Community Feature: Hidden Hills

Hidden Hills is an exclusive gated community in Los Angeles County that’s one of the most sought-after places to live in Southern California. Located in the West San Fernando Valley, this community is notable for its rural component, as it has been been designed to preserve a country way of life, which is further displayed by the presence of white fencing, bridle trails, and a complete lack of streetlights and sidewalks, providing residents with a peaceful and serene ambiance as they go about their daily lives.

Given the exclusive nature of this community, the homes within consist mostly of custom-built estate houses, although there are also a wide array of single-family residences to select from. The weather in Hidden Hills is spectacular all throughout the year, as the city benefits from over 280 days of sunshine and winter lows that only dip into the mid 40’s, allowing you to spend a lot of time outdoors and among nature.

Hidden Hills Homes for Sale

Hidden Hills is a luxurious and exclusive community, which is evident by the types of homes and estates available in the city. The homes in this community are divided into single-family residences and spacious estate homes that have been custom-built to match the preferences of the previous owner. In some of the pricier homes, you’ll be provided with such amenities as a pool/spa combo, a spacious yard, fireplace, and around 4-5 bedrooms and baths, although some homes come with upwards of 10 bedrooms.

Browse our featured Southern California Luxury Homes for Sale

If you’re starting to look at the Hidden Hills real estate market and have settled on this area as the place you want to move, having a better understanding of the market trends might assist you in finding a good deal on the market for the home of your dreams. Most properties within Hidden Hills are on the larger side, with the vast majority containing at least three bedrooms. The current median listing price for a home in Hidden Hills sits at around $1.8 million, although the average closing price is around $1.4 million. The average price you should expect to pay per square foot is around $431, which is a sizable increase from this same period last year.

Although the Hidden Hills real estate market has a median sales price of around $1.8 million, you’ll be able to find some single-family residences for under $1 million, while many of the estate houses in the area sell for anywhere from $2 million to $10 million. The most stylish and luxurious of these homes can be listed at a price of around $20 million, which offers you the utmost in luxury. All property sizes of homes in Hidden Hills have seen an average price increase of just over 13 percent over the last year.

History of Hidden Hills

The history of Hidden Hills begins in the late 1940’s with the development of the area by a well-regarded planned community developer by the name of A.E. Hanson, who had created popular communities in the years previous, including the Harold Lloyd, Palos Verdes, and Rolling Hills estates. This gated and secluded residential community was initially comprised of just over 1,000 acres of land and currently consists of a total land area of 1.7 square miles, making it a small and exclusive community.

Despite the fact that the community of Hidden Hills was so small, a drive to form the area into a city was launched by leaders of the community in early 1961, which was approved later that year, allowing it to become the 73rd city within Los Angeles County. Since October 20, 1962, the 1-year anniversary of Hidden Hills as a city, the area has played host to an annual festival celebrating the history of the city, which remains very popular among residents and makes a great event that the whole family can enjoy.

Hidden Hills Schools & Education

There are a total of three schools in Hidden Hills that your children will be able to attend once you purchase a home in the city, each of which are a part of the award winning Las Virgenes Unified School District. These schools include Round Meadow Elementary, Arthur E. Wright Middle, and Calabasas High, each of which are highly rated among residents of the community.

All of the schools within the Las Virgenes Unified School District have received a substantial amount of awards and recognition over the years, which is also true of the three schools available to residents of Hidden Hills. Round Meadow Elementary was awarded the Distinguished School Award in 1997, which was also administered to Arthur E. Wright Middle and Calabasas High several times over the years, most recently in 2013 for both. Arthur E. Wright Middle and Calabasas High have received the California Gold Ribbon School award in 2017 and 2015 respectively, while Calabasas High alone was recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School in 2006. Each of these awards are administered as a means of recognizing academic excellence among the students who attend these schools, ensuring that you’re able to place your child in a school that will give them a proper education.

Every school in Hidden Hills offers a selection of unique educational and art programs that you might want to consider enrolling your child into, whether you want to pique their creative side or believe that they have a future working in a STEM field. These unique programs become increasingly prevalent with each subsequent school, as Calabasas High includes dozens in an attempt to prepare your child for the real world. At Arthur E. Wright Middle School, they offer an Algebra 1 STEM course, which around 15 percent of students enroll into, 92 percent of which pass.

As for Calabasas High, they offer two advanced arts courses that focus on AP studio art and ceramics, three social science courses that cover everything from European history to art history, and four foreign language courses that extend to French and Spanish. This high school also allows students to enroll into one of eight advanced STEM courses, including subjects like calculus, AP physics, environmental science, and analytic geometry.

Hidden Hills Dining, Shopping & Entertainment

When you purchase a home in Hidden Hills, you’re likely doing so because of the privacy and security offered by the gated community. Since the entire community is gated, the entertainment, dining, and shopping options available to you will largely be just outside of the community. Hidden Hills is conveniently situated nearby many of the entertainment and shopping hot spots in Calabasas, providing you with easy access to a wide range of destinations where you can spend the day with friends or family.

Just a few minutes away from the heart of Hidden Hills is 10 Speed Coffee, a unique coffee shop that provides visitors with a cozy and relaxing atmosphere where they can go to get their morning coffee or grab a quick bite to eat for lunch. This stylish cafe was created to act as a social hub for the cycling and coffee community, though it’s a great place to visit for anyone. They roast all of their coffees on site and offer a wide range of appetizers and healthy snacks that will get you energized and ready for the day ahead. Although they specialize in many different blends of coffee, they also offer a sizable tea menu with flavors like crushed mint, peach oolong, creamy Earl Grey, and white chocolate roasted green. For something delicious to pair with your coffee or tea, try the cheesecake, coffee cake, or danish pastries.

If you’re a lover of seafood, consider stopping by King’s Fish House, a seafood restaurant nearby Hidden Hills that offers a sizable menu of fish and seafood as well as an extensive wine and beer list that you can pair with your main course. Open for lunch and dinner, King’s Fish House offers fish house favorites like King’s crab cakes, a pan-seared wild Alaskan halibut fregola, and wild Chilean sea bass tacos. For starters, consider trying the blackened shrimp taquitos, crispy calamari, or buffalo chicken wings. Their main fish entrees include the Atlantic salmon, yellowfin tuna, halibut, rainbow trout, and swordfish, although they also offer meat entrees like filet Mignon and herb chicken breast. If you’re searching for something a little more exotic, you’ll find a substantial sushi menu at King’s Fish House that includes such dishes as a sashimi platter, large sushi platter, seared salmon roll, and yellow-tail carpaccio.

If you’re spending the day out in Calabasas and are looking for the best shopping destinations in the area, the Commons at Calabasas can’t be recommended enough. This upscale entertainment and retail complex acts as a one-stop shop for the shopping needs of many residents of Hidden Hills, as it’s home to a wide array of popular name brand stores as well as smaller and more intimate boutiques that might carry items you can’t find anywhere else. This open-air mall is unique in that it provides visitors with an elegant and stylish atmosphere that pairs well with its Mediterranean architecture. When you step within the boundaries of this shopping center, you’ll have nearly two dozen stores at your disposal, including favorites like The Kingdom and Kate Spade New York, the former of which is a luxury shoe and handbag destination that’s recently opened. When you’re shopping at this mall, you’ll also have access to eateries like the Corner Bakery Cafe, Le Pain Quotidien, and the Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop. See’s Candies is also scheduled to be opening a branch within the mall in the near future.

For entertainment, consider visiting the Edwards Calabasas Stadium 6 movie theater, a popular theater nearby Hidden Hills that can be found in the Commons at Calabasas shopping complex. This theater is outfitted with eight screens, some of which offer digital 3D technology that allows you to watch some of the latest movies with an extra layer of depth to the picture. Outside of being a great place to socialize with friends and family, the theater is known for its plush recliner seats, which are present in all screening areas to offer you maximum levels of comfort.

Hidden Hills is essentially an exclusive luxurious  neighborhood that offers an extra amount of privacy and security in comparison to most other neighborhoods and communities in Calabasas and Southern California as a whole. This neighborhood prides itself on offering its residents a more rural and secluded way of life, which is present in all aspects of the community, as almost every home in the area comes with a very large yard and amazing views of the nearby mountain scenery.

Need help finding your Hidden Hills dream home?

If you’re interested in buying a home, selling a property, or would like to learn more about Hidden Hills, contact Nicki & Karen of Ewing & Associates Sotheby’s international Realty today!