A Brentwood commute, by street
Every parent on the Westside becomes an amateur traffic engineer. Here is what three kids and a decade of showings have taught me about the four roads that run Brentwood, and why I ask about your mornings before I ask about your budget.
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset is the spine of Brentwood and it has two moods. Westbound in the morning and eastbound in the evening it moves. The other direction, between Barrington and the 405, it backs up on most weekday mornings, because that is where the school traffic, the freeway traffic and the canyon traffic all arrive at once. If your mornings point east, a house north of Sunset means joining that line. A house south of Sunset means you can avoid it.
San Vicente Boulevard
San Vicente, with its coral trees down the median, is the prettiest street in the neighborhood and the easiest to live on. It runs from the Brentwood strip to the ocean in Santa Monica, it moves at most hours, and it is the road runners, cyclists and strollers use. The blocks on either side of it, roughly between Bundy and 26th Street, are where "I can walk to things" is literally true.
Bundy Drive and Barrington Avenue
These are the north-south streets that connect Sunset to Wilshire and the 10 freeway. They carry more traffic than they look like they should, and the side streets off them are quieter than you would guess. A house half a block off Bundy can be a calm house. A house on Bundy is a different conversation, and the price usually reflects it.
The 405
The freeway is the fact of life on the east edge of the neighborhood. The Glen and the streets near Church Lane sit close to it, which is part of why they are more attainable, and the interchange at Sunset is the one piece of road I plan my whole day around. If you commute over the hill to the Valley or down to the airport, the 405 is your morning. I would rather you know that from a Tuesday test drive than from your first month in the house.
Why this is a real estate post
Two houses, same price, same size, two sides of Sunset. One family's mornings run to the beach and Santa Monica; the other's run to the 405 and Century City. Each house is right for one of them and wrong for the other, and nothing in the listing will tell you which. That is the question I ask over the first coffee, and it is why I show streets before I show houses.
The test
Before you write an offer, drive your actual morning from the actual house, at the actual time, on a weekday. Then drive it home at 5:30. It takes an hour and it has saved more than one of my clients from a house they would have grown to resent.
Questions about a street, a house or a number? Text or call me at 310.498.1415, or email cwgrazianorealty@gmail.com.
Christina Woodward Graziano is a California real estate licensee (DRE #02072713) with Keller Williams Beverly Hills, 439 N. Canon Drive, Penthouse, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Each Keller Williams office is independently owned and operated. Equal Housing Opportunity. This post is general information from one agent, not legal, tax, insurance or financial advice; talk to your own professionals before you act on it. Business mentions are personal opinion. Nobody paid to be in this post.