Is Beverly Hills a good place to live? The short answer
Beverly Hills works well if you can carry its costs and want a small, self-governing city in the middle of the Westside. The four numbers that matter most:
- $3,676,482: Zillow's typical home value in September 2026, about four times the City of Los Angeles figure of $927,891.
- $4,016 a month: Zillow's observed rent in September 2026, up 27.8% in five years.
- $132,977: the median household income (Census ACS 2020-2024), against $99,122 for California.
- 25.1 minutes: the average commute, with 30.1% of workers working from home.
The trade-offs are high prices, a property crime count that is high per resident because of the visitors the shopping district draws, an old housing stock and fire risk in the hills. The rest of this page goes through each pro and con with the source behind it.
Pros of living in Beverly Hills
Pro: the city runs its own police and fire departments
Beverly Hills has its own police department, with patrol, traffic, detective and a Real Time Watch Center within its Technology Services Bureau, and its own fire department providing fire, paramedic and ambulance service. The fire department says it is rated Class 1 by the Insurance Services Office, a rating only a few departments in the country hold. For a city of about 31,600 residents, that means emergency services answer to the city council rather than to a county agency.
Pro: reported crime has fallen in 2026
The police department's monthly report for August 2026 shows 1,740 crimes in the first eight months of the year, 18% fewer than the 2,110 in the same months of 2025. Burglaries fell from 146 to 87, motor vehicle thefts from 65 to 33 and robberies from 30 to 15. One year is not a trend, but the direction is clear. Our Beverly Hills crime data page has the full figures.
Pro: a walkable shopping and dining district
The Golden Triangle, with Rodeo Drive at its center, is the city's main shopping district, close enough to many homes to reach on foot. The Rodeo Drive Committee counts more than one hundred luxury houses on its three blocks. Beverly Canon Gardens, a 33,000-square-foot public garden in the 200 block of North Canon Drive, adds outdoor seating between Beverly and Canon drives.
Pro: parks and gardens across the city
Beverly Gardens Park, first laid out as Santa Monica Park, runs the length of the city. Roxbury Memorial Park covers more than 11 acres with tennis, basketball, sand volleyball and lawn bowling. La Cienega Park sits opposite the La Cienega Tennis Center, and Coldwater Canyon Park spans just over five and a half acres on both sides of Coldwater Canyon. Greystone, a historic estate run as a city park, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Leashed dogs are allowed in every city park except Greystone.
Pro: a subway station at the city's door
Metro opened the D Line extension's Wilshire/La Cienega station on May 8, 2026, giving a train ride to Koreatown and Downtown Los Angeles. A second section, with a station at Beverly Drive and one in Century City, is under construction. The city has promoted the line with group rides from Wilshire/La Cienega to Union Station and the Music Center.
Pro: a small, separate school district
Beverly Hills Unified School District runs Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Vista Middle School, El Rodeo and Horace Mann. Its online school finder tells you whether an address is inside the district and which school it is assigned to. Check results on the California School Dashboard, and see our Beverly Hills schools guide.
Pro: home values have grown over the long run
Zillow's typical value has risen 84.4% in ten years and 9.3% in the latest year. Values dipped from 2022 to 2025, so short holds carry risk, but long-term owners have done well. See the Beverly Hills housing market report for the detail.
Pro: rent stabilization for older apartments
Renters get protection from the city's Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which covers most rental units in buildings that received a certificate of occupancy before February 1, 1995. Covered tenants may get only one rent increase every 12 months, capped by a formula in the municipal code, and landlords must register rents with the city each year.
Pro: free local transport and services for older residents
The city's Dial-A-Ride shuttle is free for residents aged 62 and over, or with a disability, and runs weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to anywhere in the city plus Cedars-Sinai, Kaiser Permanente on Cadillac Avenue and UCLA Medical Center. A certified farmers' market runs every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Civic Center Drive.
Cons of living in Beverly Hills
Con: some of the highest home prices in California
At $3,676,482, Zillow's typical Beverly Hills value is about 2.2 times Santa Monica's $1,657,936 and 3.7 times West Hollywood's $982,507 (September 2026). Even the cheapest area Zillow tracks in the city, North Doheny, had a typical value of $1,775,029.
Con: rents are high and still rising
Zillow's observed rent of $4,016 a month is up 4.3% in a year. The Census median gross rent, which includes long-term tenants on stabilized rents, was $2,830 (2020-2024). The gap between the two shows what a new tenant pays compared with someone who has stayed put.
Con: property crime is high per resident
The California Department of Justice recorded 1,082 property crimes and 126 violent crimes in Beverly Hills in 2025. Per 1,000 residents that is 34.2 property crimes, nearly twice the state rate of 18.0, and 4.0 violent crimes against 4.3 statewide. Rates per resident overstate the risk to residents in a city that draws large numbers of shoppers and workers, but thefts from stores and cars are a real part of life near the commercial streets.
Con: fire risk north of Sunset
The area north of Sunset Boulevard, and a few blocks south of it, is a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. The fire department inspects every property there for brush clearance from April 1 each year, fines owners who fail, and restricts street parking on some streets during extreme fire weather. Insurance can be harder to find; see our California wildfire zones guide.
Con: an old housing stock
Census data show 28.5% of the city's housing units were built in 1939 or earlier and only 2.8% since 2010. Older houses can need new wiring, plumbing and foundations, and older apartment buildings with open ground-floor parking fall under the city's mandatory soft-story seismic retrofit ordinance, adopted in 2018.
Con: strict rules on what you can change
In the Central Area, any change to a house visible from the street, including painting, new windows or a facade remodel, goes through some level of design review. Vinyl windows are not approved at the staff level. Trousdale Estates has its own construction traffic rules and hedge height limits. Budget time and fees for approvals if you plan to remodel.
Con: construction and disruption
Station work for the D Line's second section continues underground in Beverly Hills, and Trousdale Estates has its own rules limiting heavy trucks and contractor parking at building sites. Two AB 2011 projects, a 34-story tower at 8300 Wilshire Boulevard approved in June 2026 and four buildings proposed at 9220 North Santa Monica Boulevard, would bring further building work.
What living in Beverly Hills is like
Getting around Beverly Hills
Most residents drive: 55.5% of workers drive alone and 1.2% take public transit, while 30.1% work from home (Census ACS 2020-2024). The average commute is 25.1 minutes, shorter than the state's 28.7. From October 1, 2026, the city began lowering speed limits on selected streets under a new ordinance that uses the 2022 state law AB 43, with new limits enforceable once signs go up. The new subway station at Wilshire/La Cienega adds a car-free route east.
Things to do in Beverly Hills
Greystone hosts mansion tours on the first weekend of most months, film screenings and garden workshops. The public library on North Rexford Drive houses the Paley Archive. The city runs guided Artwalk tours, the Sunday farmers' market and an annual Rodeo Drive holiday lighting celebration. Historic Route 66 once ran along North Santa Monica Boulevard through the city, which has marked it with its own signs.
Schools in Beverly Hills
The district's school finder is the only reliable way to see which school an address is assigned to; a Beverly Hills mailing address does not guarantee it, since ZIP 90210 also covers parts of Los Angeles. Look up each school's results on the California School Dashboard, and confirm enrollment rules with the district before you buy.
Salary needed to live in Beverly Hills
MIT's Living Wage Calculator puts the pre-tax income needed for basic costs in Los Angeles County at $60,161 for a single adult with no children and $79,296 for two working adults with no children. Those figures assume county-average rents, well below Beverly Hills levels.
| Housing cost in Beverly Hills | Monthly cost | Income if housing is 30% of gross |
|---|---|---|
| Rent at Zillow's observed rent ($4,016) | $4,016 | About $160,600 |
| Buy the typical home ($3,676,482), 20% down, 7.24% 30-year rate, principal and interest only | About $20,044 | About $801,800 |
Our calculations, using Zillow's September 2026 figures and Freddie Mac's rate for the week of October 29, 2026. Property tax and insurance come on top of the purchase figure. The city's median household income of $132,977 means many residents are long-term owners or renters on stabilized rents, not recent buyers.
Who's moving to and from Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is slowly losing residents. The Census Bureau's five-year estimates show 34,536 people in 2010-2014, 34,186 in 2015-2019 and 31,624 in 2020-2024, a drop of 7.5% between the last two periods. The city's own history page notes that few vacant lots remain, so growth depends on rebuilding.
Most residents stay put: 86.1% lived in the same home a year earlier. Of those who moved, 7.8% of all residents came from elsewhere in Los Angeles County, 1.5% from another California county, 2.2% from another state and 2.4% from abroad. Renters occupy 59% of homes, and 12.7% of housing units were vacant at the time of the survey, a figure that can include second homes.
Retiring in Beverly Hills
About 25.4% of Beverly Hills residents are 65 or older, against 15.7% statewide (Census ACS 2020-2024). Services that matter for later life include the free Dial-A-Ride shuttle, the city's active adult programs and classes, and three major hospitals within the shuttle's range. For owners, the bigger question is tax: if you sell a long-held home and buy another, read our Prop 19 guide before you decide, and compare options in our best places to retire in California guide.
Where to live in Beverly Hills
The city divides its single-family streets into three zoning areas: the flatter Central Area, the Hillside Area and Trousdale Estates. Zillow's neighborhood values range from $1,775,029 in North Doheny to more than $10 million in The Flats and the area Zillow labels Beverly Hills Gateway. ZIP 90211 had the lowest Redfin median of the city's three ZIPs at $2,050,398. Compare them in our Beverly Hills neighborhoods guide and ZIP codes guide, and see the full cost picture in our Beverly Hills cost of living guide.
Should you move to Beverly Hills? A checklist
- Run the numbers on the typical home or rent above, plus property tax, insurance and HOA dues.
- Check whether the address is in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and get an insurance quote before you commit.
- Use the BHUSD school finder for the exact address.
- For an apartment, ask whether the unit is under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance and when the last increase was.
- For an older building, ask about soft-story retrofit status and any open permits.
- Check the city's crime map and calls-for-service map for the streets around the home.
- If you plan to remodel, confirm which zoning area the lot is in and whether design review applies.
- Drive your commute at rush hour, and try the subway from Wilshire/La Cienega if you work along the line.
Back to the Beverly Hills overview.