We Buy Houses in Monterey Hills, CA

Monterey Hills was built as a planned community following the Monterey Hills Redevelopment Project, adopted by the LA City Council on July 29, 1971, to put housing for a range of income levels on the hillside above the Arroyo Seco, roughly 4 miles northeast of downtown LA off the 110 Freeway.

What locals may remember most is what came next: buildings constructed on unstable, 100-foot-deep engineered backfill developed serious soil settlement problems, leading to what was reportedly the longest civil jury trial in LA County history in 1989-1990 and a $62.5 million settlement, one of the largest in city history at the time, followed by a 1991 Global Settlement Agreement that created a trust fund for ongoing structural repairs.

Inside the redevelopment boundary, twenty-one condominium and rental complexes totaling 1,781 units now stand, most from the 1970s and 1980s.

The single-family houses that share a Monterey Hills mailing area sit on the older streets around those complexes: Hermon below the ridge to the north and west, El Sereno at the foot of the slope to the southeast, and Montecito Heights to the southwest.

We’re Cash Home Buyers CA, based in Woodland Hills, and we work on the Eastside regularly, including the streets in and around Monterey Hills.

We buy single-family houses and duplexes only, which here means the houses along the edges of the hill rather than the condo and townhome complexes that make up most of the neighborhood.

If you own one of those houses or a duplex, we’ll put a written cash offer in front of you within 24 to 48 hours, buy it as-is with no repairs, no commissions and no showings, and let you choose the closing date.

What a house near Monterey Hills is worth in 2026

Redfin’s Monterey Hills neighborhood page put the median sale price at $640,000 as of March 2026, down 22.7 percent year-over-year, with a median of 88 days on market and 19 homes sold over the trailing three months, up 46.2 percent from the prior year.

That figure is set almost entirely by condo and townhome sales, because that is most of what exists inside the redevelopment boundary, and the swing mostly reflects which units happened to close in a given quarter.

Single-family houses and duplexes on the surrounding Hermon and El Sereno streets sell in a different range from those units, so we price a house here from recent sales of comparable houses nearby, not from the neighborhood median.

A cash sale tends to fit an older Hermon or El Sereno house with original wiring, galvanized plumbing or a raised foundation that needs work, a hillside lot with retaining walls or drainage problems, a house with an unpermitted room addition or garage conversion that a lender’s appraiser won’t count, or a rented duplex an owner wants to exit with the tenants in place.

A remodeled house with its permits in order and a clean inspection usually does well listed to a buyer using conventional financing.

What applies to a sale in and around Monterey Hills

• Combined city and county transfer tax. A sale here is subject to the City of LA’s $4.50 per $1,000 documentary transfer tax plus the county’s $1.10 per $1,000, for a combined $5.60 per $1,000 of sale price.
• Measure ULA rarely applies. The additional ULA transfer tax starts above roughly $5.3 to $5.4 million, far above what houses on these streets sell for, so it is not usually a factor.
• LADBS 9A report required. Sellers need a Report of Residential Property Records before close, along with retrofit certifications covering a gas shutoff valve, low-flow plumbing fixtures, smoke and CO detectors, and water heater strapping. On older houses, a gap between the permit history on the 9A and what is actually built is common.
• Rent rules depend on the property. A duplex with a certificate of occupancy on or before October 1, 1978 falls under LA’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance. A single-family house is generally outside RSO rent limits, but a tenant there is still covered by the city’s Just Cause Ordinance for eviction protections.

Houses around Monterey Hills: Hermon, Collis Avenue and the hillside edges

Inside the redevelopment area the housing is almost entirely condominium and townhome complexes from the 1970s and 1980s, clustered around Via Marisol and the hillside above Budd Wiener Park, with the 16-unit Bradley Court Condominiums as one of the few recent additions. We don’t buy those units.

Via Marisol was called Hermon Avenue until 1978, and it runs down into Hermon, where the single-family housing starts: a half-square-mile valley that began as one hundred building lots offered by Ralph Rogers in 1903 around a Free Methodist campus, with houses along Monterey Road, Bushnell Way and the streets off Avenue 60.

On the southeast side, the terraced slope drops toward El Sereno, where Collis Avenue and its neighboring blocks are lined with older single-family houses. Montecito Heights, to the southwest, adds hillside houses on steeper, winding streets.

The issues we see on these houses are the ones common to Eastside housing of their age: early wiring, galvanized supply lines, raised foundations that need bolting or repair, retaining walls and drainage on the hillside lots, and garage conversions or back units built without permits.

The engineered fill behind the old lawsuits is specific to the redevelopment complexes, but hillside houses nearby have their own soil and drainage questions that buyers ask about.

A property that suits us here is a house or duplex on one of those streets that needs work, has a tenant in place, or came through an estate.

Why owners around Monterey Hills call us

• An older house that needs more work than they want to take on. Our as-is sale guide covers how we price repairs.
• Inherited a Hermon or El Sereno house from a family member. See our inherited property guide.
• A rented house or duplex with a tenant they’d rather not manage through a sale. Our tenant-occupied sale guide has the details.
• Relocating for work and need to close on a tight timeline. Our relocation guide explains the process.

We also work with owners in and around Monterey Hills going through a divorce or needing to sell fast for other reasons; our divorce sale guide and sell fast guide cover those paths in more detail.

Escrow, recording, and probate

Deeds for property here record with the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk at 12400 Imperial Highway in Norwalk. A probate sale runs through the Superior Court for Los Angeles County in downtown LA; a trust sale skips that court step if the trustee has clear authority to sell.

A typical cash sale closes in 2 to 3 weeks. An estate sale, a tenant-occupied duplex where leases and deposits need to be transferred, or retrofit work needed before the city certificates can be signed off usually add time.

Listing vs. selling to us

Redfin’s March 2026 median of $640,000 is driven by condo sales, so a house on the surrounding streets will be priced from its own comparables, but the costs of listing work the same way: a traditional listing typically carries a 5 to 6 percent agent commission, and Clever’s August 2026 survey found 5.08 percent nationally, plus the combined $5.60 per $1,000 city and county transfer tax, and the area’s 88-day median time on market means real carrying costs while the property sits unsold.

A remodeled house with its permits in order usually still nets more listed. But a house with deferred repairs, unpermitted additions, hillside drainage work, or tenants in place often nets more, and closes faster, sold directly.

FAQ

Do you buy condos or townhomes in Monterey Hills?

No. We buy single-family homes and duplexes only. Most of Monterey Hills is condominium and townhome complexes, so our offers here are for the houses and duplexes on the surrounding Hermon, El Sereno and Montecito Heights streets.

Does the Monterey Hills settlement history affect the houses nearby?

The soil settlement lawsuits and the 1991 Global Settlement Agreement involved the redevelopment complexes built on engineered fill, not the older houses in Hermon or El Sereno. Hillside houses nearby can still have their own drainage or retaining-wall issues, which we factor into our offer rather than asking you to fix first.

What's the total transfer tax on a sale here?

It's $5.60 per $1,000 of sale price, combining the City of LA's $4.50 per $1,000 and the county's $1.10 per $1,000.

Do I need a 9A report to sell?

Yes. Monterey Hills and its neighbors Hermon and El Sereno are all within the City of Los Angeles, so sellers need an LADBS 9A Report of Residential Property Records plus retrofit certifications before close.

How fast can you close on a house here?

A typical sale closes in 2 to 3 weeks. An estate in probate, tenants in place, or retrofit work for the city certificates can extend that, and you choose the final date.

If you own a house or duplex in or around Monterey Hills and want a written cash number, call 424-435-2326 or read our how it works page first.

Written and reviewed by the Cash Home Buyers CA team, a Woodland Hills-based cash home buyer serving Los Angeles and Orange County. Market figures are from Redfin's Monterey Hills neighborhood housing market page as of March 2026, and are updated periodically.