Value in the Heart of the Valley : Northridge: Self-containment, accessibility and shopping invite the vision of a future Westwood.

By DAVID LUSTIG

July 22, 1990 12 AM PT

<i> Lustig is a Chatsworth free-lance writer. </i>

Don and Reva Sims were driving around one day on the other side of the San Fernando Valley from their crowded neighborhood--”Just to see if there was anything we liked out there,” said Reva--when they fell in love with the wide open spaces.

The year was 1967 and the area was Northridge, in the northwest valley.

“We wanted to find more open spaces,” said Reva, 56. Looking at a new four-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot tract home above Rinaldi Street, she said they liked the winding streets on the side of the mountain and the clean air. “And it was convenient to almost everything.”

Don Sims, 61, had other reasons.

“With three kids, our existing house was too small,” he said. “We were looking for a larger area and when we checked into this house, they only wanted 5% down.”

Today, their children are grown and have moved out, but Reva, a retired real estate salesperson and Don, an economics teacher for the Los Angeles Community College District, are remodeling the kitchen of their 23-year-old house and converting a bedroom into an office.

“We still love the area,” Reva said. “If we came across this house and this neighborhood today, it would still be ideal.”

Northridge, part of the city of Los Angeles, is bordered by Chatsworth on the west, Reseda to the south and Granada Hills on the east and north, along with a bit of the quickly growing Porter Ranch area nestled at the base of the Santa Susana Mountains.

The community was originally known as Zelzah in the early 1900s, when it had a predominantly rural agriculture atmosphere. Even after a name change to North Los Angeles in the 1930s, the area retained its rustic ways. The name Northridge came in the 1940s.

World War II, which so drastically changed Los Angeles as a whole, had little impact on Northridge. As large housing tracts began taking over valley farmland in the late 1940s, Northridge remained a favorite spot for celebrities to buy ranches or stable their horses. At one time, Northridge was considered the horse capital of the valley.

It wasn’t until the 1950s and early 1960s that affordable mass housing made inroads. It’s location played a big role in that development.

“Northridge is ideal for its central valley location,” said Randy diSimone, 34, a real estate agent in R.R. Gable’s Northridge office. “Once you’re familiar with the area you don’t need to leave Northridge for anything . . . and you get a lot of home for the money.”

It was value that led David Peck, 39, and Gail Pine, 45, to check Northridge when they were house hunting last year.

What they found was a 1968 ranch house with five bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, formal dining room, living room and built-ins. Peck and Pine paid $574,000 for it, moving in last October.

“The area is lovely,” said Peck, owner of an amusement game company. “We were looking for a house that had land, that was very important to me. I love a nice back yard, an area where I can put in a little volleyball net.”

And that’s exactly what the couple found on a 15,500-square-foot corner lot in what is known as the Patrician Hills tract. “The houses are older, but they’re built with lath and plaster,” Peck said. “They have quality.”

He said he didn’t mind being farther away from his office than when he lived in Encino.

“It’s five miles farther than before but 20 minutes quicker to get to work,” he said, “but it’s not congested here, and I can hear the birds chirping.”

Most Northridge new home buyers in 1967, when the Sims bought, were white, but Reva says that now “it has become a blend of backgrounds and a cultural melting pot, mostly professional people, or they own their own businesses. They’re probably in their middle to late 30s with small children. It’s great to see younger people revitalize an area.”

She said homes on her block that sold new for $35,000 are now hovering in the $400,000 price range.

Raoul and Jan Roth have seen a similar rise in home prices. Purchasing a 2,000-square-foot home for $38,000 in Northridge in 1972. Raoul, an attorney, and Jan, a secretary in the aerospace industry, are still buoyant about their hometown.

“It’s almost small ‘townish’ here,” said Raoul Roth, 55. “I know almost everybody on our street. They watch our house and we watch theirs.”

Since moving in, the Roth’s have expanded their 2 1/2-bath, four-bedroom home considerably, adding another 1,250 square feet with a family room, library, another bathroom, another bedroom and a utility room. It was recently appraised at $500,000.

“When you live somewhere 18 years you know your neighbors and see people your kids went to school with,” said Jan, 47. “I’m comfortable in Northridge and I like it here. Plain and simple.”

And as the area has filled, Northridge has become a major shopping area for the northwest valley, including the 215-store Northridge Fashion Center complex at Tampa Avenue and Nordhoff Street.

Light industry has also found Northridge attractive, and the community is the home of aerospace subcontractor Teledyne Systems Co., which designed its facility not only to blend in with the community, but to pay homage to the Northridge of yesterday by retaining as many of the picturesque grapefruit trees as possible when the land was purchased in the early 1960s. It was Teledyne that brought Lonnie McQueen, 59, and his wife, Regina, to buy a home in Northridge in October, 1988.

After working for Ford Aerospace in Newport Beach, Lonnie took advantage of an early retirement plan and moved to France for 18 months. An offer to return to the aerospace industry brought him back to Southern California and the pair bought a three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,600-square-foot townhouse for $175,000.

“It was foolish to pay rent when we could afford to buy a home,” said Lonnie. “Besides, the shopping in this area is fantastic.”

Single-family homes range from $210,000 for a three-bedroom, one-bath, 1,300-square-foot tract home to a 4,000-square-foot $800,000 design with five bedrooms, said realtor Kathy Greenwood with the Northridge office of Fred Sands.

Condominiums without a garage start about $155,000 and jump $50,000 for the privilege of parking off the street.

And even if they don’t know where Northridge is, high school seniors hoping to enter a four-year college or university system all know about CSUN--California State University at, you guessed it, Northridge.

With more than 31,000 full-time students packed into 353 acres, CSUN, located on Nordhoff Street between Reseda Boulevard and Zelzah Avenue, offers 47 undergraduate major degrees and 39 masters degrees, and is large enough to have its own ZIP code. It is also the state headquarters for the National Center on Deafness.

Another factor for David Peck in choosing a home in Northridge was the leisure activities it offered, especially his ability to relax with a bicycle ride. “I like flat areas to bicycle,” he said. “The streets here are just lovely, wide and scenic.”

“And I wanted a formal dining room that could seat 12 to 14 people comfortably,” said Gail Pine. “I like a den, not a family room and a kitchen. I’m old-fashioned like that. I’m more traditional.”

Residents such as the Sims, who have stayed in Northridge because of the convenience and the ability to reach almost every part of the valley within a few minutes, are amazed at what demand and other factors have done to increase the value of their property.

“Even being in the real estate business, it’s mind-boggling to see how home prices have escalated today,” Reva said. “And the increased values have kept the various Northridge neighborhoods in great shape. When you’re spending $300,000 to $600,000 for a home, you’re determined to take care of it.”

“I think Northridge is going to be like Westwood,” said realtor Greenwood. “It’s got the college, it’s close to freeways and we have a million different ways to get to where you are going. You have a lot of choices here.”

AT A GLANCE

Population 1990 estimate: 85,019 1980-90 change: 20.3%

Median age: 32.9 years

Annual income Per capita: $23,514 Median household: $63,247

Household distribution Less than $15,000: 8.3% $15,000 - $30,000: 12.8% $30,000 - $50,000: 18.9% $50,000 - $75,000: 18.8% $75,000 +: 41.2%