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1 of 6
Riverside, CA 92501
4581 Brandi Ln.
Listed Price: $279,900
Starting Bid: $112,000
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEIGHBORHOOD PAGES
Click on the cities and neighborhoods below for descriptions of life in these Los Angeles areas.
Brentwood is a tony suburban enclave at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains on the Westside of Los Angeles. The district is surrounded by several other similar enclaves, such as Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and Bel-Air, and includes flat, sidewalk-lined neighborhoods, sprawling gated communities and rustic canyon areas.
San Vicente Boulevard, the district's main commercial area, houses medical offices and businesses as well as trendy boutiques, family-friendly burger joints and old-world stationers and bookstores, including Embrey Papers and Dutton's. This coral-tree-lined street, also dubbed "Little Italy" for its many pasta-serving restaurants, hosts a variety of street fairs and athletic events throughout the year.
Historically, Brentwood was part of the Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, a Spanish land grant that was sold off in pieces after the Mexican War ended in 1848. The district began as an agricultural community. Where multimillion-dollar mansions and estates now stand, there were once avocado and soybean fields.
The suburb is convenient to many areas of the city by way of the 405 and 10 freeways and Sunset Boulevard, and attracts high-profile business executives and celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon, Cindy Crawford and Jim Carrey, as well as politicians including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Although prices vary somewhat within Brentwood, overall they have climbed significantly in the last few years. The median price for a single-family home in 2002 was $700,000 and climbed to $920,000 in March 2007, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
The public-school system, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is well-regarded by residents and highly rated by GreatSchools.net, and there are several desirable, family-friendly areas. Brentwood Park, one of the oldest neighborhoods, includes the hilly area west of Bel-Air and features 4,000-square-foot-plus homes. Some old estates on large lots from the 1920s remain, although many of the original homes have been razed and rebuilt completely. Prices range from $6 million to $14 million. Brentwood Circle is a gated community that is convenient to the 405 Freeway and local shopping. It has some mega-mansions, but the majority of homes are in the 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot range and sell for between $3 million and $7 million.
Mandeville Canyon offers a more rustic living experience in two different price ranges. In lower Mandeville are several large and sprawling estate homes -- some of which date back to the 1930s. They sell in the $4 million to $8 million range. Upper Mandeville offers smaller hillside ranch homes built in the 1950s and later that sell closer to $1 million. Residents in this area have access to miles of hiking and biking trails but may have to drive up to 20 minutes to reach shopping areas.
