Why is Beverly Hills so expensive? (Redondo Beach, Brentwood: crime, live in, prices)

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by RickLA5

BH is more then a City, it's more like a community. Being it's own City all the kids who go to school in BH live close to each other and make life long friendships. Many of the people know each other and even work together, many since high school like the founders of Tinder Sean Rad and his best friend met in BH High School. Been living in BH for 5 years but grew up there, when it came to buy a house it was my #1 choice. Bought in 2011 for $3.5 Million on the flat above Santa Monica, but actually wanted Trousdale area with a view but inventory was slim back then. I researched many places before I bought, the BH Flats since 1950's have grown in value 8.5% a year, I was shocked. I could not find anywhere else with this growth. My house is now worth over $6.5 Million around 16% growth a year compounded.

BH location is what makes is really convenient, we basically have everything within 5-10 minuet drive. Not to mention 4-5 Starbucks and 300 restaurants within BH and 1000 eateries in total around it with WEHO and Beverly Grove area (and a new Shake Shack!!! Happens here first). It's an area with rich amenities, we are now so spoiled it's hard to even look at living in Palisades which we had looked at. Those places are disconnected and dead by 8 PM, BH is so alive during the day, my wife and kids always find new things to do. So many cultural things like museum row off of Fairfax also. At night within 5 minuets you have access to Sunset, SM Blvd, and Hollywood 10 minuets away. We basically Uber everywhere within 5 minuets, and back to our large home in what feels like the Suburbs. Culturally BH is also really special. I find it more excepting then beach communities that tend to be more white, we have Asian neighbors, Persian, and Whites. The Asians have been buying slowly and the ones next to me are only here during the summer, my next point. International buyers pay a perineum and drive up prices in BH because of it's location. Being close to UCLA is also a factor as many international Asian kids go there.

Weather is in my opinion perfect. This weekend Santa Monica was 60 degrees and over cast, it was too clod. In BH it was 72 and just perfect. In the Winter and Fall the beach communities suffer, they are too cold and over cast. In the summer months BH is 85 while SM is 76 for example. So it flips around, but nights are nicer in BH as I when I lived in SM nights where too chilly (either way both much better then the Valley). BH is something very special with lots of history and culture for people who want to explore it, we have something like 2 New Hotels with 4 new restaurants on the way, plus several more on Sunset all within a 5 min Uber drive. The areas around BH just continues to get richer and fuller, that's why BH will be very hard to replicate anywhere in LA County. We often go to Greystone Mansion to just look at the view and drink our coffee, all free and easy parking. Virginia Robinson Estate is also amazing and must see, she started Robinson Department Stores. We have so many events to get to know people in the community, special events at Greystone(chef events and car events) and even just going to public events to discuss the City. BH has many things to offer for people who explore it. The people are also all accomplished and talented, I have learned so much for some of my neighbors and they all throw some great parties also.

I agree. I wish I grew up in BH, particularly the BH flats north of SM. BH is really the center of everything happening in LA.
It balances a lot of activity with a quiet, luxurious environment. It's basically the center point between DTLA and the beach.

I mean sure, Palisades, Palos Verdes, Malibu are breathtakingly beautiful, but isolated.

[BRinSM]

as the tech industry pushes jobs further and further west, BH is starting to lose its appeal as a central location. getting to the beach from BH is no walk in the park these days, especially with such difficult freeway access. having sad that, if tech and the beach are not a part of your life, BH does have a very good location. if money were no object I'd choose brentwood over BH, but that's just me.

[RickLA5]

Not sure where you have been but been plenty of tech jobs in and around Beverly Hills. Google has an office in the civic area, as does Dow Jones, Playboy, AOL, and Facebook. Not to mention 15,000 people who work at Cedar Sinai which is always expanding. Doctors are big buyers of BH homes since many make over $1 million and if you own a clinic closer to $2 million, huge built in market 5 mins away not to mention all the medical buildings all over the city and private offices. BH is also next too Century City with 60,000 more jobs and BH Downtown has even more then that. It's a jobs rich area and I am in the tech industry we don't even bother with beach communities anymore. Just too over priced and many beach communities like Playa Vista are only 30 mins from BH and the CEO's do live here. If you look at the list of new tech firms most are now being formed 10-25 minuets from BH, all the way to Downtown and many even in Hollywood and WEHO.

WEHO next door also has no business tax for tech firms for the first 3 years, many owners work in WEHO and live in BH. I should I know I'm one of them and several others in our building also. If you want a house on 12,500 sq foot double lot or bigger with 80 foot frontage with a deep lot, and feel safe, BH is really the only game in town. Otherwise you might find a nice lot somewhere in LA but the street and neighborhood will never be as nice. Who wants to spend millions and be surrounded by little dinky homes on smaller lots and compromise on safety and service. It's a centrally planned community which makes all the difference, around 3,000 big lot homes north of SM, you can't match that anywhere. Half the city is dedicated to these homes, low density, super lush, wide streets, view homes, and estates. Nothing like it in it's size, then combined that with Bel Air, BHPO (Beverly Crest), makes it a special area really unmatched in any major city worldwide.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

as the tech industry pushes jobs further and further west, BH is starting to lose its appeal as a central location. getting to the beach from BH is no walk in the park these days, especially with such difficult freeway access. having sad that, if tech and the beach are not a part of your life, BH does have a very good location. if money were no object I'd choose brentwood over BH, but that's just me.

You'd be happy paying all that money to rent or buy in Brentwood and having to deal with crappy LA services?
I'd easily pick Beverly Hills over Brentwood if I could afford it. That said, I would not recommend it for someone who works in the beach cities.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by RickLA5

Not sure where you have been but been plenty of tech jobs in and around Beverly Hills. Google has an office in the civic area, as does Dow Jones, Playboy, AOL, and Facebook. Not to mention 15,000 people who work at Cedar Sinai which is always expanding. Doctors are big buyers of BH homes since many make over $1 million and if you own a clinic closer to $2 million, huge built in market 5 mins away not to mention all the medical buildings all over the city and private offices. BH is also next too Century City with 60,000 more jobs and BH Downtown has even more then that. It's a jobs rich area and I am in the tech industry we don't even bother with beach communities anymore. Just too over priced and many beach communities like Playa Vista are only 30 mins from BH and the CEO's do live here. If you look at the list of new tech firms most are now being formed 10-25 minuets from BH, all the way to Downtown and many even in Hollywood and WEHO.

WEHO next door also has no business tax for tech firms for the first 3 years, many owners work in WEHO and live in BH. I should I know I'm one of them and several others in our building also. If you want a house on 12,500 sq foot double lot or bigger with 80 foot frontage with a deep lot, and feel safe, BH is really the only game in town. Otherwise you might find a nice lot somewhere in LA but the street and neighborhood will never be as nice. Who wants to spend millions and be surrounded by little dinky homes on smaller lots and compromise on safety and service. It's a centrally planned community which makes all the difference, around 3,000 big lot homes north of SM, you can't match that anywhere. Half the city is dedicated to these homes, low density, super lush, wide streets, view homes, and estates. Nothing like it in it's size, then combined that with Bel Air, BHPO (Beverly Crest), makes it a special area really unmatched in any major city worldwide.

How many Beverly Hills residents live in those huge homes, as opposed to the apartments of the southern and eastern parts of the city?

[LuvSouthOC]

Originally Posted by disgruntled la native

I agree. I wish I grew up in BH, particularly the BH flats north of SM. BH is really the center of everything happening in LA.
It balances a lot of activity with a quiet, luxurious environment. It's basically the center point between DTLA and the beach.

I mean sure, Palisades, Palos Verdes, Malibu are breathtakingly beautiful, but isolated.

^^This. Amazing location, not to mention that BH is not so far from the ocean as to make heat unbearable. All important concerns.

[whoisjongalt]

I suspect the number one reason is that BH is NOT LA. It's basically a separate city surrounded by LA. If you want to live in the middle of everything without having to deal with LA schools, police, zoning, government, etc. it's ideal. I have friends who rented an apartment in BH just so their kids could go to Beverly Hill HS. They never lived there. They lived in Malibu. I'd personally much rather live in Malibu or Pacific Palisades though.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by whoisjongalt

I suspect the number one reason is that BH is NOT LA. It's basically a separate city surrounded by LA. If you want to live in the middle of everything without having to deal with LA schools, police, zoning, government, etc. it's ideal. I have friends who rented an apartment in BH just so their kids could go to Beverly Hill HS. They never lived there. They lived in Malibu. I'd personally much rather live in Malibu or Pacific Palisades though.

Which makes no sense because Malibu also has very good schools and is not part of LA. LA traffic and Malibu's isolation make it a difficult place for someone to live unless they're retired or they work within Malibu itself.

[disgruntled la native]

Originally Posted by BRinSM

as the tech industry pushes jobs further and further west, BH is starting to lose its appeal as a central location. getting to the beach from BH is no walk in the park these days, especially with such difficult freeway access. having sad that, if tech and the beach are not a part of your life, BH does have a very good location. if money were no object I'd choose brentwood over BH, but that's just me.

Some truth to that. SM, Venice, the Marina, and Playa Vista have all become massively developed. They have enough amenities and commerce where you basically don't need to cross east of Lincoln Blvd

At the same time, BH combines incredible luxury, great city services, and quiet/safety with access to everything great LA has. It's close to West Hollywood, Westwood, Century City, Beverly Grove - not that far from Hollywood, Mid-City, Sherman Oaks and Studio City. Reaching SM or Venice isn't terrible either because traffic going west is usually pretty decent. If you live in SM you're trapped by the impossible traffic by the 405 during rush hour.

I'm glad SM has become world class, but BH is still a more central place to live.

[West of Encino]

Someone once told me BH is more expensive than Palos Verdes. How could it be if it's not even close to the ocean? I also heard you gotta have a suit to eat in Beverly Hills. Is that true?