Palos Verdes Estates

Palos Verdes Estates is the Peninsula’s original plan and still its reference market. Over the twelve months ending August 2026, detached homes sold at a median of $2,900,000 and $1,031 per square foot across 148 closed sales, in a median of 21 days at 96.7 percent of the original asking price, with 3.6 months of inventory. The spread between that median and the $3,691,195 average is the city itself: the bluff and view homes on the ocean side pull the average up, and the inland streets trade closer to the median.

The city was laid out in 1923 to a plan by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Charles Cheney, and the plan still governs. Four neighborhoods, Malaga Cove, Monte Malaga, Valmonte and Lunada Bay, sit on lots that were drawn large and kept that way, exterior changes go through the Art Jury, and views are protected by ordinance. That combination is why a Palos Verdes Estates address holds value the way it does: the supply of what a buyer wants here cannot be increased, and what a neighbor can build next door is limited before the first drawing is made. Schools are the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District.

Our office is at 717 Yarmouth Road in Lunada Bay, inside the city, and Chhabria Real Estate Company has sold on this hill since 1984, the year Raju Chhabria began working it. Neil Chhabria leads the firm today with more than $375 million in career sales across the Peninsula and the Beach Cities. What follows is the city as we price it: the numbers, the four neighborhoods, the Art Jury and the view rules, and the schools.

Neighborhoods in Palos Verdes Estates

Palos Verdes Estates is made up of distinct neighborhoods, each with its own character, street pattern and price band. Start here and work down.

What do homes cost in Palos Verdes Estates?

Over the twelve months ending August 2026, detached homes in Palos Verdes Estates sold at a median price of $2,900,000 and an average price of $3,691,195, across 148 closed sales. The median price per square foot was $1,031.

Average and median describe the same market differently. The average is every sale added together and divided by the number of sales, so a small number of high-value homes lifts it. The median is the middle sale, so the median stays closer to the typical home. Both are shown here. Why the two numbers differ, and which one to use.

How wide is the price range in Palos Verdes Estates?

The average sale price in Palos Verdes Estates ran 27.3% above the median over the twelve months ending August 2026. In neighboring Rancho Palos Verdes the same gap was 9.4%. A wide gap means the top of the Palos Verdes Estates market sits a long way above its middle, so anyone working from a city-wide average will misread the typical home by a considerable margin. The median is the better guide, and the figures by MLS area below are better still.

What neighborhoods make up Palos Verdes Estates?

Palos Verdes Estates divides into four MLS areas, and they price differently from one another. Over the twelve months ending August 2026 the median detached sale ranged from $2,324,500 in MLS area 164 (Valmonte) to $3,598,000 in MLS area 162 (Monte Malaga).

Lunada Bay is the largest of the four by volume, at 70 closed sales. Valmonte carried the tightest inventory in the city at 1.7 months of supply. Malaga Cove recorded the highest price per square foot at $1,122.

Who approves exterior changes in Palos Verdes Estates?

The Palos Verdes Art Jury reviews any change to a home’s exterior in Palos Verdes Estates, and its approval is required before work begins. The Art Jury is administered by the Palos Verdes Homes Association under deed restrictions that run with the title of every property in the city. Additions, replacements, new structures and anything visible from the street fall within its scope. Buyers who learn this after closing learn it expensively. Read the Palos Verdes Art Jury buyer’s guide.

Are views protected in Palos Verdes Estates?

Views in Palos Verdes Estates are protected by 1923 deed restrictions administered by the Palos Verdes Homes Association, not by a city view ordinance. Rancho Palos Verdes works the opposite way: voters there passed Measure M in 1989 and the city runs a View Restoration Division. A view you can see is not the same as a view you own, and the process for addressing a neighbor’s tree differs from the process for addressing a neighbor’s structure. How the Rancho Palos Verdes view ordinance works, and what Proposition M actually protects.

What schools serve Palos Verdes Estates?

Palos Verdes Estates is served by Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. Palos Verdes High School is located on Cloyden Road within the city.

School attendance boundaries are subject to change and are not guaranteed. You are advised to verify current attendance areas, enrollment eligibility, and all school information directly with the school district for any specific address.

South Bay life from Palos Verdes Estates

The Peninsula side of South Bay life runs on trails, coastline, golf and a working artist community rather than on the beach calendar.

Tennis is the clearest example. The city has no public tennis courts and no recreation department of its own, so the game here runs through the Palos Verdes Tennis Club on Via Campesina, which operates twelve courts on city land under a concession agreement with the city. The nearest free public courts are at Ernie Howlett Park in Rolling Hills Estates. How tennis works across the South Bay.

Working in Palos Verdes Estates

Chhabria Real Estate Company has sold homes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and in the Beach Cities since 1984, the year Raju Chhabria began working this hill, and our office is at 717 Yarmouth Road in Lunada Bay, inside the city. That means knowing which streets carry a view premium and which only look like they should, what the Art Jury has approved recently and what it has sent back, and how the four neighborhoods differ from one another in ways a city-wide figure will never show.

Source: California Regional MLS (CRMLS), via InfoSparks. Residential detached homes, rolling twelve months ending August 2026, reported by city and by MLS area. Refreshed quarterly. Market statistics describe cities and neighborhoods, not individual homes, and no figure here is an appraisal or opinion of value for any specific property.