Westlake Country Estates is not a tract in the usual sense. It is a gated road of estate lots, Country Ranch Road, in unincorporated Los Angeles County just south of the City of Westlake Village, where the houses were built one at a time from 1994 to 2019 according to county records. Three of the 20 parcels are still unbuilt.

An original developer is not confirmed in any source Gary Jacobs has been able to verify. What the record shows is 17 custom houses of about 4,000 to 7,300 square feet on lots of an acre or more, behind a gate, with dues that listings report at $400 a month.

One sale is too thin a record to describe the plans, so this guide does not try. It was $3,995,000 on Country Ranch Road in July 2024 for a 4,707-square-foot seven-bedroom from 2000. No plan sheet for Westlake Country Estates is in the Conejo Simi Moorpark Association of Realtors archive that this guide series draws on, so there is no drawing to reproduce. Every house is individually built, so there are no tract plans.

Country Ranch Road is the community: 15 of the 17 houses have addresses on it, behind the gate, and two more have Westlake Boulevard addresses. The lots are estate lots; the one recorded sale sat on 2.3 acres.

The first reason is the land: acre-plus lots a few minutes from the lake and the shops, which the tracts of Westlake Village do not offer. The second is the gate and the privacy of a single road with 17 houses. The third is the houses themselves, custom built from the 1990s on. The fourth is the address, Westlake Village with the Las Virgenes schools.

The July 2024 listing reported dues of $400 a month and listed the gate among the amenities. With 17 houses sharing a private gated road, the budget and the reserves for the road and the gate are the documents to read.

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.

Westlake Country Estates is on the Los Angeles County side of Westlake Village, which is served by the Las Virgenes Unified School District rather than Conejo Valley Unified. Because the community is outside the city limits, confirm the district and the school assignments for the exact address with the district locator before writing an offer.

Westlake Boulevard runs north to the lake, the shops and restaurants of Westlake Village and the Ventura Freeway, and south into the Santa Monica Mountains toward Malibu. The trailheads of the mountains are closer here than anywhere else in Westlake Village.

Westlake Boulevard reaches the Ventura Freeway in about ten minutes. The drive to the Westside is forty minutes on a good day and ninety on a bad one; the canyon road south to the coast is the alternative.

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 home in the tract has sold through the MLS in the last two years; the most recent recorded sale was $3,995,000 on Country Ranch Road in July 2024 for a 4,707-square-foot seven-bedroom from 2000. The record since March 2020 holds one sale: $3,995,000 on Country Ranch Road in July 2024 for a 4,707-square-foot seven-bedroom from 2000.

One sale in six years is not a market, it is a data point: $3,995,000 in July 2024, at full list price after 65 days, for a 4,707-square-foot house with a pool on 2.3 acres. For a current value the better guides are the other estate communities of Westlake Village, and Gary Jacobs can set a given house against them.

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

These are custom houses from the 1990s through the 2010s, so each inspection is its own brief: the roof, the systems and the pool for the age of that house. Estate lots at the edge of the mountains add drainage, slope and brush-clearance questions, and the fire-zone mapping and an insurance quote belong at the start of the process, not the end. Confirm whether the parcel is on sewer or septic.

On an estate lot the value is in the land and the setting, and the remodels that return their cost are the ones that bring the house up to the lot: the kitchen and the primary suite, the indoor-outdoor connection, the pool and the grounds.

The comparison is the other gated and estate communities. Sycamore Canyon, next door inside the city limits, is a guard-gated tract of about fifty large houses from 2002 and 2003 on tract lots. Hidden Valley Estates, on the Ventura County side, is about thirty gated two-acre lots from 2005 and 2006. Country Club Estates in North Ranch is the guard-gated estate market, at a median of $5,400,000. Westlake Country Estates is the smallest of them and the only one in unincorporated Los Angeles County: custom houses on acre-plus lots behind a code gate.

Start with the parcel: the title report for the private road and gate agreements, the county for fire mapping, slope and sewer or septic, and an insurance quote early. Then the house, individually built and individually inspected, with its permit history pulled from Los Angeles County. Then the dues and the reserves for the road and the gate. Then patience, because one house has sold here in six years.

Estate buyers first, who want acreage and a gate within ten minutes of the lake. Buyers relocating second, for whom privacy and the Las Virgenes schools are the brief. Builders third, for the three parcels not yet built.

For a buyer, start with the title report, the fire-zone mapping and an insurance quote, then the inspection briefed for the age of that house. Confirm the school district and assignment for the exact address.

For a seller, there is one comparable inside the gate, so the comparables are the other estate communities. Price to the land, the house and the condition together, and say the acreage and the gate in the first lines of the listing.