The community of Westwood is a small suburban neighborhood on the west side of Los Angeles, nestled in between Bel Air, Beverly Hills and Brentwood. Long considered the poor step child of these three hugely affluent communities, it still remains one of the most sought after addresses in Los Angeles, with zip codes 90024, 90025 and 90049. If I was to cut it up in pieces, I would identify it in four main parts; (a) north of Wilshire, (b) between Wilshire and Santa Monica, (c) between Santa Monica and Olympic, and (d) between UCLA and the San Diego Freeway. For our purposes here, I’m just going to skip the portion of Westwood that borders on Cheviot and Rancho Park, located south of Olympic and north of Pico. Nor shall we include that portion of Westwood that is squeezed in between Beverly Glen Blvd and the Los Angeles Country Club. This is “Holmby Hills” with homes in the $20M +++ range and would skew our numbers.
North of Wilshire Blvd is the most affluent portion of Westwood, commonly referred to as “Little Holmby”. It’s a gorgeous part of Los Angeles with winding roads, the long sought after Warner Avenue elementary school, numerous celebrities and accomplished people living there where you’ll find large lots with big homes. The “average” home in the past year sold for $3,278,552, at $825.53/sq ft. That’s a lot of money. Most of the homes were larger, averaging 3,630 sq ft, and in the end sold after 59.9 days. But curiously enough, the sellers held the line on their price, because the sold price reported was only 99.59% of the original listed price.
The second area is bordered by Wilshire on the north, Santa Monica Blvd on the south, the LACC on the east and the San Diego Freeway on the west. Boosting slightly smaller lots and cookie cutter streets west of Beverly Glen, this part of Westwood averaged $1,893,637 at the close of escrow, still high at $765.75/sq ft. Their square footage drops to 2,423 sq feet, but their homes remained on the market only an average of 40.8 days, and also held fast at 98.48% of the original listed price. The Fairburn elementary school serves this part of Westwood, recognized as being one of the most successful and well-run schools in the area.
Our third area is immediately south, bordered on the north by Santa Monica Blvd, on the south by Olympic Blvd, on the east by the Century City Mall and on the west by the San Diego Freeway. Served by the outstanding Westwood Charter School, this area averaged $1,144,272 at the close of escrow, or $747.26/sq ft. Although less than its neighbor directly north, it represents a much narrower gap than the homeowners north of Wilshire and the homeowners south of Wilshire. But they did an even better job at getting their negotiations done, averaging 38.66 days on the market, and holding firm to the listed price at 98.28%. However, in line with the trend to smaller homes, their average size home dropped to 1,491 sq feet, well under the 2,423 sq ft their northern neighbors boasted, or the 3,630 sq ft their northern neighbor boasted in Little Holmby.
I love the fourth community, nestled into an area south of Sunset Blvd, between the San Diego freeway on the west and UCLA on the east, and all the way down to the Veteran’s Cemetery. Now these guys did a great job, staying on the market an average of 60.7 days, but getting 102.03% of the original listing price, meaning they went into more multiple offer situations that led to a closing price higher than the original listed price. With an average of 2,807 sq ft home, they still got $782.56/sq ft or $2,121,218 average. Only 13 homes sold in the past 12 months, as compared to 30 north of Wilshire, 36 south of Wilshire, and 50 south of Santa Monica Blvd.
If you’re familiar at all with the Westwood community, you’ll agree that it offers one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the city to live in. When you couple that with the five strong homeowner’s associations, the parks in Holmby and south of the Federal building, access to UCLA and the UCLA hospital, the resurgence of businesses in the Village, and the high achievements of the three elementary schools and Emerson middle school, you’ll have to agree that it offers more value and more family-oriented neighborhoods than adjacent areas, and probably can be viewed as undervalued for the area.
