Westlake Village was master-planned from 1963, when the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company, controlled by Daniel K. Ludwig, bought roughly 12,000 acres straddling the Los Angeles–Ventura county line and, with Prudential Insurance, set out to build a city in the country around a lake that did not yet exist. The dam went up between 1966 and 1969 at about $3.5 million and produced a 125-acre lake with more than eight miles of shoreline. Ludwig formed the Westlake Lake Management Association in 1968 and transferred ownership and control of the lake to the homeowners around it in 1974 — the same year Summer Shores was completed.

That coincidence of dates places Summer Shores precisely: it is a first-generation Westlake community, built while the lake was still being handed over, on the last flat ground at the water’s foot. The land it sits on faces The Landing, which is the lake’s commercial district and, in the lake association’s own structure, one of eight districts — seven residential neighbourhoods and the commercial one. Being opposite The Landing gives Summer Shores something almost nothing else at this price has in Westlake Village: an owner can walk to restaurants, shops and the marina without getting into a car.

The builder is on the drawings, which is unusual and worth stating plainly because it is not in any of the usual public sources: the plan sheets are headed Summer Shore Homes and carry the line “Belding Developers Inc. reserves the right to alter plans, specifications and price without notice.” Gary has not found Belding named in any listing, county record or association document for this tract; the plan archive is the only place it appears. That makes the sheets a small piece of primary evidence rather than marketing material.

The other thing to understand about Summer Shores is the county line. Ludwig’s 12,000 acres straddled it. The Ventura County portion — 8,544 acres — was annexed into the City of Thousand Oaks in 1968 and 1972. The Los Angeles County portion — 3,456 acres — incorporated as the City of Westlake Village in 1981. Summer Shores is on the Los Angeles side. So a Summer Shores owner and an owner in Stoneybrook a mile and a half away share a ZIP code, a community name and a lake view, and share neither a county, a city, a school district, a sheriff nor a set of building permits.

Three Summer Shore Homes sheets survive in the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors archive. They are the builder’s own marketing drawings, with the plan areas printed on them and the landscaping sketched in, and they carry Belding Developers’ name.

Drawings on file for the tract. The archive is what survives rather than a complete builder record, and other plans, elevations and options may have been offered — the numbering itself (1, 2-3-X and 4) suggests the original lineup was wider than the three sheets that remain.

Matching the drawings to the market: the 1,096-square-foot two-bedroom single-level homes are Plan 4, the 1,364-square-foot three-bedroom single-level homes are Plan 1, and the 1,195-square-foot two-level homes are Plan 2-3-X. County and MLS square footages are measured differently from a builder’s brochure figure, which is why the numbers do not match exactly. Note that Plan 1’s printed 1,425 square feet is larger than anything in the recent sale record — more evidence that the tract is wider than the last few years of sales show it to be.

This section exists because getting it wrong costs buyers money and sellers credibility.

Summer Shores is in Los Angeles County, inside the City of Westlake Village. Its parcels carry Los Angeles County assessor numbers in the 2057-012 series. It is not in Ventura County, not in the City of Thousand Oaks, and not in the Conejo Valley Unified School District. The clearest single confirmation is negative: Summershore Lane does not appear anywhere in the Conejo Valley Unified street index, while every Ventura-side Westlake street does.

The practical consequences run through everything a buyer touches. Property tax administration, recorded documents and the assessor’s parcel record are Los Angeles County. Building permits, planning and code enforcement are the City of Westlake Village. Law enforcement is the Los Angeles County Sheriff rather than the Ventura County Sheriff. Schools are Las Virgenes Unified. And the comparable sales that actually set value here are the other Los Angeles County side Westlake communities, not the Ventura-side tracts a mile away — an appraiser who does not know the difference will produce the wrong number.

The reverse also holds and is worth knowing for anyone comparing: Village Greens, Village Glen, Stoneybrook, Westshore and the rest of the tracts in this guide series are Ventura County and Conejo Valley Unified, with a Westlake Village mailing address and a Thousand Oaks city government. The 91361 ZIP code covers both sides and settles nothing.

Summer Shores is directly across from Westlake Lake and a short walk from the marina and The Landing. Listings describe it as “steps away from Westlake Lake,” “directly across the street from the lake” and “steps from the lake, marina, and the vibrant restaurants and shops of The Landing.” All of that is proximity, and all of it is true and worth having.

What is not established is rights. Gary has not been able to confirm that Summer Shores holds Westlake Lake Management Association membership, lake use rights, a dock or a boat slip. No listing in the record mentions a dock, a slip or lake dues. The lake association has roughly 1,300 member homeowners organised into eight districts — seven residential and The Landing — which is a small fraction of the wider Westlake community, so membership is a specific thing attached to specific parcels rather than something conferred by being nearby. The association does not publish which neighbourhoods are member districts, and Summer Shores is not named on its site or in its published rules.

Some listings carry an MLS amenity code reading “lake or pond” or “access to lake.” That same code appears on Stoneybrook listings a mile and a half inland where the water is a set of ornamental ponds, so it does not establish anything about Westlake Lake.

How to settle it. Lake rights in Westlake attach through recorded documents — the deed, the CC&Rs, the tract map. A buyer for whom lake use, a boat or a dock permit is part of the reason to buy should get the position in writing from the Westlake Lake Management Association, whose office is reachable through its management company, and should have the title report and the CC&Rs read against it before removing contingencies. That is a short conversation and it produces a definite answer. Do not take it from a listing, and do not take it from this guide either.

Dues are $650 a month, reported consistently across independent sources through 2025 and 2026, against $448 in 2020 — up about forty-five per cent in six years. What the fee covers is the strongest single argument for this community: water, trash, sewer, exterior maintenance and the roof. Water and sewer inside the dues is uncommon and is worth real money against a comparable that bills them separately; roof coverage on a 1974 building is worth more.

The amenities recorded across listings are an in-ground fenced pool, a heated in-ground spa, guest parking, laundry facilities, a greenbelt and park area, on-site management and association landscape maintenance. The laundry facility is a detail a buyer should check on the specific unit — the plan sheets show a laundry alcove inside each home, so the shared facility is likely an addition rather than a substitute, but confirm it.

The management company is the one thing not to take from any published source, including this one. Listing data on one 2026 sale names Allstate HOA Management at (310) 444-7444; another 2026 listing names The Management Trust, Westlake Village office, at (805) 496-5514. Both are real companies serving this area and the conflict most likely reflects a change of manager between listing dates. Escrow will produce the current answer along with the documents that matter more — the reserve study, the insurance certificate, the owner-occupancy ratio and whether any special assessment has been discussed. On a fifty-year-old condominium where the association carries the roof, the reserve study is the document to read first.

Summer Shores is in the Las Virgenes Unified School District — not Conejo Valley Unified, which serves the Ventura-side Westlake tracts. Listing data across several sources gives the assignment as White Oak Elementary (about two-thirds of a mile), Lindero Canyon Middle School (about two and a half miles) and Agoura High School (about four and a quarter miles).

Gary’s confidence in the district is high — the county, the parcel series and the absence of Summershore Lane from the Conejo Valley street index all point the same way, and Las Virgenes confirms it serves Westlake Village. Confidence in the three specific schools is one notch lower, because they come from listing data rather than from the district’s own boundary document, and at least one listing portal has carried a contradictory field. A family buying for the schools should run the exact address through the Las Virgenes address locator before removing contingencies. That is a two-minute check and it is worth doing here more than in most tracts, precisely because so many people assume the wrong district.

The everyday amenity in Summer Shores is the walk. The tract sits directly across from The Landing, the lakefront commercial district at the foot of Westlake Lake, so the restaurants, the shops, the marina and the path along the water are a matter of crossing the street rather than getting into a car. Almost nothing else at this price in Westlake Village can say that, and it is the reason a buyer who could afford more space further from the water sometimes chooses less space here. What the walk does not include, on present evidence, is the lake itself: proximity is established, rights are not, and the section on the lake question sets out how to settle it.

Inside the association the amenities are modest and the dues reflect what they carry instead: an in-ground fenced pool, a heated spa, a greenbelt and park area, guest parking, laundry facilities and on-site management. Each home has a walled patio — the feature that separates these plans from a flat — and on the two-level plan a balcony off the primary bedroom. The larger outdoor life of the area is the City of Westlake Village’s parks and the open-space trail system that rings the valley, both a short drive; this guide does not claim a park or a trailhead within walking distance beyond the lake edge itself, because the record it works from does not establish one.

Summer Shores is on the Los Angeles County side of Westlake Village, at the foot of the lake opposite The Landing, and the 101 and the commercial centers of Westlake Village along the corridor are a few minutes away by car. Summershore Lane is internal to the tract and not a through route; traffic inside is residents and their guests. The two-level plan has an attached garage; a buyer of a single-level plan should confirm the parking that comes with the specific unit and read the parking rules in the CC&Rs, because guest parking is an association amenity and a household with two cars should look at it at the hour it will need it.

Errands are the shortest in this guide series. Restaurants, shops and the marina are across the street at The Landing, and groceries, pharmacies, banks and the medical offices along the 101 corridor are a few minutes away. For the schools, listing data puts White Oak Elementary about two-thirds of a mile away, Lindero Canyon Middle about two and a half miles and Agoura High about four and a quarter — Las Virgenes Unified distances, not Conejo Valley ones, which is the point of the county-line section above. Administration follows the same line: permits from the City of Westlake Village, the sheriff from Los Angeles County.

The figures in this section were current when this guide was last reviewed. The sale record in the facts above and the listings below are drawn live from the MLS each time the page loads.

In the two years through June 2026, five homes in the tract sold through the MLS, at prices from $650,000 to $750,000 and a median of $690,000. The longer record runs from $530,000 in 2020 to $750,000 in 2025. A 1,096-square-foot single-level two-bedroom sold at $530,000 in 2020, $690,000 in May 2025 and $749,000 in May 2024. A 1,364-square-foot single-level three-bedroom sold at $670,000 in 2020. The 1,195-square-foot two-level plan has traded at $650,000 in June 2026, $690,000 in March 2026 and $750,000 in June 2025.

Two things stand out in that record. The first is how narrow the range is: from the smallest two-bedroom to the largest three-bedroom, the whole tract trades inside about $220,000. In a community of three plans with one association fee and one location, there is very little to differentiate homes except condition, so condition is what the market is pricing. The second is that the single-level 1,096-square-foot plan has held its own against the larger two-level plan throughout — the same pattern that shows up in every Westlake tract Gary has analysed, and the reason a single-level plan is worth buying even when it is the smaller home.

For context, Summer Shores sits well below the Westlake Village median while offering a walk to The Landing, a fee that includes water, sewer and the roof, and a Los Angeles County address in the City of Westlake Village. What it does not offer is space or, on present evidence, lake rights. Priced against what it actually is rather than what its address suggests, it is one of the better values on this side of the county line.

These homes turned fifty in 2024. On unrenovated units of this era and construction, inspectors in this market commonly report original copper supply lines and cast-iron drains, aluminium-frame single-pane windows and sliders, period electrical panels, original furnaces and water heaters, and popcorn ceilings that may test positive for asbestos. Every home is different and only a licensed inspector on the specific unit can say what is actually there.

Because these are condominiums, the division between owner and association — roof, exterior walls, the plumbing inside the walls, the slab, the patio, the balcony on the two-level plan — is set by the CC&Rs and is not the same in every Westlake association. Read that section before the inspection so the inspector can be pointed at the right things. It matters especially here because water and sewer are inside the dues, which changes who has the incentive to chase a slow leak, and because the roof is an association item on a fifty-year-old building.

On the remodel side, the sale record says the money is in the kitchen, the baths, the floors and the glass, and in the walled patio — which is the feature that distinguishes these plans from a flat and the one most often neglected. Nothing that changes the footprint pays, and any alteration to an exterior wall, a window, a slider, the patio wall or the balcony needs the association’s architectural approval before work starts.

No lease is recorded in the MLS sources this guide draws on, so it does not quote a rent for the tract; a current figure should come from the leasing agents who work Summershore Lane. What can be said is that the product is unusually easy to let: a two or three-bedroom home a walk from The Landing, with water, sewer, trash, the exterior and the roof inside the dues, appeals to a tenant pool that runs from single professionals to retirees, and a landlord here fields fewer maintenance calls than in any tract where the roof and the water are the owner’s problem.

Two checks come first. The CC&Rs, which in many associations on both sides of the county line set a minimum lease term and may cap the share of rented homes; nothing in the public record says whether Summer Shores does, and the documents produced in escrow are the only reliable answer. And the owner-occupancy ratio on the association’s certification, which governs which lenders will write a loan on a condominium at this price and on what terms, for the investor now and for whoever buys from the investor later. A landlord should also not advertise lake rights the home may not hold; describe the walk to The Landing, which is real, and leave the lake to the recorded documents.

The first reason is the address. Summer Shores is a Los Angeles County home in the City of Westlake Village, across the street from the lake and a walk from The Landing, at $530,000 to $750,000 — well below the Westlake Village median and a fraction of what the same walk costs in a detached house. The second is the fee. Water, sewer, trash, exterior maintenance and the roof inside $650 a month is an unusually inclusive package, and roof coverage on a 1974 building is worth more than it sounds. The third is the plan mix: a 1,096-square-foot single-level two-bedroom, a 1,364-square-foot single-level three-bedroom and a 1,195-square-foot two-level plan with a garage and a balcony, so a downsizer, a first-time buyer and a small family can each find the plan that suits them in the same association.

The fourth is the record. From the smallest two-bedroom to the largest three-bedroom the whole tract trades inside about $220,000, and the single-level 1,096-square-foot plan has held its own against the larger two-level plan throughout, which is the pattern that shows up in every Westlake tract this guide series has analysed. And the fifth is the builder’s own drawings, which survive with Belding Developers’ name on them and let a buyer read the plan off a listing’s square footage before the showing. Priced against what it actually is rather than what its address suggests, Summer Shores is one of the better values on this side of the county line.

Start with the lake, if the lake is why you are buying. Every listing uses proximity language and none mentions a dock, a slip or lake dues, and Westlake Lake Management Association membership attaches to specific parcels through recorded documents; get the position in writing from the lake association and have the title report and the CC&Rs read against it before contingencies come off. An MLS amenity code reading “lake or pond” establishes nothing, because the same code appears on inland tracts with ornamental ponds.

Then the county line. Comparable sales that set value here are the other Los Angeles County side Westlake communities, not the Ventura-side tracts a mile away, and an appraiser who does not know the difference will produce the wrong number; the schools are Las Virgenes Unified, and the three specific schools should be confirmed with the district’s address locator rather than taken from listing data. Then the building. These homes turned fifty in 2024, and unrenovated units carry the systems of 1974 — original supply lines and cast-iron drains, single-pane aluminium windows and sliders, period panels, original furnaces and water heaters, popcorn ceilings that may test for asbestos. The roof is an association item, so the reserve study is the document to read first, and the dues, up about forty-five per cent in six years to $650, should be modelled rising. Then the management, which two 2026 listings name differently; take the answer from escrow. Finally, the size. These are 1,096 to 1,364-square-foot homes, and a buyer who needs a third bedroom and a garage in the same plan will not find it here.

First-time buyers and downsizers, in roughly equal measure, and for the same reason: the walk to The Landing at a price that starts with a five or a six. The first-time buyer is often someone who works on the Los Angeles side of the county line and wants a City of Westlake Village address and a Las Virgenes school assignment without the price of a detached house; the downsizer is often an owner leaving a larger home in Westlake Village or Agoura Hills who wants one level, a walled patio and a fee that takes the roof and the water off the table, and who has priced the lake tracts and found them out of reach.

Investors come third, for the reasons set out under leasing, and small families fourth, drawn by the 1,364-square-foot single-level three-bedroom and the Agoura High feeder address. What a seller should take from this is that the buyer for a Summer Shores home is comparing condition rather than size, because the plans trade so close together, and is comparing to the other Los Angeles County side attached tracts rather than to Village Greens or Stoneybrook, whatever the ZIP code suggests.

The comparison that matters is the one across the county line, because it is the one buyers and appraisers get wrong. Village Greens, a mile away on the Ventura County side, is 258 condominiums of 920 to 1,020 square feet at a median of $550,000, in Conejo Valley Unified, with a clubhouse and courts; Village Glen next to it is 136 single-level homes of 1,149 square feet and up at a median of $770,000. Summer Shores sits between them on price with homes of 1,096 to 1,364 square feet, and what it offers that neither can is the walk to The Landing. What it does not offer is their school district, their city or their county, and a comparable pulled from either will misprice a Summer Shores home.

On its own side of the line the comparisons are larger and dearer. First Neighborhood, the 1966 to 1969 tract of about 664 detached homes on the east shore, trades at a median of around $1.7 million; Three Springs, the late-1980s tract of about 465 homes in the hills, at around $2.15 million; Westlake Island, the guard-gated 1967 lakefront tract, at $2.8 to $3.25 million on recent sales. Those are the communities a Summer Shores owner moves to next, and the communities an appraiser should be drawing attached comparables from the edges of, not the Ventura-side condominiums that share the ZIP code.

Neighbor figures are taken from the corresponding Westlake Village guides on this site and reflect the periods stated there; each guide gives its sources.

For a buyer, three documents before the walk-through. The title report and the CC&Rs read against a written answer from the Westlake Lake Management Association, if the lake matters; the CC&Rs’ maintenance section, so the inspector knows the roof and the exterior are the association’s and can spend the time on the plumbing, the panel, the windows and the ceilings; and the reserve study, because the association carries a fifty-year-old roof. Then the insurance certificate, the owner-occupancy ratio, any minutes that mention a special assessment, and the management company’s name from escrow rather than a listing. Run the address through the Las Virgenes locator. Read the plan off the square footage — 1,096 and 1,364 are the single-level plans, 1,195 the two-level one with the garage — and confirm the parking that comes with the unit.

For a seller, the comparable is the last few Summer Shores sales and the attached edges of the other Los Angeles County side communities, not the Ventura-side condominiums a mile away, and the listing should say so in the remarks for the appraiser’s benefit. Lead with the walk to The Landing, which is the tract’s real distinction, and with what the dues include, which buyers do not always know to look for; describe the lake as across the street and leave rights to the recorded documents. The kitchen, the baths, the floors, the glass and the walled patio are where the money returns, nothing that changes the footprint pays, and any change to an exterior wall, a window, a slider, the patio wall or the balcony needs architectural approval first.