is held by the Recorder, which could not be read.	Not established	—B Wikipedia

The core land

The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.

Carmel's roll is almost entirely houses. On the County's parcel layer the 2,789 parcels with land-use codes beginning '1' carry $5.79B of the city's $6.85B, against $856M for the 246 parcels coded '5' (shops, inns, offices). Land is 69% of all assessed value, the mark of a small, fully built-out town on very costly ground. The highest-valued parcels after Carmel Plaza are oceanfront houses and downtown inns. Figures are this research's sums of Land_Value and Improved_Value from the layer queried 3 Nov 2026. They are not the certified roll: personal property and exemptions are excluded.

Parcels and value in the County layer, City 'CARMEL BY-THE-SEA'3,275 parcels; land $4.70B + improvements $2.16B = $6.85B

482 GIS acres. County of Monterey Land_Records/Parcels layer, queried 3 Nov 2026 (s1).

Highest-valued parcel$66.5M — Carmel Plaza, 526 Ocean Ave (1.98 acres)

APN 010086006000, land $20.5M, improvements $46.0M, code 5Q; current document dated May 2026. The next parcels are houses on the beachfront blocks (APN 010321037000, $33.4M, 1.97 acres) and a $29.1M parcel on 0.29 acres. County layer, 3 Nov 2026 (s1).

Ten highest-valued parcels' share3.9% ($269.5M)

Carmel Plaza, seven residential (code 1C) parcels and two inns (code 5N). Our sum from the County layer (s1). No owner dominates the roll.

Median value of a 1C (single-family code) parcel$1.55M

Across 2,452 parcels coded 1C. Under Prop 13 a long-held house sits far below market, so this is a roll figure, not a price. County layer, 3 Nov 2026 (s1).

Turnover: parcels whose current document is dated in the year200 (2024), 255 (2025), 242 (2026 to date)

Counts of Current_Document_Date by year. A document can be a sale, a gift or a transfer into a trust; the layer does not say which. County layer (s1).

Who owns the town

At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.

No private landowner stands out in Carmel. The large holder is the public: 40 parcels carry land-use code 7A and zero assessed value, about 67.6 GIS acres, or 14% of the city's area. They include the City's Forest Theater, Sunset Center, Harrison Memorial Library and the beach. The rest of the town is about 2,800 house lots, most under a fifth of an acre, held by individuals and family trusts, who are not named here. The County layer gives no names, so the City's share is read from known City sites rather than from a roll list. No County, State or federal parcel is coded inside the city on the County's own layer of County-owned parcels.

Name	Type	Holdings as stated
City of Carmel-by-the-Sea (with any other public bodies holding 7A parcels) Largest: an 18.0-acre and a 12.95-acre parcel on the city's eastern edge (Mission Trail and Pescadero areas; no situs), 5 Ocean Ave (beach, 10.44 ac), Del Mar Ave (3.63 ac), 1391 Scenic Rd (2.47 ac), 908 San Carlos St (Sunset Center, 2.07 ac), 707 Mountain View Ave (Forest Theater, 1.57 ac). The layer names no owner. City title is sourced for the Forest Theater and Sunset Center (s7, s8). Attributing every 7A parcel to the City is this research's reading of the code.	Government	40 zero-value parcels coded 7A, 67.6 GIS acresB County of Monterey GIS (maps.co.monterey.ca.us)
County of Monterey The County's layer of County-owned parcels (442 county-wide) lists 43 'Carmel'/'Carmel Valley' parcels. None has a Carmel-by-the-Sea APN: they are in Carmel Valley, at Hatton Fields and on the Big Sur coast. County layer, queried 3 Nov 2026.	Government	0 parcels inside the cityA County of Monterey GIS (maps.co.monterey.ca.us)
Religious and non-profit bodies (codes 7C–7H) Parcels coded 7C, 7D, 7E, 7F and 7H, a few with low assessed values: for example 380 and 360 8th Ave and 824 and 844 Lincoln St (7C), 925 Dolores St and 642 Junipero Ave (7D), and two parcels of 5.9 and 5.45 acres in book 009 (7D/7E). The layer gives no owner and no code key, so the holders are not named.	Institution	23 parcels, 15.7 GIS acresA County of Monterey GIS (maps.co.monterey.ca.us)

Who builds the houses

New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.

Carmel builds almost no new homes. Census permit files show 8 single-family homes authorised in 2023 ($3.5M), 4 in 2024 ($1.4M) and 2 in 2025 ($1.7M), and no units in buildings of two or more. New homes here are one-off rebuilds on existing lots by local custom builders and owners. No production builder holds land in the city, and no builder has a countable share. The roll's 112 parcels coded 2G and 246 coded 1CX (apparently condominium or multi-unit codes) are older stock.

Commercial landlords

The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.

Downtown Carmel is a grid of small shops, galleries and inns, nearly all in separate hands. One shopping centre, Carmel Plaza, is the only institutional-scale commercial asset; no listed REIT reports a Carmel-by-the-Sea property in the filings read. Hotel-coded parcels (5N) number 73 and carry $328.7M; shop and office codes 5B and 5D another 134 parcels and $368.6M. Owners of the inns are with the Recorder and were not established. Counted separately from housing.

Name	Type	Assets in the city
O'Connor/Wafra Retail Partners (O'Connor Capital Partners with Wafra) Bought Carmel Plaza from Macerich for $52.0M on 28 June 2012 (s3, s4). A deed was recorded on the parcel in May 2026 and was not read, so current title is unconfirmed.	Private equity	1 centre, 111,781 sq ft; roll value $66.5MB REBusinessOnline
The Macerich Company (former owner) Sold the 112,000 sq ft centre on 28 June 2012 for $52.0M, a $7.8M gain (Form 10-K 2012). Wikipedia dates its purchase to 1998.	REIT	Carmel Plaza 1998–2012A The Macerich Company via SEC EDGAR

Looked for and not found

Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.

Carmel Plaza's current owner: Monterey County document No. 2026015609 (May 2026) is the parcel's current document and was not read. It may be a sale, a refinancing transfer or an entity change.
The City's ten largest property taxpayers: the 'Principal Property Tax Owners' schedule in the City ACFR sits under a robots-disallowed path (/sites/main/files/).
Owners of the downtown inns: 73 parcels coded 5N ($328.7M) include 612 Junipero Ave ($22.7M) and 771 Junipero Ave ($18.4M), which carry consecutive 2022 document numbers. Search snippets only say Classic Hotels & Resorts bought Hotel Carmel (former Dolphin Inn) in Dec 2015, Carmel Boutique Inns added Monte Verde Inn and Casa de Carmel in 2015, Timberlane Partners bought the Hideaway and Getaway, and Marc & Rose Hospitality is linked to La Playa. Every source page was blocked or forbids scraping, so none is recorded.
Whether every 7A zero-value parcel (67.6 acres) is City land, and which public body holds the 18.0- and 12.95-acre parcels on the eastern edge (likely Mission Trail Nature Preserve and Pescadero Canyon).
Carmel Unified School District holdings in the city (Carmel River School): not matched to a parcel by any source read.
La Playa Hotel's parcel match (827 Camino Real) is by address and land-use code only.