The lake itself is a reservoir, formed by a dam across the Potrero valley early in the twentieth century, and the name came from Hollywood: the valley stood in for Sherwood Forest in the silent-era Robin Hood pictures, and the name stayed. The cabins and lake houses of the 1920s through the 1960s grew up along the shore and the roads above it, and the country club, the gates and the modern tracts came in the late 1980s and 1990s, when the surrounding ranch land was developed around a Jack Nicklaus course. Every community at the lake is unincorporated Ventura County with the Conejo Valley Unified schools, and most carry Westlake Village or Lake Sherwood mailing addresses.

The developer of any one section is not confirmed in any source Gary Jacobs has been able to verify. What the record shows for the lakeside streets is about 142 parcels of individually built houses of 2,835 to 6,616 square feet, three to six bedrooms, with the lake, its docks and picnic areas, security and, on the gated roads, a gate carried as the amenities, and a lake association fee that listings report at $1,054 to $1,200 a year on top of whatever the gated sections charge.

Every house is individually built, so the record is a set of houses rather than plans. The top is $6,725,000 on Elderoak Road in April 2025 for a 6,307-square-foot five-bedroom from 2000 on 1.5 acres, and $5,800,000 on Queens Garden Drive in July 2025 for a 5,103-square-foot six-bedroom from 2012. The bottom is $1,400,000 on Hereford Road in July 2020 for a 3,013-square-foot four-bedroom from 1981 on three levels, and $2,080,000 on Lake Sherwood Drive in November 2020 for a 4,678-square-foot five-bedroom from 2002. Eight of the nineteen are four-bedroom houses and eight are five-bedroom; one of the nineteen is single story.

No plan sheet for Lake Sherwood 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 2,835 to 6,616 square feet, median 4,602, with four bedrooms in eight of the nineteen, five in eight, three in two, and one of the nineteen recorded sales is single story.

Lake Sherwood Drive runs along the south and east shore and carries five of the nineteen sales; Upper Lake Road and Trentham Road three each; Queens Garden Drive two; and Lower Lake Road, Hereford Road, David Lane, Swanfield Court, Elderoak Road and Heatherbank Court one each. The lots run from about 2,800 square feet at the water to 1.5 acres on the hill, median about a third of an acre, and lake frontage with a dock is the single largest variable in the record.

Listings report the fee at $1,054–$1,200 a year. The lake association fee carries the private lake, its docks, picnic areas and security; the gated roads carry their own association fees on top, from a few hundred dollars a month to more than $2,000 a quarter in listings, for the gates, the private streets and the landscaping. Which fees apply to a given parcel, and what each covers, is what the title report and the disclosure package answer.

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.

Lake Sherwood is unincorporated Ventura County in the Conejo Valley Unified district: Westlake Elementary or Westlake Hills Elementary, Colina Middle School and Westlake High School are the assignments listings give. Confirm the exact address with the district locator; the drive to any school is east on Potrero Road.

The lake is the amenity: docks, small boats and the Sherwood Lake Club on the water for members. The Sherwood Country Club is next door for its own members. Lake Sherwood runs on the lake and the club: the private lake with its docks, the Sherwood Country Club and its Jack Nicklaus course for members, the Sherwood Lake Club on the water, and the Potrero Road drive east to Westlake Boulevard for everything else. The shops at Westlake Boulevard and Agoura Road are about ten minutes, the Ventura Freeway fifteen, and the drive to the Westside is the same forty minutes to ninety it is from anywhere in the Conejo Valley, plus the ten minutes in from the gate.

Potrero Road runs east to Westlake Boulevard in about ten minutes and to the Ventura Freeway in about fifteen. Errands are at Westlake Boulevard and Agoura Road; the Westside is forty minutes on a good day and ninety on a bad one, plus the ten minutes in from the lake.

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.

No homes in the mapped area have sold through the MLS in the two years through September 2026; the last 5 MLS sales there, from November 2020 to February 2024, ran from $2,080,000 to $4,450,000 with a median of $3,672,000. Across the wider lakeside streets, nineteen sales are on record from July 2020 through July 2025, from $1,400,000 to $6,725,000 with a median of $4,150,000. The top of the record is $6,725,000 on Elderoak Road in April 2025 for a 6,307-square-foot five-bedroom; $5,800,000 on Queens Garden Drive in July 2025 for a 5,103-square-foot six-bedroom. The bottom is $2,080,000 on Lake Sherwood Drive in November 2020; $1,400,000 on Hereford Road in July 2020. Single-story homes account for one of the nineteen sales, at a median of $4,800,000.

Nineteen sales in six years across a range this wide is a set of individual transactions rather than a trend. What the record supports is a floor near $1,400,000 to $2,000,000 for an older house above the water, a middle from $3,500,000 to $5,000,000 where most of the sales sit, and a top above $6,500,000 for a large house on acreage or on the water. Gary Jacobs keeps the full sale-by-sale history and can say where a given house sits in it.

In a tract of this era the remodels that return their cost are the ones that bring a 1960s 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.

Start with the parcel: the title report for the lake rights, dock rights, easements and which associations attach, the county for fire mapping and septic where it applies, and an insurance quote early. Then the water: frontage, dock, orientation and depth. Then the house, individually built and individually inspected, briefed for its own year, with a geotechnical engineer on the hillside lots and the permit history of every rebuild pulled from the county. Then patience: on the water, most sales begin privately.

Lake buyers first, for the dock and the water, comparing the shore roads with the club. Estate buyers second, for the acreage on the hill. Buyers relocating third, for whom a private lake in the Conejo Valley district is the brief.

For a buyer, start with the title report for the lake and dock rights and every association that attaches to the parcel, and brief the inspector for the house’s own year. Pull the permit history of the house, the dock and every rebuild from the county. Confirm the school assignment for the exact address.

For a seller, there is no plan comparable; the comparable is the water, the parcel and the house together, and the top of the record — $6,725,000 — is a large house on acreage. Price to the frontage and the parcel, say the dock, the lake rights and the school assignment in the first lines of the listing, and let the condition argue for the top of the band.

No lease is recorded in the MLS sources this guide draws on, so it does not quote a rent. Lake leasing here is occasional and private.

These homes date from 1961 to 2022, and the inspection carries the late-1960s list: original galvanised supply lines, original electrical panels of brands insurers now flag, single-pane aluminum windows where not replaced, original furnaces and ductwork, and roofs and sewer laterals at or past end of life. 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.

The comparison is the other Lake Sherwood communities. Sherwood Country Club, 1992 to 2024 behind the guard gates, is 3,025- to 9,304-square-foot houses at a median of $5,100,000 with dues of $542 to $780 a month and more. Sherwood North Shore, 1993 to 2008, is 2,222- to 3,887-square-foot gated houses at a median of $2,500,000. Thistleberry, the older houses on Upper and Lower Lake Road and Stafford Road, trades at a median of $2,425,000. The lakeside streets trade below the club at the median and above everything else at the lake, because the water is the premium.

The first reason is the water: a private lake with a dock, forty-five minutes from the Westside, which exists nowhere else in Los Angeles or Ventura County at this scale. The second is the range: from an older house above the lake at $1,400,000 to an estate at $6,725,000, all in one community. The third is the history, the cabins and lake houses that give the shore roads a character the newer tracts do not have. The fourth is the club next door for a buyer who wants it and the lake alone for one who does not.