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Neighborhood Report

Highland Park, Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles' oldest streetcar suburb, still running on its two main streets: Craftsman bungalows and Victorians across a preservation zone of about 4,000 structures in the Arroyo Seco hills, York Boulevard and Figueroa Street carrying the cafes and galleries, and the A Line reaching downtown in 17 minutes, six miles away.

Hidden Gem Angle: Historic streetcar suburb revival Price band: Mid Data checked October 25, 2026
Highland Park, Los Angeles, with its signature palm trees, seen from Avenue 64
Highland Park and its signature palm trees, seen from Avenue 64. Photo by Camiloarenivar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

At a Glance

Affordability 4/10 Median sale price, Highland Park$1,174,000Homes.com Home Trends, last 12 months, October 2026, on 210 homes sold 1 year price changeDown 2% year over yearHomes.com Home Trends, last 12 months, October 2026 Average rent, one bedroom, Highland Park$2,095 per monthZumper, October 2026 Median single family sale price, Highland Park$1,200,000Homes.com Home Trends, last 12 months, October 2026 A median above a million dollars still asks a lot. It sits about $386,000 below Bernal Heights on the same measure, and a one bedroom rents for roughly $1,500 a month less.
Walkability 7.5/10 Walk Score, Highland Park neighborhood77 out of 100Walk Score, October 2026 Transit Score, Highland Park neighborhood50 out of 100Walk Score, October 2026 Bike Score, Highland Park neighborhood53 out of 100Walk Score, October 2026 York and Figueroa do the daily work on foot, and corridor addresses score in the mid 80s to mid 90s. The hillside streets between them are a different routine.
Housing Variety 7/10 Housing stock, Highland ParkHighland Park Garvanza Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, about 4,000 structures from the 1880s to the 1940s; 14,199 occupied homes, 53% renting and 47% owningCity Planning via a local guide, October 2026; RentCafe, October 1, 2026 Bungalows and Victorians carry the neighborhood, with duplexes and small apartment buildings behind them. New supply arrives a house at a time.
Daily Life 8.5/10 Two main streets, a Tuesday farmers market, a 1927 bowling alley still open, and parks in the arroyo and the hills. The week is covered without leaving the neighborhood.
Commute 8/10 Distance to Downtown Los AngelesAbout 6 milesRome2Rio, October 2026 Metro A Line train, Highland Park to downtown17 minutesRome2Rio, October 2026 The train is the commute here: direct from Highland Park Station, every 15 minutes. Driving is short on miles and long on parkway traffic at peak hours.

California cost notes. California taxes income at nine rates from 1 percent to 12.3 percent, with a further 1 percent on income over $1 million for a top rate of 13.3 percent (Tax Foundation, January 1, 2026); most Highland Park households land in the 9.3 percent bracket, which covers single filer taxable income from $72,724 to $371,479, and capital gains are taxed as ordinary income. Los Angeles has no city income tax. Property tax runs the other way: Proposition 13 sets the base levy at 1 percent of assessed value, caps assessed value growth at 2 percent a year, and reassesses at market value when a home sells. Highland Park tax bills for tax year 2025 to 26 carry a total rate of 1.1874 percent, inside the county guide range that stays at or below 1.25 percent in most of Los Angeles County, so a new buyer at the $1,174,000 median owes roughly $13,940 a year before exemptions, while a neighbor who bought decades ago pays tax on a far lower assessed value. Los Angeles transfer tax on a typical Highland Park sale is the combined base documentary rate of 0.56 percent, about $6,574 at the median; the Measure ULA additional tax starts above $5,150,000, so a Highland Park sale does not reach it.

Map of Highland Park, Los Angeles in context, with a pin on the neighborhood and downtown Los Angeles to the southwest
Highland Park in context, pin on the neighborhood, with Downtown Los Angeles about six miles southwest. Map: Esri, HERE, Garmin, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS user community.

The Story

Highland Park begins with water in a dry wash. Tongva (Kizh) people lived along the Arroyo Seco long before Los Angeles was founded in 1781. After that founding, Corporal Jose Maria Verdugo of the Mission San Gabriel guard was granted the 36,403 acre Rancho San Rafael, which included present day Highland Park. Drought broke the Verdugo family in the 1860s; the rancho was auctioned in 1869 for $3,500 over an unpaid loan, passed to Andrew Glassell and Albert Chapman, and in 1885 was sold to George Morgan and Albert Judson, who combined it with other Verdugo parcels to create the Highland Park tract in 1886.

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Two rail lines carried the new suburb through the land boom bust, and in 1895 Highland Park became the first community annexed by the City of Los Angeles, with only about 100 residents, Garvanza following in 1899. What grew was a streetcar suburb of Victorians, Foursquares and Craftsman bungalows along Pasadena Avenue, now Figueroa Street, served by Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway cars, by the Santa Fe, and briefly by Occidental College, which moved to Highland Park in 1898 before leaving for Eagle Rock in 1914.

The Arroyo made it an artists' place. Charles Fletcher Lummis built El Alisal, his stone house from Arroyo Seco river rock, from the late 1890s and finished around 1910, hosting noises, his parties, for guests from John Muir to Will Rogers. William Lees Judson founded his stained glass studio in 1897 and USC's fine arts school in Garvanza. Lummis founded the Southwest Museum in 1907, Los Angeles's first museum; its Mount Washington hilltop building opened in 1914, looking down on his house.

The Arroyo Seco Parkway, opened December 30, 1940 as an early American freeway, made Highland Park easy to leave. White flight followed, and by the mid 1960s it was a largely Latino district where Mexican immigrant and Mexican American families bought the bungalows, opened businesses on Figueroa and York, and, in the 1970s, ran the Mechicano Art Center and Centro de Arte Publico on Figueroa as part of the Chicano Arts Collective.

Rail returned with the Gold Line station at Avenue 57 in 2003. Redfin named Highland Park the country's hottest neighborhood for 2013, with 2012 sales up 73 percent and prices up 31 percent. New bars and boutiques arrived on York Boulevard beside tortillerias, panaderias and botanicas, and anti displacement processions walked the same street. Highland Park's argument today, between the family that has held a Figueroa storefront for decades and the newcomer restoring a Craftsman above Avenue 57, is the oldest one in its history, about who the Arroyo is for.

El Alisal, the Lummis House at 200 East Avenue 43 in Highland Park, Los Angeles
El Alisal, the Lummis House, built by Charles Fletcher Lummis from Arroyo Seco stone from the late 1890s to around 1910. Photo by Los Angeles, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Timeline

  • Pre 1781 and 1784: Tongva (Kizh) people live along the Arroyo Seco; in 1784 Jose Maria Verdugo is granted the 36,403 acre Rancho San Rafael, including present day Highland Park.
  • 1869: Drought driven hardship forces the Verdugo family to auction Rancho San Rafael for $3,500 over an unpaid loan; Andrew Glassell and Albert J. Chapman buy the tract and lease it to sheep herders.
  • 1885 to 1886: George Morgan and Albert Judson buy the tract in 1885 and create the Highland Park tract in 1886, one of Los Angeles's first subdivisions.
  • 1895: Highland Park is annexed to Los Angeles, the first community annexed by the city, with about 100 residents; Garvanza follows in 1899.
  • 1897 to 1899: William Lees Judson and his three sons found the stained glass studio in 1897; Occidental College relocates to Highland Park in 1898; Lummis begins building El Alisal in this window.
  • December 31, 1907 and August 3, 1914: The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is incorporated in 1907, the first museum in Los Angeles, founded by Charles Lummis; its Mount Washington hilltop building opens August 3, 1914. El Alisal is finished around 1910.
  • March 27, 1914: Occidental College dedicates its new Eagle Rock campus halls, ending the Highland Park campus era; its Hall of Arts and Letters survives as the Savoy Apartments.
  • 1936 and December 30, 1940: Pacific Electric Red Car service in Highland Park ends in 1936; the Arroyo Seco Parkway opens December 30, 1940.
  • Mid 1960s: After parkway era white flight, Highland Park is by the mid 1960s a largely Latino district; the W streetcar had been replaced by buses in 1955.
  • 1975 to 1978: The Mechicano Art Center (Figueroa at Avenue 54, 1975 to 1978) and Centro de Arte Publico (Figueroa between Avenues 56 and 57, 1977 to 1978) run as part of the Highland Park Chicano Arts Collective; both buildings were later approved as Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monuments.
  • April 16, 1984: Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang open Fashion 21, a 900 square foot store at 5637 North Figueroa Street, with $11,000 in savings; first year sales total $700,000, and the store becomes Forever 21.
  • 2003: The Highland Park station at North Avenue 57 and Marmion Way opens on the Gold Line, now the A Line, on the site of a rail station demolished in 1965.
  • January 2013 and November 8, 2014: Redfin names Highland Park the hottest neighborhood in the country, on 2012 sales up 73 percent and prices up 31 percent; in November 2014 the North East Los Angeles Alliance's Procesion de Testimonios walks York Boulevard serving mock eviction notices over displacement.

What It Actually Feels Like

The neighborhood runs on two streets and a wash. Figueroa is the long spine: taquerias, panaderias and botanicas that have served the neighborhood for decades, the 1925 Highland Theatre, a 1927 bowling alley still taking lanes, and the A Line crossing at Avenue 57. York Boulevard is the shorter, denser west end, where new cafes and bars sit a few doors from the shops that were already there. Between the two streets the avenues climb: bungalows and Victorians on the flat blocks, then streets that pitch up into the hills toward Mount Washington and Garvanza, where the porches face the arroyo and the city beyond it. Down in the wash, Sycamore Grove Park and the Arroyo Seco path carry the walkers, cyclists and weekend games. Evenings split the difference: Figueroa stays local and Spanish first, York gets the dinner crowd, and the hills above both go quiet early.

Storefronts along York Boulevard in Highland Park, Los Angeles
Storefronts along York Boulevard in Highland Park. Photo by Streetwise Cycle, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Two working main streets: York Boulevard and North Figueroa Street carry grocers, cafes, bars, galleries and the Tuesday Old LA Certified Farmers Market, and corridor addresses score 84 to 95 for walking (Walk Score via PropertyShark, October 2026).
  • A deep historic stock at a Northeast Los Angeles discount: about 4,000 structures in the Highland Park Garvanza HPOZ and a $1,174,000 median (Homes.com, last 12 months, October 2026), about $386,000 below Bernal Heights on the same measure.
  • A real train commute: the Metro A Line runs direct from Highland Park Station to downtown in 17 minutes (Rome2Rio, October 2026), six miles that the parkway makes slower by car at peak hours.
  • Renting is a genuine way in: one bedroom asking rents cluster at $1,995 to $2,095 across RentHop, RentCafe and Zumper in October 2026, and 53 percent of the neighborhood rents (RentCafe, October 1, 2026).
  • Green edges on three sides: the Arroyo Seco, Sycamore Grove Park and the hills toward Mount Washington and Garvanza sit inside or beside the neighborhood.

Cons

  • The entry price is still a Highland Park price: verified single family listings on October 25, 2026 started at $1,100,000, and the sub million sales in the Homes.com range are the smallest units, not family houses.
  • Zumper's own page disagrees with itself on rent: its table puts a one bedroom at $2,095 and its prose at $2,050 (Zumper, October 2026). Budget the higher figure.
  • The neighborhood averages hide the hills: a Walk Score of 77 and a Transit Score of 50 (Walk Score, October 2026) mean hillside blocks live by car even while the corridors walk well.
  • Old houses, old systems: most of the HPOZ stock dates from the 1880s to the 1940s, and preservation rules shape what can change on the outside.
  • The revival has a cost side: Highland Park's working class Latino base built much of the culture the new arrivals come for, and rising prices since the 2000s have pushed some of those households out.

Housing in Detail

Entry: the condos, tenancy in common units and small houses at the neighborhood's edges, where Homes.com's range for the last 12 months runs from $469,000 for the smallest units, and where the verified single family floor on October 25, 2026 was a 1965 three bedroom house at 550 Marie Avenue, 1,359 square feet on a quarter acre hillside lot, listed at $1,100,000. Mid: the Craftsman and Spanish Revival houses on the flat streets and lower hills, where a 1923 house at 723 Terrace 49 listed at $1,399,000 and a 1957 mid century house at 5217 Hub Street listed at $1,595,000. Top: the view houses and designer renovations, where a 1939 California Ranch at 231 Wayland Street, featured in Domino and Apartment Therapy, listed at $1,695,000 and Homes.com sales over the last 12 months ran as high as $2,225,000. The shape underneath: about 4,000 structures in the Highland Park Garvanza HPOZ from the 1880s to the 1940s, 14,199 occupied homes with 53 percent renting and 47 percent owning (RentCafe, October 1, 2026), a median single family sale price of $1,200,000 and a median townhouse sale price of $1,212,500 (Homes.com Home Trends, last 12 months, October 2026). Highland Park medians cluster tightly despite the different windows behind them, from $1,140,000 for MLS closed sales over the last 12 months to $1,174,000 for all home types sold over the last 12 months (Homes.com), with single family homes alone at a $1,200,000 median on the same Homes.com page.

Daily Life

York Boulevard carries the west end: cafes, bars, galleries and small shops along a street that still works as a neighborhood main street, with the Old LA Certified Farmers Market on Tuesdays. Figueroa Street carries the longer run south, past Highland Park Station, the Highland Theatre and Highland Park Bowl, a 1927 bowling alley restored and still open. Sycamore Grove Park sits in the arroyo flat along Figueroa, Garvanza Park climbs its hill at the north end, and Tierra de la Culebra Park threads a small art park through the blocks near Avenue 57. Franklin High School and the numbered avenues give the neighborhood its grid climbing both hillsides, and the Southwest Museum and the Lummis House stand at the Mount Washington edge as the Arroyo culture landmarks.

Best For / Think Twice If

Best for: first time buyers who want a historic house with a train commute and can work at the $1.1 million end of Northeast Los Angeles; renters who want two main streets and a one bedroom near $2,000 before committing to a purchase; downtown workers who will ride the A Line, 17 minutes from Highland Park Station; buyers who value Craftsman bones and a preservation zone over new construction.

Think twice if: your budget needs a family size single family house under $1 million inside Highland Park, because the verified floor on October 25, 2026 was $1,100,000; you need flat, step free streets, because the avenues climb on both sides of the arroyo; you want a large new apartment building, because supply here is houses, duplexes and small buildings; peak hour driving is your commute, because the Arroyo Seco Parkway is six short miles that run long at rush hour.

Top Properties Right Now

$1,100,000

550 Marie Avenue, Los Angeles

3 bed | 2 bath | 1,359 square feet | Single-family house, built 1965

The verified entry point inside Highland Park: a mid century hillside house on a quarter acre lot with a floor to ceiling brick fireplace and hill views, in Historic Highland Park near the South Pasadena border.

Listing verified on Redfin, October 25, 2026. View on Redfin

$1,399,000

723 Terrace 49, Los Angeles

3 bed | 2 bath | 1,343 square feet | Single-family house, built 1923

The character card: a single level 1923 house in the Mount Washington foothills with vaulted ceilings, a remodeled kitchen and an upper garden deck over the neighborhood, 12 days on Redfin.

Listing verified on Redfin, October 25, 2026. View on Redfin

$1,595,000

5217 Hub Street, Los Angeles

4 bed | 3.5 bath | Single-family house, built 1957

The mid century card: a two story 1957 house a few blocks from the York Boulevard shops with views and a lower level counted in the listing's 4 bed, 3.5 bath figure; Redfin's public record block counts 3 bedrooms and 2 baths at 1,772 square feet.

Listing verified on Redfin, October 25, 2026. View on Redfin

$1,695,000

231 Wayland Street, Los Angeles

2 bed | 2 bath | 2,159 square feet | Single-family house, built 1939

The top of the verified ladder: a 1939 California Ranch on an 8,782 square foot lot, styled by its designer owner and featured in Domino, Apartment Therapy and The Design Rules by Emily Henderson, with palms, a sunroom and sweeping views.

Listing verified on Redfin, October 25, 2026. View on Redfin

Nearby Alternatives

  • Eagle Rock: northeast along the parkway, a quieter, more small town feel around Colorado Boulevard and Occidental College, which left Highland Park for Eagle Rock in 1914.
  • Mount Washington: the hillside directly above the Arroyo, winding streets and sweeping views, with the Southwest Museum on its hilltop and no main street of its own.
  • Cypress Park: south across the Arroyo, more affordable and more industrial at its edges, trading Highland Park's two main streets for a shorter run at downtown.
  • Pasadena: a separate city at the other end of the parkway and the A Line, larger and more formal around Old Pasadena, Caltech and the Rose Bowl; Highland Park is the scrappier midpoint between it and downtown.

Sources

Data as of the dates shown above. Refresh due within 90 days for listings and 6 months for market data.

  • Homes.com, Highland Park Home Trends, October 25, 2026: median sale price $1,174,000, down 2% year over year, last 12 months, on 210 homes sold; median single family sale price $1,200,000; median townhouse sale price $1,212,500; median list price $1,195,000; sales range $469,000 to $2,225,000: homes.com
  • Silver Lake Blog, Highland Park real estate, October 2026, MLS closed sales: median sale price $1,140,000, down 0.9%, last 12 months, on 269 sales: silverlakeblog.com
  • Maldonado Real Estate, Northeast LA neighborhoods guide, October 25, 2026, citing Redfin: median sale price $1,154,856, July 2026, down 3.3% year over year. No Redfin Highland Park neighborhood median with a year change could be read on a Redfin page on October 25, 2026; Redfin listing pages carry an unlabeled area figure of $999,433 with no window: alexmaldonadorealestate.com
  • Zumper, Highland Park rent research, October 2026: average rent, 1 bedroom, $2,095 per month in the page table and $2,050 in the page prose; average rent across all bedrooms $2,450 as of October 24, 2026: zumper.com
  • RentCafe, Highland Park average rent, last updated October 1, 2026: average rent, 1 bed, $2,039 per month; average rent, all rentals, $2,173; 14,199 occupied homes, 53% renter occupied and 47% owner occupied: rentcafe.com
  • RentHop, Highland Park average rent, October 25, 2026: average rent, one bedroom, $1,995 per month, on 12 listings: renthop.com
  • Walk Score, Los Angeles neighborhoods table, October 25, 2026: Highland Park Walk Score 77, Transit Score 50, Bike Score 53: walkscore.com
  • PropertyShark, Highland Park address pages, October 25, 2026: corridor Walk Scores of 84 at 4952 North Figueroa Street and 92 at 331 North Avenue 57, Walk Score via PropertyShark: propertyshark.com
  • Rome2Rio, Highland Park to Los Angeles Downtown, October 25, 2026: 6 miles, road distance 6.4 miles; tram 17 minutes; Line 81 bus 34 minutes; drive 10 minutes: rome2rio.com
  • Homes.com, Highland Park local guide, October 25, 2026: historic Craftsman bungalows and Victorian homes, Pasadena about 5 miles north, Highland Park Station on North Avenue 58: homes.com
  • Tax Foundation, 2026 state income tax rates and brackets, January 1, 2026: California's nine brackets from 1% to 12.3%, the 1% surcharge over $1 million, and the 9.3% bracket from $72,724 to $371,479 for single filers: taxfoundation.org
  • Los Angeles County Auditor Controller, Taxpayers' Guide: Proposition 13 base rate of 1%, assessed value growth capped at 2% a year, reassessment on sale, and a total tax rate that does not exceed 1.25% in most of Los Angeles County: lacounty.gov
  • PropertyShark, tax histories for North Figueroa Street and York Boulevard addresses in 90042, October 25, 2026: total tax rate 1.1874% for tax year 2025 to 26: propertyshark.com
  • Los Angeles County Registrar Recorder, documentary transfer tax materials, October 25, 2026: county tax $1.10 per $1,000 and City of Los Angeles tax $4.50 per $1,000, a combined base of 0.56%; Measure ULA additional tax thresholds of $5,150,000 and $10,300,000 on the July 1, 2024 bulletin: lavote.net
  • Highland Park, Los Angeles, overview: Tongva (Kizh) settlement, Rancho San Rafael at 36,403 acres, the 1869 auction at $3,500, the 1886 tract, annexation in 1895, the mid 1960s Latino majority, and the 2003 station: wikipedia.org
  • City of Los Angeles Planning, Highland Park preservation plan: Pacific Electric on Pasadena Avenue, Red Car service ending in 1936, the W line replaced by buses in 1955, and Judson Studios, established 1897, at 200 South Avenue 66: lacity.gov
  • Online Archive of California, Charles Fletcher Lummis Papers: city librarian 1905 to 1910, Southwest Museum incorporated December 31, 1907, cornerstone December 13, 1913, opening August 3, 1914: oac.cdlib.org
  • PBS SoCal, A Visit to the Past: Charles F. Lummis Home and Garden: El Alisal built over about 12 years from Arroyo Seco stones, completed 1910, the noises, and the house saved from parkway demolition: pbssocal.org
  • PBS SoCal, Occidental College in Highland Park: the college founded in Boyle Heights in 1887, relocated to Highland Park in 1898, and moved to Eagle Rock in 1914, with the Hall of Arts and Letters surviving as the Savoy Apartments: pbssocal.org
  • PBS SoCal, Two Former Chicano Arts Buildings Approved As LA Historic Cultural Monuments: Mechicano Art Center at Figueroa and Avenue 54, leased 1975 to 1978, and Centro de Arte Publico on Figueroa between Avenues 56 and 57, leased 1977 to 1978: pbssocal.org
  • UCLA Luskin, The State of Highland Park: 1950s Mexican settlement as rents fell, the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and Redfin's hottest neighborhood finding, sales up 73% and prices up 31%: ucla.edu
  • National Trust for Historic Preservation, Judson Studios profile: William Lees Judson founded the studio in 1897, the Highland Park building in use since 1920, and David Judson as the fifth generation: savingplaces.org
  • Listings verified October 25, 2026: 550 Marie Avenue, 723 Terrace 49, 5217 Hub Street and 231 Wayland Street (Redfin).
  • Camiloarenivar, Highland Park from Avenue 64 (hero photograph), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0: commons.wikimedia.org
  • Los Angeles, Lummis House (story photograph), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0: commons.wikimedia.org
  • Streetwise Cycle, Storefronts, Highland Park (photograph), Wikimedia Commons, public domain: commons.wikimedia.org
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