Watergate Homes was built in 1971 in the first phase of the master plan, beside the lake tracts on the Los Angeles County side, as one of the first attached communities in Westlake Village. The marketing sheet in the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors archive sells it on space, location and recreation: two big bedrooms and two full baths, sliding glass doors from the master and the family room to a private patio, air conditioning, and a private pool complex with a sun deck, a therapeutic pool, a gazebo and a firepit, with the maintenance done by the association.

The developer is not confirmed in any source Gary Jacobs has been able to verify; the sheet is headed Watergate Homes without a builder’s name in the surviving copy. What the record shows is about seventy-four units of one plan, single level, on two streets, with dues that listings report at $380 to $640 a month.

One plan is on file, reproduced below, and the sale record confirms it: ten sales of 1,131 to 1,187 square feet, every one a two-bedroom, two-bath, every one single level. The differences are position, patio and condition; the top of the record is $830,500 on Watergate Road in June 2025, the bottom $646,000 on Lake Harbor Lane in April 2020.

Drawings on file for the tract. Other plans, elevations and options may have been offered.

Two streets: Lake Harbor Lane, which carries six of the ten sales, and Watergate Road with four. The units are in single-level rows with the garages and patios alternating; the pool complex is in the middle. The MLS records a lot of about eight and a half acres for most units, which is the association’s land, not the unit.

The first reason is the single level with a garage and a private patio, which is the downsizer’s brief exactly, at a median under $800,000. The second is the location by the lake, walking distance to the promenade and the Landing. The third is the simplicity: one plan, so the comparison is always like for like. The fourth is the pool complex, which the original marketing built the community around.

Listings report the fee at $380–$640 a month. The fee carries the buildings’ exteriors and roofs, the grounds, the pool complex and, per the original marketing, the exterior painting; which utilities are included now is a question for the disclosure package.

What the association covers and what the CC&Rs restrict is not confirmed in any source Gary Jacobs has been able to verify. Take the budget, the reserve study, the insurance certificate and the CC&Rs from the seller’s disclosure package, read the minutes for any special assessment or litigation, and confirm the current fee with the manager before removing a contingency.

Los Angeles County side of Westlake Village, so Las Virgenes Unified: White Oak Elementary, Lindero Canyon Middle School and Agoura High School are the assignments listings give for this side of the city. Confirm the exact address with the district locator; the county line is also the district line, and it runs through the middle of the community.

Westlake Village runs on the lake and the promenade: the Landing and the Westlake Village Inn on the water, the shops and restaurants along Agoura Road and Westlake Boulevard, the YMCA, the community park, and Triunfo Creek and the Santa Monica Mountains trails within a few minutes. The Ventura Freeway crosses the middle of the community, and most tracts are five minutes from an on-ramp; the drive to the Westside is the same forty minutes to ninety it is from anywhere in the Conejo Valley.

The Ventura Freeway is the spine of the Conejo Valley, and this tract is a few minutes from an on-ramp. Errands are along Agoura Road, Westlake Boulevard and Lindero Canyon Road; the Westside is forty minutes on a good day and ninety on a bad one, and a buyer who commutes should time it at 7:30 in the morning before deciding.

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 last two years, 3 units in the tract sold through the MLS (the latest in June 2025), at prices from $820,000 to $830,500 and a median of $820,000. Ten sales are on record since April 2020, from $646,000 to $830,500. The top of the record is $830,500 on Watergate Road in June 2025 for a 1,187-square-foot two-bedroom; $820,000 on Lake Harbor Lane in October 2024 for a 1,131-square-foot two-bedroom. The bottom is $765,000 on Lake Harbor Lane in July 2022; $646,000 on Lake Harbor Lane in April 2020.

The shape of the six years is the same as the rest of the Conejo Valley: sharp appreciation from 2020 into 2022 and a band since, with the premium inside the band going to the plan, the lot, the view and the renovation. A record this short should be read as a range rather than a trend; Gary Jacobs keeps the full sale-by-sale history and can say where a given house sits in it.

No lease is recorded in the MLS sources this guide draws on, so it does not quote a rent for Watergate; a current figure should come from the leasing agents who work these streets. Each association’s leasing rules — minimum terms, caps, pet rules — should be read before buying as an investment.

These homes date from 1971, and the inspection carries the 1970s list: galvanised or early copper supply lines, original panels, single-pane windows where not replaced, original furnaces and water heaters, wood-shake roofs long since replaced but sometimes with the sheathing still original, and cast-iron or clay sewer laterals. In attached communities add the association questions: who owns the roof, the exterior walls and the plumbing inside them, when the buildings were last repiped or reroofed, and whether the reserves are funded for the next round. Ask the association for the roof and plumbing history in writing.

In attached communities the remodel that pays is inside the walls: the kitchen opened to the living room, the baths, the floors, the windows where the association allows, and a laundry brought into the unit. What does not pay is anything the association will not approve or that the next buyer cannot see from the listing photos. Check the rules before the plans.

The comparison is the other single-level attached communities and the lake-side condominiums. Westpark Condos, 1968 on Agoura Road, is 470- to 1,160-square-foot units at a median of $448,475 with dues of $395 to $710 a month. Westlake Bay, 1974 to 1975 on the lake, is 1,650- to 2,020-square-foot split-level units at a median of $945,000 with dues of $635 to $925 a month. Northshore, 1973 townhomes on the water, trades at a median of $1,055,000. Watergate, 1972 on the Ventura County side, is 1,150-square-foot units at a median of $745,000. Watergate sits with Watergate at the median, and is the only one of the group where every unit is single level with a garage.

Start with the association package: the budget, the reserve study for roofs and the pool, the insurance certificate and the minutes, because a 1971 community has been through its systems once and is due again. Then the unit: the inspector briefed for the early 1970s, and the association asked in writing when the roofs, the plumbing and the electrical were last done. Then the position: end unit or interior, patio orientation, distance from the pool.

Downsizers first, from the Westlake Village houses into one level by the lake. First-time buyers second, for a Las Virgenes address with a garage under $850,000. Investors third, subject to the association’s leasing rules.

For a buyer, take the association package from the disclosures before the inspection, and brief the inspector for the 1970s. Pull the permit history of any remodel from the city and the association. Confirm the school assignment for the exact address.

For a seller, every comparable is the same plan, and the top of the record — $830,500 — is the renovated unit in the better position. Price to the record, say the association fee and the school assignment in the first lines of the listing, and let the condition argue for the top of the band.