Cornell is the name of the old settlement along Cornell Road between Agoura and Malibou Lake, unincorporated county land that stayed outside the city when Agoura Hills incorporated in 1982 and that the Santa Monica Mountains parkland now surrounds. The houses are individually built on parcels that were subdivided from the ranches over decades, some as small gated enclaves like the Countryside Drive estates and most as single acreage lots. There is no tract developer; the sale record is a set of individual estates.

What the county records show inside this guide’s outline is about 74 parcels of houses and ranch lots, apart from the 22 gated lots of Medea Valley Estates and the Malibou Lake community, which have guides of their own. Listings report gates and greenbelts on some parcels and no association on others.

Every house is individually built. The top is $5,850,000 on Malibu View Court in August 2022 for a 7,768-square-foot five-bedroom from 2004 on 1.1 acres, and $4,800,000 on Countryside Drive in January 2026 for a 7,122-square-foot five-bedroom from 1989 on 1.5 acres, which had sold for $3,126,000 in November 2022. The bottom is $1,599,000 on Cornell Road in November 2025 for a 2,431-square-foot single-level three-bedroom from 1991 on a third of an acre. Two of the four sales are five-bedrooms; one is single story.

No plan sheet for Cornell is in the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors archive that this guide series draws on, so there is no drawing to reproduce. The sale record shows homes of 2,431 to 7,768 square feet, median 7,122, with five bedrooms in two of the four, three in one, four in one, and one of the four recorded sales is single story.

Cornell Road is the spine, running south from Agoura Road past Medea Creek to Mulholland Highway and Paramount Ranch, with Countryside Drive and Malibu View Court as the estate enclaves off it and the ranch parcels along the road itself. The lots in the sale record run from about 13,000 square feet to 1.5 acres, and the larger ranch parcels are larger still.

The first reason is the land: acreage in the Santa Monica Mountains with parkland on every side, ten minutes from the freeway. The second is the individuality, since no two houses are alike and the estates on Countryside Drive and Malibu View Court are among the largest in the area. The third is the address, an Agoura Hills address and the Las Virgenes district on county land.

Listings report the fee at $250 a month and $600 a year, with $600 a year on the most recent sale, in January 2026. The recorded sales report a fee of $250 a month on one gated parcel, $600 a year on another and none on the third, so the fee depends on the road. Gates, private roads and greenbelts are what the enclaves carry.

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.

Cornell is unincorporated Los Angeles County in the Las Virgenes Unified district, and listings on Cornell Road and Countryside Drive give Sumac Elementary, Lindero Canyon Middle School and Agoura High School. Confirm the exact address with the district locator.

Paramount Ranch, the Rock Store on Mulholland Highway, Malibu Creek State Park and the Backbone Trail are the neighborhood, and the Kanan Road shops are ten minutes north. Agoura Hills runs on Kanan Road and the freeway: the shops and restaurants along Kanan Road and Agoura Road, the Whizin Market Square and the Twin Oaks center, Chumash Park and the city’s smaller parks, the Reyes Adobe Historical Site, and the Santa Monica Mountains trails at Cheseboro Canyon, Ladyface and Paramount Ranch a few minutes away. The Ventura Freeway runs through the middle of the city with interchanges at Kanan Road, Reyes Adobe Road, Chesebro Road and Liberty Canyon Road, and the drive to the Westside is the same forty minutes to ninety it is from anywhere in the Conejo Valley.

Cornell Road runs north to Agoura Road and the Kanan Road interchange in about five to ten minutes depending on the parcel. Errands are along Kanan Road; the Westside is forty-five minutes on a good day and ninety on a bad one, or over Kanan Dume Road or Malibu Canyon to the coast.

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 January 2026, 3 homes in the area sold through the MLS, at prices from $1,599,000 to $4,800,000 and a median of $2,500,000. Over a longer record, four sales from August 2022 through January 2026 ran from $1,599,000 to $5,850,000 with a median of $3,963,000. The top of the record is $5,850,000 on Malibu View Court in August 2022 for a 7,768-square-foot five-bedroom; $4,800,000 on Countryside Drive in January 2026 for a 7,122-square-foot five-bedroom. The bottom is $3,126,000 on Countryside Drive in November 2022; $1,599,000 on Cornell Road in November 2025. Single-story homes account for one of the four sales, at a median of $1,599,000.

Four sales in four years from $1,599,000 to $5,850,000 is four individual estates rather than a trend, though the Countryside Drive house that sold at $3,126,000 in 2022 and $4,800,000 in 2026 says what a renovated estate on the gated road commands. What the record supports is a floor near $1,600,000 for a small house on a small parcel, and $3,000,000 to $6,000,000 for the estates. 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. Estate and ranch leasing here is occasional and private.

These homes date from 1989 to 2004, and the inspection carries the 1980s list: original furnaces and condensers at end of life, tile-roof underlayment nearing the end of its span, failed dual-pane seals, and for 1985 to 1989 the possibility of polybutylene supply lines, which a plumber should be asked about by name. Slope lots add drainage and retaining-wall questions that a general inspector will flag but a geotechnical engineer should answer; pools of this age often have original equipment and plaster. None of this is unusual; all of it is negotiable if it is found before the contingency comes off rather than after.

In a tract of this era the remodels that return their cost are the ones that bring a 1980s plan to the way people live now: the kitchen opened to the family room, the primary bath and closet, the floors and the glass, and, on the right lot, the pool. What does not return its cost is the addition that pushes the house past what the street will support; the record shows the top sales are renovated versions of the original plans on the better lots, not the biggest houses.

The comparison is the other acreage south of the freeway. Medea Valley Estates, the gated 22 lots off Cornell Road, trades at a median of $3,137,500 for 3,342- to 7,134-square-foot houses on an acre. Malibou Lake, the 1920s lake community farther down Cornell Road, is 1,216- to 3,903-square-foot houses at a median of $1,250,000. Old Agoura, the horse-property district north of the freeway, trades at a median of $2,365,000. Heritage View Estates on Marks Road, 1996, is eight houses on an acre at a median of $1,905,000. Cornell is the widest range and the largest parcels.

Start with the parcel: the county for zoning, fire mapping, septic and any well, the title report for the road easements and any road association, and an insurance quote early, because the Woolsey fire crossed this ground in 2018 and acreage here prices differently since. Then the house, individually built and individually inspected, with a geotechnical engineer on any slope. Then the road, since Cornell Road is the only way in and out.

Estate buyers first, for the acreage within an hour of the Westside. Equestrian and privacy buyers second. Buyers who want the mountains and the parkland at the property line third.

For a buyer, read the plan off the square footage and the level, take the association package from the disclosures before the inspection, and brief the inspector for the 1980s. Pull the permit history of any addition, pool or converted garage from the county. Confirm the school assignment for the exact address.

For a seller, the comparable is the same plan and level, and the top of the record — $5,850,000 — is the renovated house on the better lot. Price to the record for the plan, 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.