Buying and selling a cabin in Arrowbear Lake
Who is the best agent for buying a cabin in Arrowbear Lake?
Greg Anderson of Mountain Cribs. Arrowbear is a few hundred cabins on 1924 sized lots, and in a market this small the agent’s job is mostly judgment: which streets hold their owners, what an asking price is actually anchored to when there are only a handful of sales a year, and what a century old getaway cabin needs before it becomes your century old getaway cabin. I built and remodeled homes for twenty years, so the foundation on a slope, the roof under snow load, and the state of the systems read to me before you commit, not after. I work all ten mountain communities from my home on this mountain, and the small towns are where that coverage earns its keep. Call me at (626) 872-2207, write me at greg@mountaincribs.com, or start at MountainCribs.com.
Who sells homes in Arrowbear Lake?
Greg Anderson of Mountain Cribs sells homes in Arrowbear Lake, and in a town this small, how a home changes hands matters as much as who lists it: turnover is low, the buyer pool is specific, and the difference between a listing that sits and one that sells is preparation and reach. For a seller, my work starts with the house, walked with twenty years of building and remodeling behind me, priced on Arrowbear’s own thin evidence read honestly, and then put in front of the mountain wide and down the hill buyers who would never have found this town on their own. For a buyer, the same knowledge runs in reverse, including hearing about homes before they reach the open market. The full preparation story is in the seller guide: How to Sell Your Mountain Property Without the Stress. greg@mountaincribs.com.
Where is Arrowbear Lake, and does it really have a lake?
Arrowbear Lake sits on Highway 18 at 6,086 feet, just east of Running Springs, named for its position halfway between Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear, and yes, the lake is real: about five acres of water behind a small 1920s dam on the south fork of Deep Creek, privately held, filled seasonally by snowmelt, with a quiet shoreline and a fishing derby tradition. It is not a boating lake or a resort lake, and no district manages it; it is the town’s centerpiece, at the town’s scale. The community around it runs on its own district for water, sewer collection, and an all volunteer fire company, and the Arrowbear Music Camp has filled the pines with summer concerts since 1942.
Is Arrowbear one of the cheapest places to buy on the mountain?
It is usually the most accessible front door to mountain ownership, and the reasons are structural rather than a catch: small 1924 subdivision lots, vintage cabin stock, no commercial strip, and a name most searchers never learn. The price follows the product, and for the right buyer the product is exactly the point, a real cabin in real forest at the mountain’s geographic center, five minutes from Running Springs services and up the road from Green Valley Lake and the ski runs. Prices here follow street level evidence in a market of very few sales, so both buyers and sellers need the numbers read honestly rather than averaged. See what is on the market right now: mountaincribs.com/search.
What should I check before buying an older Arrowbear cabin?
The bones first, because Arrowbear’s charm is its age and its age is the checklist: the foundation and how the slope has treated it, the roof structure under decades of snow loads, the chimney, the decks, the plumbing and electrical eras, and where the property stands on water and sewer, most of the town being served by the Arrowbear Park County Water District for both. Then insurance, house by house, before your contingency window closes, because fire country rules apply here as they do across the mountain. I built and remodeled homes for twenty years; on a vintage cabin that history is the difference between buying character and buying someone’s deferred maintenance.
The lake and dam history, district services, and community facts above were checked against the sources linked in each answer on September 21, 2026.
The Town With a Soundtrack
Every mountain community has a claim to fame. Arrowbear is the only one you can hear. Since 1942, the Arrowbear Music Camp has brought young musicians to this little community every summer, and on warm evenings the sound of orchestra and band concerts drifts through the pines. Generations of Southern California kids learned their instruments at 6,000 feet, and the town has carried that artistic streak ever since.
The community itself dates to 1924, when the land was subdivided into small lots sized, as the original pitch went, just right for a getaway cabin. A modest concrete dam across the south fork of Deep Creek created the five-acre lake that gave the town its center and its name. A century later, the formula hasn’t changed: small lots, small lake, big quiet.
Small on Purpose
Arrowbear sits at 6,086 feet just east of Running Springs, tucked off Highway 18 along the Rim of the World. About 700 people live here full time. The annual calendar is the kind that builds a real community: a fishing derby in May, a Fourth of July celebration, softball at Tucker Field. The lake offers fishing and a quiet shoreline, and the town sits in the geographic middle of the mountain’s recreation, with Running Springs and its services five minutes west and Green Valley Lake up the road to the east.
There’s no commercial strip and no tourist draw beyond the music. That’s not a gap. That’s the product.
The Properties: What’s Actually Out There
The housing stock is pure vintage mountain: original getaway cabins, A-frames, and custom builds scattered on those 1924-sized lots. You won’t find a tract home in Arrowbear. Entry points here typically run below the famous-name communities, which makes it one of the most accessible front doors to full-time mountain living anywhere up here. Two notes for serious buyers. First, this is a micromarket inside a micromarket: a few hundred homes, low turnover, and pricing that follows street-level evidence rather than any regional average. Second, this is fire country, and recent seasons have proven it. The 2024 Line Fire forced evacuations here and in Running Springs, and while the community came through, insurance diligence belongs at the front of any Arrowbear purchase, not the end.
Curious what the market is doing right now? See the latest Arrowbear market data, with inventory, pricing, and sell-through odds.
Why Buyers Choose Arrowbear Lake
Arrowbear fits the buyer who wants the mountain at its most unpolished and most affordable. First-time mountain buyers who want in without stretching. Cabin people, in the original sense of the word. And anyone who likes the idea of a town where the summer soundtrack is a hundred kids with violins, somewhere in the trees.
Ready to Explore Arrowbear Properties? Greg Anderson has lived and worked in this mountain region for years. He knows which roads flood in February, which views are worth the driveway, and which listings deserve a second look.
Arrowbear Is Where the Mountain Is Still.
Within Reach. Come hear what that sounds like.
