Browse all Los Angeles real estate — or explore the full Los Angeles luxury real estate market.
Browse all Los Angeles real estate — or explore the full Los Angeles luxury real estate market.
Homes for sale in Tarzana cover a wider price band than almost any other Valley district, from entry-level Valley pricing in the flats north of Ventura Boulevard up to true estate pricing in the southern hills. Ventura Boulevard is the dividing line, and it changes almost everything: north of it you get grid-street tracts on standard lots, closer to the 101 and faster to commute from. South of it the land rises into the Santa Monica Mountains foothills, lots grow larger, and privacy, views, and gated security drive the price.
The housing stock ranges from mid-century hillside homes and gated estates to the semi-rural equestrian lots of Melody Acres, where zoning runs residential agriculture with a minimum lot around 17,500 square feet. Guard-gated Mulholland Park holds roughly 176 homes, many over 6,000 square feet; Silver Hawk Ridge is gated at a smaller scale with about 153 residences; Deauville Estates runs mostly 2,000 to 2,500 square feet on roughly one-third-acre lots.
Browse the active listings below, or contact The Knight Group to talk through which part of Tarzana fits your budget and your tolerance for hillside risk before you tour anything.
The name is literal. In 1919 Edgar Rice Burroughs bought 550 acres here for $120,000 and named the property Tarzana Ranch, after his fictional character. The land had previously belonged to General Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times, and sat on a low hill roughly half a mile back from Ventura Boulevard, overlooking the Valley floor. That history is documented by the Tarzana Neighborhood Council and Edgar Rice Burroughs sources.
By 1923 the growing city had surrounded the ranch, and Burroughs began selling parcels for home sites. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. developed a 116-acre tract in conjunction with the adjacent El Caballero Country Club. When the settlement needed a post office name in 1930, the roughly 300 residents held a contest and chose Tarzana. The same year Burroughs became the first American author to incorporate himself, and he did it on this ranch. The takeaway for a buyer: the estate-scale lots south of Ventura and the country-club land are not marketing invention, they are the literal footprint of the original ranch subdivision.
Tarzana trades as a move-up Valley market with a wide price band. As of March 2026, market-tracking data placed the Tarzana 91356 area in a slight seller’s market, with a Market Action Index around 35, a median list price near $2,397,000, and pricing around $727 per square foot. Treat those figures as a snapshot of one month rather than a fixed value: the median is pulled upward by hillside estates and does not describe what a flat interior home actually costs.
The more useful way to read Tarzana is by geography. The flats north of Ventura Boulevard carry the lowest entry point in the district. The southern hills, where lots run half an acre or larger, sit in a higher tier, and the deepest hillside and gated properties reach into estate pricing. Because a single median hides that spread, the number you should care about is the one for the specific pocket you are shopping, not the citywide headline. The Knight Group can pull comparable sales for the exact street you are considering.
The dividing line is Ventura Boulevard, and it changes almost everything about a property. North of the boulevard, the flats are grid-street tracts on standard Valley lots, closer to the 101 Freeway, generally the more affordable side, and the fastest to commute from. South of the boulevard, the land rises into the Santa Monica Mountains foothills, lots grow larger, and privacy, views, and gated security become the selling points, along with higher prices.
The trade-off is concrete. The hills buy you space and quiet and often a valley view, but they also buy you hillside regulation, steeper insurance, and a longer drive down to the freeway. The flats give up the view and the acreage in exchange for walkability, lower carrying cost, and simpler access. Neither is objectively better. Which one is right depends on whether you value the view more than the convenience, and whether you are comfortable owning in a fire-prone hillside. We walk buyers through that specific trade before they fall for a listing photo.
Tarzana is best understood as a collection of distinct pockets, several of them gated. Start with the south side of the boulevard, the estate heart of the district, at our Tarzana South of Ventura homes for sale page. This is where the large suburban lots, mid-century hillside homes, and gated estates concentrate.
The most recognized guard-gated enclave is Mulholland Park, a 24-hour guarded community of roughly 176 homes built across several architectural styles, with many residences exceeding 6,000 square feet. It sits near the Braemar and El Caballero country clubs and is the last residential stop before the Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park, a roughly 1,500-acre preserve with trails. If you want gated privacy at a smaller scale, look at Silver Hawk Ridge, a gated community of about 153 residences.
For a completely different character, Melody Acres is a semi-rural equestrian pocket of roughly 324 homes, zoned residential agriculture with a minimum lot size around 17,500 square feet. Many properties carry horse facilities, and the streets are lined with old-growth trees, gardens, and small livestock. Deauville Estates offers a more conventional footprint, with most homes in the 2,000 to 2,500 square foot range on roughly one-third-acre lots, close to the country-club amenities and lower Ventura Boulevard. To see the district as a whole, including the more affordable flats north of the boulevard, start at our Tarzana homes for sale page.
Mulholland Park is Tarzana’s flagship guard-gated community and one of the more security-focused enclaves in the San Fernando Valley. It runs 24-hour guarded and gated, holds around 176 homes built from a set of production floor plans plus custom estates, and features Italian, English, and Mediterranean styles. Many of the homes are large, over 6,000 square feet, on cul-de-sac settings with views and resort-style yards. It sits up the hill near Braemar and El Caballero country clubs, at the edge of the Mulholland Gateway Park open space.
Whether the premium is worth it depends on what you are buying it for. You are paying for controlled access, HOA-managed security, scale, and a view, and those hold value well in a resale. What you take on in exchange is an HOA with rules and dues, and a hillside location that comes with the fire and insurance considerations described below. For a buyer who specifically wants gate-guarded privacy at estate scale, it is one of the strongest addresses in the Valley. For a buyer who mostly wants square footage and a short commute, the flats deliver more house per dollar.
Yes, and Melody Acres is the reason. It is a genuine equestrian neighborhood inside the City of Los Angeles, zoned residential agriculture with a minimum lot size around 17,500 square feet, which keeps the density low and the parcels deep. Many homes come with barns, stables, riding arenas, or paddocks, and the surrounding streets carry old-growth trees, vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and farm animals. It reads as rural even though it is minutes from Ventura Boulevard.
The honest caveat is that agricultural zoning cuts both ways. The large lots and low density are exactly what protect the character, but they also mean fewer homes trade in any given year, so inventory is thin and the right property can take patience. If horse keeping or a working garden is central to what you want, this is one of the few places on the Valley floor that can deliver it, and we watch it closely for buyers who ask.
Tarzana is served by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The primary neighborhood elementary is Wilbur Charter for Enriched Academics, formerly Wilbur Avenue Elementary, an affiliated charter serving grades K through 5 with an enrollment around 567 students. Students who attend Wilbur commonly continue to Gaspar De Portola Charter Middle School, which ranks among the higher-regarded public middle schools in the area.
As always in Los Angeles, attendance boundaries and charter enrollment rules matter more than the neighborhood name, and they can shift. If a specific school assignment is a deciding factor for your household, confirm the current boundary for the exact address before you write an offer. We can verify that as part of showing you a home rather than after.
Access is one of Tarzana’s quiet advantages. The 101 Freeway runs along the northern edge of the district, so homes in the flats reach the freeway quickly, and the whole area feeds Ventura Boulevard as its east-west commercial spine. That puts the Westside within a canyon crossing over the Santa Monica Mountains and keeps the rest of the Valley close.
The trade-off is the same one that defines the flats versus the hills. A home near the freeway is fast to get in and out of but sits in a busier, denser setting. A hillside estate south of Ventura buys you calm and a view, but every trip starts with a drive down the hill to the boulevard and then to the freeway. Factor the daily reality of that descent into your decision, not just the listing’s proximity on a map.
Ventura Boulevard is the everyday engine of the district, carrying Tarzana’s retail, restaurants, and services along a walkable commercial stretch. Major medical care is anchored by Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center on Clark Street, which has served the Valley since 1973 and operates with a large physician community and a modernized emergency department in its Friese Family Tower. Having a full-service hospital inside the neighborhood is a real quality-of-life factor, particularly for older buyers.
For recreation, the southern edge of Tarzana runs up against the Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park, roughly 1,500 acres of trails in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the El Caballero Country Club provides golf and tennis for members. The mix of a dense commercial boulevard, a hospital, private clubs, and immediate trail access inside one district is unusual, and it is a large part of why the estate market here holds up.
Yes, because Tarzana is inside the City of Los Angeles. Measure ULA, the city transfer tax often called the mansion tax, applies to property sales above set thresholds. Under the thresholds effective for transactions closing after June 30, 2026, a sale above $5,400,000 carries a 4% transfer tax, and a sale of $10,900,000 or greater carries 5.5%, per the Los Angeles Office of Finance. The tax is charged on the full sale price, not just the amount over the threshold.
For most Tarzana buyers this never comes up, since it only bites at the top of the hillside estate market. But for a seller of a high-end gated or hillside property, it is a real number that has to be modeled into net proceeds before listing, and for a buyer at that level it shapes seller behavior and pricing. If you are transacting near those thresholds, we build the ULA cost into the math from the first conversation rather than letting it surface at closing.
This is the risk factor that matters most in the south hills. Tarzana’s wooded hillsides carry high wildfire exposure, most hillside homes require fire insurance, and residents are expected to keep brush cleared. Where a lot sits in both a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and a designated Hillside Area, city code under LAMC section 12.22.A.33 imposes specific requirements, including a fire sprinkler system, off-street parking, and a minimum roadway width along the frontage.
The practical consequence is cost and insurability. In recent California cycles, fire-zone properties have seen insurance become more expensive and harder to place, which can affect financing and monthly carrying cost. This does not make the hills a poor buy, it makes them a buy that requires eyes open. Before you commit to a hillside home, get an insurance quote in hand and confirm the property’s fire-zone and hillside designations. We treat that as a required step, not an afterthought, on any south-of-Ventura tour.
The most common mistake buyers make here is shopping the whole district at once. Because the price band stretches from standard Valley tracts to gated estate property, a saved search set to the full area returns homes that have almost nothing to do with each other. Decide first whether you are buying north or south of Ventura Boulevard, then set your filters to that side. From there, the question narrows usefully: do you want a conventional footprint on a manageable lot, a horse property with acreage and agricultural zoning, or a guard-gated address with square footage to match?
Each of those choices carries a different carrying cost, a different insurance picture, and a different resale pool. Tarzana real estate rewards buyers who understand which pocket their money buys into before they start touring. Tell The Knight Group what your commute and your risk tolerance look like, and we will narrow the map for you.
Yes. Tarzana is a district within the City of Los Angeles in the southern San Fernando Valley, which is why city rules such as Measure ULA and Los Angeles building code apply here.
The author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created Tarzan, bought 550 acres here in 1919 and named the property Tarzana Ranch. When the community needed a post office name in 1930, residents held a contest and chose Tarzana.
Mulholland Park is generally considered Tarzana’s premier address. It is a 24-hour guard-gated community of roughly 176 homes, many exceeding 6,000 square feet, near the Braemar and El Caballero country clubs.
Yes, in Melody Acres. It is zoned residential agriculture with a minimum lot size around 17,500 square feet, and many properties include barns, stables, or riding arenas.
It varies widely by location. Market data in March 2026 showed a median list price near $2,397,000 for the 91356 area, but the flats north of Ventura Boulevard run lower and the hillside and gated estates run substantially higher. Ask us for comparable sales on the specific street you are considering.
Yes, for higher-priced sales. Measure ULA applies a 4% transfer tax on sales above $5,400,000 and 5.5% on sales of $10,900,000 or more under the thresholds effective after June 30, 2026, per the Los Angeles Office of Finance.
The southern hillsides carry meaningful wildfire exposure and many homes require fire insurance and regular brush clearance. Lots in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and Hillside Area face additional city building requirements. The flats north of the boulevard carry lower exposure.
Yes. Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center on Clark Street has served the San Fernando Valley since 1973 and operates a full emergency department.
We treat Tarzana as several markets, not one. Before we show you anything, we establish which side of Ventura Boulevard fits your budget and your risk tolerance, because the flats and the hills reward different priorities and carry different costs. From there we pull comparable sales for the specific pocket, whether that is a gated enclave like Mulholland Park or Silver Hawk Ridge, an equestrian lot in Melody Acres, or a standard-footprint home in Deauville Estates.
For hillside and gated properties, we build the real ownership picture into the conversation early: the Measure ULA transfer tax at the top of the market, the fire-zone and hillside designations, and a live insurance quote before you are emotionally committed. The goal is that nothing about cost or risk surfaces for the first time at closing. To start, browse the child-area pages linked above, then contact The Knight Group to line up tours around the pockets that actually match what you are after.
The Knight Group is here to help you with all your realty needs. To get started, fill out the form below and one of our experienced agents will contact you as quickly as possible.
Copyright © 2024 The Knight Group.
All rights reserved. License: 02133297
Lucky for you we’re looking out.
Subscribe to this Custom Search to be alerted when new properties hit the market in the area.
Choose the frequency that works for you.
