Brentwood Homes for Sale

Los Angeles, CA

Why People Move to Brentwood

Two neighborhoods under one name. South of Sunset the streets are flat, wide and tree-canopied. North of it the canyons climb into the Santa Monica Mountains and the lots get big, steep and private.
A median people run on. The grass strip down San Vicente Boulevard carries a double row of coral trees, and people have been running it for decades. On a weekday morning it is the closest thing the Westside has to a town square.
Green and quiet, fifteen minutes from the beach. About 42,000 people live here, with Pacific Palisades over the hill to the west, and the streets still read as suburban.
People who move in stay. Brentwood turns over slowly, and a lot of the houses that do come up have been in one family for decades.

In 1946 four musicians pooled their money to build houses ordinary families could afford. The group grew to 400 members as the Mutual Housing Association and bought 800 acres in the mountains. To design the houses it hired the architects A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith and the structural engineer Edgardo Contini. That tract is Crestwood Hills, and its cooperative nursery school is still running.

Living in Brentwood

The San Vicente median: wide enough to run on because the Pacific Electric Red Car used to come down it, and the coral trees along it have been a protected city landmark since 1976.
The Brentwood Country Mart: a red barn around an open courtyard, with a chicken counter locals line up for, a bookshop and a toy shop. You go for one thing and run into four people you know.
The Getty Center: One of LA's best and largest art museums on the ridge at the eastern edge, with the gardens and the tram up the hill. Free to walk in, and close enough to go on a whim.
Sullivan Canyon and the Westridge trailhead: wide dirt roads climbing straight up out of the neighborhood, shared with riders on horseback. Serious trail, minutes from the front door.
Sunday morning on Gretna Green: the farmers market runs 9 to 2 every week of the year, and then it is the walk back along the median with the dog and the coffee.

Brentwood children attend Los Angeles Unified schools, and several long-established independent schools sit inside the neighborhood as well, including Brentwood School and The Archer School for Girls. Attendance boundaries here do not follow the obvious streets, so confirm the assignment against the actual address.

Neighborhoods in Brentwood: the Park, the Glen and Mandeville Canyon

Brentwood runs from the ridgeline down to Wilshire, and its community council covers every pocket in between.

Brentwood Park: the marquee address. Big flat lots, deep setbacks and streets so heavily canopied the trees meet overhead. Walkable to San Vicente, and quiet enough that you hear the gardeners before you see them.
Mandeville Canyon: one road running miles back into the mountains, with the houses hidden up driveways off it. Horses, hawks, no sidewalks and no through traffic, and you drive everywhere.
Kenter Canyon: hillside streets above the flats, where the houses are stacked for the view and the architecture gets adventurous. Walk down to the village, drive back up.
Crestwood Hills: the 1946 cooperative, still visibly itself. Post-and-beam houses set into the slope, a park the City now owns, and neighbors who know which architect drew their roof.
Brentwood Glen: a pocket of small houses on modest flat lots, west of the 405 and north of Sunset. The most ordinary-feeling street grid in the neighborhood, and where a lot of buyers start.
Brentwood Circle and Brentwood Country Estates: guard-gated enclaves up on the hill, with a staffed gate at the entrance and city views from the top.
The San Vicente and Barrington corridor: the condominium and apartment side, and the one part of Brentwood where you can walk to the shops and leave the car at home.

Homes for Sale in Brentwood

Traditional and Spanish Colonial Revival estates on the Brentwood Park flats, mostly from the 1920s and 1930s, many since taken back to the studs.
Mid-century post-and-beam houses in Crestwood Hills. Glass walls, flat roofs and a floor plan that steps down the hillside.
Hillside contemporaries in Kenter and the upper canyons, built for the view and usually on a slope that decided the design.
Equestrian and ranch properties in Mandeville Canyon, on acreage with barns and riding rings behind the houses.
Small 1940s and 1950s houses in Brentwood Glen, on modest flat lots, most of them added to at least once.
Condominiums and apartments along San Vicente and Barrington, including some of the few full-service buildings on this side of town.

A flat estate lot and a canyon acre draw different buyers, and the two halves of Brentwood barely bid against each other. What reaches the market is thin on both sides, because people hold these houses for decades, and a canyon lot carries a layer of building rules the flats do not.

Buying in Brentwood with a Westside Real Estate Agent

A flat lot in the Park and an acre up Mandeville are priced differently, built under different rules, and bought by different people. Reach out to Shen Realty and we will walk both sides of Sunset with you before you narrow it down. We are a Sotheby's International Realty team and we have worked the Westside for almost 30 years.

Common Questions About Brentwood

What is the difference between the flats and the canyons?

Almost everything except the postcode. On the flats you get a level lot, a sidewalk, a short walk to San Vicente and a straightforward build. In the canyons you get acreage, privacy, trail access and no sidewalk, and you drive for a carton of milk.

Who approves a remodel on a canyon lot?

The City of Los Angeles, under hillside rules that do not apply down on the flats. Any lot the city maps as a Hillside Area falls under the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, which ties how much house you can build to the slope of the ground, and caps height, grading and retaining walls on top of that. Pull the hillside designation for the specific parcel before you draw plans, because it decides the size of the house before the architect does.

Can I keep horses in Mandeville Canyon?

On many parcels, yes, and people do. The canyon has barns, riding rings and direct access to the Sullivan and Westridge fire roads, which is why equestrian buyers end up here rather than anywhere else on the Westside. Keeping is parcel by parcel though, so check the zoning on the address rather than assuming the canyon.

Is Brentwood its own city?

No. It is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, in Council District 11, so your permits, your property taxes and your schools all run through the city. Santa Monica next door is a separate city with its own rules. The neighborhood does have a community council, and it is worth knowing it exists before you plan anything your neighbors will notice.