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Neighborhood Snapshot: Century City
Century City is the most deliberately designed neighborhood I sell in. It was built on the old Twentieth Century Fox backlot starting in the 1960s, and unlike most of Los Angeles, which accumulated over time, this place was planned. You can feel it.
The housing is almost entirely condominium, and almost entirely high-rise. Century Towers, Century Park East, The Century, Century Hill, Le Parc, Park Place, the residences at the Fairmont Century Plaza. A handful of single-family homes exist — Century Woods, mainly — but they’re the exception.
Condominium pricing runs across an unusually wide band. You can find an older one-bedroom in the high five hundreds. You can also find a penthouse north of twelve million. There’s very little that’s typical about the middle.
Who Should Actually Live Here
Executives and professionals who work here. This is the obvious one and it’s still the strongest. The office towers, the law firms, the agencies, the entertainment companies — a lot of my clients here have a commute measured in minutes on foot. In Los Angeles, that borders on absurd, and people who have it protect it fiercely.
Anyone who wants full service and no maintenance. Century City buildings do this better than anywhere else in the city. Twenty-four hour desk, valet, security, package handling, pools, gyms, sometimes tennis. You do not own a lawnmower here. For clients coming out of a large house they’re tired of managing, the relief is palpable.
Luxury renters. This is a big part of my business and Century City is one of the strongest rental markets in Los Angeles. The inventory is deep and it spans an enormous range — you’ll find well-appointed two-bedrooms in the six to eight thousand range, and the top of the market goes to numbers that surprise even people who’ve been in this business a long time.
Second-home and part-time buyers. Same logic as the Wilshire Corridor but more so. Lock the door, leave for two months, come back to everything exactly as you left it.
Who Probably Shouldn’t
If you want a yard, a garage off your kitchen, and neighbors you know by name, this won’t work. High-rise living is genuinely different and some people never adjust. I’ve had clients try it for a year and go straight back to Sherman Oaks.
If public schools are your priority, understand that Century City is served by LAUSD and there isn’t a clean neighborhood-school story here the way there is in Beverly Hills or parts of Westwood. Families here tend to go private or pursue charters, and you should plan for that rather than discover it.
And if you want your home to feel old, characterful, and a little imperfect, Century City is the opposite of that by design. It’s clean, it’s modern, it’s built. Some people find it soulless. Others find it restful. Both reactions are legitimate and you’ll know which one is yours within about ten minutes of walking through a building.
The Thing About Buying Here in 2026
Century City condominiums have been sitting. Days on market have run well over a hundred this year — considerably longer than the surrounding Westside. That’s not a distress signal, and I want to be careful how I frame it. High-rise condos always move more slowly than single-family, because the buyer pool is narrower.
But it means something practical: if you’re buying here right now, you have more leverage than you would have had in 2022. Sellers who’ve been listed four months are having different conversations than sellers who listed last week.
It cuts the other way if you’re selling, and I’d rather say that plainly. Pricing correctly on day one matters enormously here. The properties that linger are almost always the ones that started ten percent high and chased the market down.
The Pattern I See Most Often
The version of this I see most often is a couple in their early sixties coming out of a large Valley house — five bedrooms, big lot, pool, the whole thing. Kids gone, and the house has gone from being a home to being a job.
One of them is ready. The other is not. They built things in that house. They planted the trees. A condominium feels like giving something up, and they’ll say so, more than once.
What changes that mind is never a pitch from me. It’s a small moment during a tour — a concierge greeting a resident by name, taking a dry cleaning bag from her, mentioning that her plumber came and went and everything was handled. People watch that whole exchange and say nothing at the time.
The line comes in the car afterward, some version of: so somebody just handles it. That’s the whole conversion, and it happens far more often than any conversation about square footage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do HOA dues run in Century City?
They vary considerably by building and they’re generally substantial — you’re paying for full service, and full service costs money. The important thing is to get the actual figure for the specific unit before you get emotionally committed, along with the reserve study and any pending special assessments. That last one has bitten buyers in high-rises across the city.
Is it a good rental market?
One of the best in Los Angeles, and it’s a large part of why I work here so much. The inventory depth at the luxury end is genuinely unusual — there aren’t many places in the county where you can find that range of well-appointed, full-service units available at once.
How does it compare to Beverly Hills?
Different products entirely. Beverly Hills is a house-and-street city with a strong school district. Century City is a building-and-service neighborhood. I compared them in more depth in my Beverly Hills vs. Century City piece. Short version: kids and a lawn, Beverly Hills. Travel and simplicity, Century City.
Does the mansion tax apply here?
Yes. Century City is inside the City of Los Angeles, so Measure ULA applies to sales above the current thresholds. It’s one of the real differences between selling here and selling in Beverly Hills, which is exempt as an incorporated city. If you’re anywhere near the threshold, model it early.
Worth a Closer Look
Century City works for a specific person: someone who values their time more than their square footage, who travels, who wants home to be simple. If that’s you, nothing else in Los Angeles does it as well.
If it isn’t you, that’s fine — I’d rather help you figure that out in an afternoon than after a purchase. More on my Century City page, or get in touch and we’ll walk a couple of buildings.
