Buying or selling in Simi Valley

In the 90 days ending September 22, 2026, 251 houses, condos and townhomes sold in Simi Valley, and the median sale price was $810,000, according to Redfin. Half sold for more and half for less.

The spread is wide. A condo, a 1960s house on the valley floor and a newer home in the hills sell at very different prices, so the median is a starting point, not a price for any one home. Tell me the neighborhood and the kind of home you want and I will send you what has actually sold there.

About 71% of Simi Valley's homes are detached houses, about 8% are attached single-family homes such as townhomes, about 2% are mobile homes, and about 18% are in buildings of three or more units. About 73% are owner-occupied.

The median home was built in 1980. About 25% of homes date from the 1960s, about 20% from the 1970s and about 23% from the 1980s. About 16% were built in 2000 or later.

With a home from the 1960s or 1970s, the inspection matters. Roofs, plumbing and electrical panels may be original, and it is better to know that before you remove your contingencies.

For 2026-27 the rate on a home in Simi Valley is 1.0983% of assessed value. The county's table shows a second, slightly lower rate of 1.0898%, but the county's parcel map shows no parcels in the areas that carry it, so in practice the whole city pays the same rate.

The reason is that one school district covers the city. The part above 1% is two Simi Valley Unified school bonds, a community college bond and a Metropolitan Water District levy. On a home assessed at one million dollars, the 2026-27 rate comes to $10,983 a year.

Fixed charges come on top. The largest is sewer, which the city puts on the property tax bill for homes: $58.72 a month for a single-family home as of July 1, 2026, which is about $705 a year. The park district's assessment averaged about $52 a parcel on the county's 2025-26 list, and there are small flood control and stormwater charges.

Assessed value normally starts at your purchase price and can rise no more than 2% a year after that.

I found no residential Mello-Roos district in Simi Valley. On the county's 2025-26 list of special charges, the only community facilities district the city levies is at the Simi Valley Town Center, on 13 parcels. I read every community facilities district on that list, and none names Wood Ranch, Big Sky or the school district.

What some neighborhoods have instead is the city's Landscape District No. 1, which pays for greenbelts, slopes and street medians. The 2025-26 list shows 47 zones covering about 5,600 parcels, roughly one in seven in the city. Dividing each zone's total by its parcels gives about $20 a year at the low end and about $540 at the high end, and the middle zone is about $130.

About 230 parcels in Simi Valley also carried an energy-improvement loan, often called PACE, on the 2025-26 list. A past owner chose it, and it stays on the tax bill. Send me the address and I will check the tax bill for a landscape zone or one of those loans before you write an offer.

A large part of it is. On the state's 2025 map, about 65% of the land inside the city limits is in the Very High fire hazard severity zone, mostly the hills around the valley. Counting residential addresses on the city's own map, about 30% are Very High, about 10% are High and about 7% are Moderate. A little over half are not in any zone.

It depends on the neighborhood. Essentially all of Big Sky and the Woodlands, and most of Wood Ranch and Bridle Path, are in the Very High zone. Several of the 1960s tracts in the middle of the valley floor are not zoned at all.

Fire has reached the city. The Simi Fire of October 2003 burned 108,204 acres and destroyed 37 residences and 278 outbuildings, including structures on the east side of Simi Valley. The Woolsey Fire of November 2018 started in the hills south of the city and burned 96,949 acres in two counties. The Easy Fire started on the west side on October 30, 2019. CAL FIRE's incident page lists it at 2,375 acres with one structure destroyed, and CAL FIRE's mapped perimeter for it is about 1,800 acres.

The Ventura County Fire Department serves Simi Valley. Since January 1, 2026 its ordinance requires the seller of a home in a High or Very High zone to give the buyer documentation that the property meets defensible space rules. There is currently no fee for the inspection, and the department recommends asking at least two weeks before escrow closes. Get a homeowners insurance quote during your contingency period, before you are committed to the purchase.

A small part of it is. About 5% of the land in the city is in a FEMA special flood hazard area, and about 3% of residential addresses are.

Almost all of those addresses are in Zone AO, which FEMA defines as river or stream flood hazard areas and areas of shallow flooding, usually sheet flow, averaging one to three feet deep. On the city's address map the residential ones are on the west and central valley floor, and the streets with the most are Sinaloa Road, Tierra Rejada Road and Vallejo Avenue. About 1% more of the city's residential addresses are in a strip FEMA maps as having reduced flood risk because of a levee.

The Arroyo Simi runs the length of the valley, and its tributaries come down the canyons on both sides. The city's General Plan documents say most of the 100-year floodplain is in and next to the arroyo and those tributaries. They also list dams at Sycamore Canyon, Las Llajas Canyon, Runkle Canyon and Wood Ranch, and say the state inspects the first three every year.

If the home is in a special flood hazard area and your loan is from a government-backed lender, flood insurance is required. Send me the address and I will check the flood zone before you write an offer.

It is a former rocket engine testing and nuclear research site. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control, known as DTSC, is the lead agency overseeing its cleanup, and it describes the site as roughly 2,850 acres in the Simi Hills, overlooking Simi Valley to the north and northwest and the San Fernando Valley to the southeast. County parcel records place the site on unincorporated county land.

Three parties are responsible for the work: Boeing, the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA. DTSC's 2010 orders require the Department of Energy and NASA to clean the soil in their areas to background levels. A 2022 settlement agreement between DTSC and Boeing sets the process for Boeing's areas, and groundwater for all three falls under a 2007 consent order.

DTSC's posted monthly reports ran through July 2026 when I checked. Its key update said Boeing had finished soil excavation for an interim cleanup at the Area I Burn Pit, which DTSC calls part of a broader phased cleanup. DTSC approved NASA's Phase 1 groundwater cleanup plan on January 16, 2026. It took public comment in fall 2025 on Boeing's draft soil cleanup study, and its July 2026 report showed the final decision on that still pending.

I am not the person to judge what that means for any one home. DTSC posts monthly status reports, monitoring data, a document library and its own answers to frequently asked questions. I would read them, and take your questions to DTSC, before buying nearby.

One district, Simi Valley Unified. It lists 18 elementary schools, three middle schools (Hillside, Sinaloa and Valley View) and four high schools: Royal, Santa Susana, Simi Valley and Apollo, which is a continuation school.

In the state's school directory the elementary schools run from kindergarten through 5th grade, the middle schools from 6th through 8th, and the high schools from 9th through 12th.

The district has a school finder and boundary maps. Which school serves an address can change, so check with the district before you write an offer.

The 118 freeway runs through the city. From the Tapo Canyon Road interchange it is about 5 freeway miles east to the Los Angeles County line, about 15 to the 405, about 18 to the 5 and about 20 to the 210. Going west, it is about 8 miles to the 23.

By road, City Hall is about 37 miles from downtown Los Angeles, about 18 from Thousand Oaks, about 22 from Camarillo, about 37 from Ventura and about 64 from Santa Barbara.

The Simi Valley station, at 5050 Los Angeles Avenue, is on Metrolink's Ventura County Line, which runs to Los Angeles Union Station on weekdays. Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner stops there, and it is one of only two stops in the county for the Coast Starlight. Parking is free for Metrolink riders.

The city lists three nearby airports: Burbank Airport at 26 miles, Camarillo Airport at 25 and Los Angeles International Airport at 42.

Yes. For 2026 the conforming loan limit and the FHA loan limit for a single-family home in Ventura County are both $1,035,000. With your full entitlement, VA sets no loan limit: the amount depends on what your lender approves and what the home appraises for.

I help veterans and active-duty buyers with VA purchases, and my Veterans page explains how.

Some, and more are approved. The largest is Lost Canyons, north of the 118, an approved project of 364 home lots. On August 10, 2026 the City Council modified it, moving 180 of the lots so that nearly all of them sit where the Shadow Canyon golf course used to operate, and dropping the new golf course. The ordinance's second reading was on the council's August 24, 2026 agenda. As of March 2026 the city's project list described the work under way as grading, streets and infrastructure.

At Runkle Canyon, also called the Woodlands, the city's list showed 138 senior condominiums in plan check and 21 custom homes still under review as of March 2026.

City Ventures lists Walnut Park, three-story townhomes with solar, as coming soon as of October 2026. North Canyon Ranch, 157 houses and 50 senior units proposed on county land north of the 118 and west of Erringer Road, is not approved: the city says its hearing was continued to a date uncertain.

At a new-home community the sales agent works for the builder. You can bring your own agent, but most builders expect that agent to be registered on your first visit, so call me before you tour.

Yes, with a city permit. The City Council adopted Ordinance No. 1370 on June 8, 2026, and it took effect July 9, 2026. It allows rentals of 30 days or less in residential zones and requires the owner to hold a short-term rental permit. The city's staff report recommended requiring permits from January 1, 2027. Before the vote, the Planning Commission had recommended a citywide ban.

The permit is personal. It cannot be transferred, it does not run with the land, and a change of ownership requires a new one, so a buyer does not inherit the seller's permit. A person may hold only one permit in the city, and a permit runs through December 31 and has to be renewed each year.

Apartments are excluded, and so are accessory dwelling units that state law requires to be rented for more than 30 days. The standard limit is two adults and two children up to age 12 per bedroom, and the application calls for a nuisance response plan, a transient occupancy tax registration and liability insurance of at least five hundred thousand dollars. The city must inspect the home before it issues or renews a permit.

State law lets an association prohibit rentals of 30 days or less, so read the association's rules too. The ordinance was not yet in the city's online code when I checked in October 2026, and I found no permit page or adopted fee. The staff report estimated the permit fee at about $741, so ask the City where the program stands.

The voter-approved urban boundary, called the CURB, is still in force. A ballot measure on November 8, 2016 extended it from the end of 2020 to December 31, 2050. It cannot be changed without a vote of the people, and the city reviews new development for consistency with it.

The yearly cap on building permits is gone. The city's Managed Growth Plan, which metered permits at 292 a year, expired on January 1, 2023, and the city says it will not be renewed because it conflicts with state housing law. The chapter is still printed in the municipal code, which can confuse people.

Hillside rules remain. Outside the city's mapped valley floor, the Hillside Performance Standards tie the number of homes to the slope: at most one home per 4 acres on slopes of 15% to 20%, and one per 40 acres on slopes over 20%. They also bar building on visually prominent ridgelines.

A house or an addition on a residential lot that was legally subdivided by July 21, 1986 is exempt, unless the work means grading on a prominent ridgeline or on a slope over 20%, or grading more than 1,000 cubic yards. If you plan to add on to a hillside home, talk to the city's Planning Division before you buy.

No. Santa Susana Knolls is an unincorporated community next to the city. The county calls it an Existing Community and says it is inside the city's Area of Interest but not its Sphere of Influence. The Census counts about 530 homes there, all detached.

The city line runs through what people call the Knolls. Knolls Elementary on Katherine Road is inside the city, while addresses farther south on Katherine Road are roughly where the county land begins. In the unincorporated part, zoning and permits come from the county.

Two other places that carry the Simi Valley name are also outside the city limits: the Simi Valley Landfill and Recycling Center at 2801 Madera Road, which Waste Management operates on county land northwest of the city, and the North Canyon Ranch site, which would have to be annexed before it is built.

Send me the address and I will check which side of the line it is on, along with the tax bill and the zoning, before you write an offer.

The city has a Mobile Home Rent Mediation Board, set up in 1983, that covers five parks: Friendly Village, Susana Woods, Trade Winds, Crest and Simi Country, with 776 spaces among them. Parks with fewer than 21 spaces are not eligible. The city's page calls the board a voluntary forum, and the council resolution behind it, No. 2013-57, sets the rules.

Under the resolution, a park must give at least 90 days' written notice of a rent increase, and no increase is permitted more often than once every 365 days per park. If tenants of at least 25% of the affected spaces petition within 30 days of the notice, the board determines what the appropriate rent should be. A party that finds the decision unacceptable can take it to a formal hearing, and the hearing officer's award is binding on the parties.

Some rents are exempt, including the first rent for a vacated space and rents in a lease both sides enter voluntarily. A park may not require a buyer to sign a lease longer than 12 months, and signing one exempts the space from the resolution, so read the lease before you sign. The board received no petitions in 2025, and the five parks reported an average space rent of about $879 a month at the end of that year.

Mobile home parks are otherwise regulated largely by the state, through the Department of Housing and Community Development. In a park you own the home and rent the space, so read the lease and the park rules, and ask your lender early about financing.

Water depends on the address. The city says Ventura County Waterworks District No. 8, which the city manages, serves about 60% of the city, and Golden State Water Company, a private company, serves the other 40%. On the city's map, Wood Ranch, Big Sky and Bridle Path are in the district, and several of the tracts in the middle of the valley are Golden State.

Sewer is the city's own system, and for homes the charge is on the property tax bill, not a monthly bill. Trash and recycling pickup is by Waste Management under an exclusive franchise with the city.

Electricity is delivered by Southern California Edison. Simi Valley is a member of Clean Power Alliance, which supplies the power unless you opt out. Gas comes from Southern California Gas.

I found no report or inspection that the city itself requires at resale. I searched the municipal code for a building records report, a pre-sale inspection, and sewer lateral or retrofit rules, and found none.

The fire department's rule is the local one to plan for. If the home is in a High or Very High fire hazard severity zone, the seller must give the buyer documentation of a defensible space inspection. Corrections are due within 30 days or before closing, whichever comes first, unless the buyer agrees in writing to finish them within 60 days after closing. State law adds a home-hardening disclosure for homes built before 2010 in those zones.

The transfer tax is the same $1.10 per $1,000 as the rest of the county. Simi Valley has its own ordinance at 27.5 cents per $500, and state law credits that against the county's share. The purchase contract says who pays it.

It depends on price and condition more than on the city. Across Ventura County, my own 49 listings since 2022 sold in a median of 11 days on the market, at a median of 100% of the asking price.

Before you list, I walk the home, show you what has actually sold nearby, and tell you what is worth fixing and what is not.

I'm Jason Walters, and my office is in Camarillo, on Village Commons Boulevard. I have 22 years in real estate, the last 17 in Ventura County. I work with buyers and sellers across Ventura County, Simi Valley included.

You work with me directly, from pricing strategy to closing day.