Playa Vista

The site was Howard Hughes’s aircraft plant and airfield, where the Spruce Goose was built, and the plan to redevelop it took decades of environmental and community negotiation. The first phase opened in 2002 and the second, with the Runway retail center and the Google campus in the restored Spruce Goose hangar, followed in the 2010s. The Ballona Wetlands preserve borders the neighborhood on the west.

Playa Vista is compact and walkable, with the Runway center, the CenterPointe Club, parks and sports fields, and a concentration of tech and media offices sometimes called Silicon Beach. Nearly everything in it is under 25 years old.

The housing is almost entirely attached: condos in mid-rise buildings, townhomes and stacked flats, along with a small number of detached homes in the second phase. Each building or row has its own HOA, and most also pay master association dues for the community amenities, so monthly costs vary and matter to a purchase.

Prices run above Westchester and Del Rey and below Marina del Rey waterfront, and depend on building age, floor plan and whether the unit faces a park or courtyard. The neighborhood turns over more often than the older Westside because of its share of tech-industry buyers.

Los Angeles Unified School District serves the neighborhood, with Playa Vista Elementary School inside the community and middle and high school assignments in Westchester and nearby. Boundaries follow streets, so check a specific address with the district.

Lincoln Boulevard, Jefferson Boulevard and Culver Boulevard connect the neighborhood to the 405, the 90 Freeway, Marina del Rey and Culver City, and LAX is about ten minutes south. The Ballona Creek bike path runs along the northern edge to the beach, and much of daily life is within walking distance inside the community.