Pull up any market report on Encino this summer and you'll find two numbers that shouldn't both be true at the same time. The median sale price is up. The median price per square foot is down. Not by a little, either: over the three months ending May 2026, Encino's median sale price climbed 6.9% year over year to roughly $1.7 million, while the median price per square foot fell more than 20% over the same stretch. A neighborhood cannot be getting more expensive and cheaper at once. Except, in a sense, Encino is doing exactly that, and the reason why matters more to a buyer than either headline number on its own.
The short version: Encino isn't one market wearing one price tag. It's two markets that share a name, a zip code range, and a school district, and split almost exactly at Ventura Boulevard. Ignore that split and you'll misread every comp you look at.
Where the line actually falls
North of Ventura Boulevard, in the 91316 flats, you're looking at a grid of mostly single-story homes built between the 1950s and 1970s, flat rectangular lots, and a mix of updated ranch houses, townhomes, and condos. Depending on which tracker and which month you check, entry points here run from roughly $600,000 to a bit over $2 million, with plenty of activity clustered well under $1.5 million.
South of Ventura, in the 91436 hills and premium flats, the housing stock changes character entirely. This is where you'll find gated streets like Royal Oak Road, Sapphire Drive, and Louise Avenue, along with named enclaves like Amestoy Estates and Royal Oaks. Lots get bigger, homes get newer or more heavily rebuilt, and pricing shifts into a different register, commonly $2.5 million and up, with the top of the range clearing $8 million for view lots and larger new construction.
A single citywide "Encino median" blends both of these into one number. That's useful for a five-second headline. It's close to useless if you're trying to figure out what your actual budget buys, because a $1.7 million median doesn't describe a single kind of home. It describes the midpoint between a remodeled flatlands ranch and a gated hillside estate, and very few homes on either side of the boulevard actually sell at that midpoint.
Why the per-foot number bends the other way
Here's the part that trips people up. If the hills tier is more expensive, why did the price-per-square-foot figure for all of Encino drop over the same year that the median sale price rose?
The mechanism is a composition effect, not a cooling market. Large lots with large homes routinely sell for a lower dollar amount per square foot than smaller, highly finished homes, even when the large home's total price is far higher. A 7,000-square-foot hillside estate on a two-acre lot might sell for $4 million, which pencils out to a lower per-foot number than a fully renovated 2,200-square-foot flats home that sells for $1.6 million. If more of this year's closed sales skewed toward those bigger, larger-lot properties relative to last year, the blended median sale price gets pulled upward by the sheer size of those transactions, while the blended price-per-square-foot gets pulled downward by the same homes, because land and square footage in a big estate simply cost less per foot than the finished square footage in a smaller, updated house.
That's the story these two numbers are telling together: more of what sold this year sold in the larger, land-heavy tier of the market. It isn't evidence that Encino got cheaper. It's evidence that the mix of what changed hands shifted toward bigger properties, and a buyer who only reads the headline median has no way of knowing which side of that shift they're actually shopping on.
What each side of the boulevard buys
The zip code split isn't just a pricing artifact. It changes what daily life looks like before a single offer gets written.
North of Ventura, in the flats, the appeal is walkability and routine. Wide streets, sidewalks, mature trees, and a straightforward grid make school drop-off and errands simple. Families cross-shopping Encino against Sherman Oaks or Tarzana are often comparing this exact tier, because the price bands overlap and the daily rhythm is similar.
South of Ventura, the pitch is privacy and topography. Canyon views, quieter nights, and longer driveways come standard in the hills, and buyers here are frequently cross-shopping Calabasas, Brentwood, or Bel Air rather than the flats a few blocks north. Lanai Road Elementary, in the 91436 area, is consistently rated among the highest-performing LAUSD elementaries, and it's a good example of how a single zip code number can hide a specific, sought-after address within it.
Ventura Boulevard itself is the connective tissue for both tiers. Within roughly a mile you'll find Erewhon Market, a full-service Nobu Encino, and Encino Commons, along with independent coffee shops and wine bars that give the corridor an actual main street feel that's rare for the Valley. A few minutes off the boulevard, Balboa Park and its recreation center at 17015 Burbank Blvd anchor the neighborhood socially, with an 18-hole Encino Golf Course, a lake, sports fields, and a Sunday farmers market that draws a steady crowd from both sides of the price divide.
A single median price can tell you Encino is expensive. It can't tell you whether you're pricing a flatlands starter home or a gated hillside estate, and those are two different conversations with two different comp sets.
The practical filter before you tour
If you're comparing Encino against other San Fernando Valley or foothill neighborhoods, a few habits will save you from chasing the wrong comp set:
- Always confirm the zip code on a listing before you anchor to its price. 91316 and 91436 can sit five minutes apart and describe entirely different markets.
- Treat price per square foot as a supplement, not a verdict. A large-lot home showing a lower per-foot number isn't necessarily a better deal than a smaller, updated home with a higher one. Lot size, condition, and location inside the neighborhood all move that math.
- Ask which side of Ventura a comp sold on before you use it to justify an offer. A recent flats sale tells you very little about what a hillside estate should command, and vice versa.
- Expect longer marketing windows in the upper tier. Larger, higher-priced homes in the 91436 range routinely sit longer than well-priced flats homes, which affects both negotiating posture and how quickly you'll need to move once you find the right one.
FAQ
Is Encino currently a buyer's market or a seller's market? It depends heavily on which tier you're in. The flats, where inventory turns faster and price points are more accessible, still favor sellers who price accurately. The hills and premium south-of-Ventura tier has more room for negotiation than it did during the 2021 to 2022 peak, particularly on homes that have sat for several months.
Why did the median price rise while price per square foot fell in the same period? It's a mix-shift, not a contradiction. More of the homes that closed in the three months ending May 2026 skewed toward larger, land-heavy properties, which pushed the median sale price up while pulling the blended per-foot figure down, since bigger homes on bigger lots typically post lower dollar-per-square-foot numbers than smaller, updated ones.
Does the flats versus hills split affect resale value the same way? Not identically. Flats homes tend to compete most directly with similarly priced properties in Sherman Oaks and Tarzana, while hills and premium south-of-Ventura estates are more often benchmarked against Calabasas, Brentwood, and Bel Air. Knowing which comp set applies to a given address matters as much for resale planning as it does for the initial purchase.
If you're weighing Encino against another Valley or foothill neighborhood, or trying to figure out which side of Ventura Boulevard actually fits your budget and your list of must-haves, Andy Hairabedian can walk you through the current comps on both sides of the split before you write an offer. Request a free home valuation to see exactly where your numbers land.
