Affordable Prices Draw First-Time Buyers : Fox Hills: While this Culver City neighborhood has no single-family homes and is site of popular Fox Hills Mall, residents like its community feeling.

Like many newlyweds, Sherri and Dr. Keith Lewis had high hopes for their first home.

Sherri, 30, a personnel specialist and part-time business instructor at Santa Monica College, and Keith, 29, a pediatric intern at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, wanted a nice, safe neighborhood in a convenient location--and at a price that a young couple could afford.

The Lewises found what they were looking for in Fox Hills, a community of more than 5,000 residents in the southwest corner of Culver City. “I like the fact that when I drive into the area I feel like I’m coming home to a community,� said Sherri Lewis, who with her husband paid $156,000 for a three-bedroom, 1,300-square-foot condominium on Canterbury Drive.

For years, Fox Hills has been called one of the Westside’s best-kept secrets. Many Southern Californians know the area only by the Fox Hills Mall, or they confuse it with Fox Hills Drive, which bisects Century City to the north.

In truth, Fox Hills--home to 22 condo complexes and 11 apartment buildings (there are no single-family, detached homes in the community)--is bounded by Centinela Avenue on the south, Sepulveda Boulevard on the west, Slauson Avenue on the north and the Ladera Heights neighborhood on the east.

Fox Hills Mall is anchored by JC Penney, Robinsons-May and Broadway department stores; Corporate Pointe high-rise office buildings, a business park, two hotels, a supermarket and small shops round out the area’s commercial base.

Fox Hills Park--10 acres of softball diamonds, tennis courts and a jogging course--forms the community’s center.

*

Many of the neighborhood’s residents are, like the Lewises, first-time buyers, said Willie Turner, a realtor with Century 21-Horizon. His clients invariably cite Fox Hills’ quick freeway access. Situated close to the intersection of the San Diego (405) and Marina (90) freeways, Fox Hills is minutes from LAX, Beverly Hills, Westwood and Marina del Rey; residents can also reach workplaces downtown, in the San Fernando Valley and in the South Bay with an easy commute.

Other buyers point to the quality police and school services and the racial mix (55% white, 35% black) as determining factors.

But for most residents, the decision to purchase in Fox Hills comes down to simply more for the money. Condo units feature solid construction and smart floor plans, with spacious closets, kitchens and bathrooms.

Prices currently begin at $100,000 for a one-bedroom condominium and peak at $280,000 for an upgraded three-bedroom unit.

“We also looked at condos in Baldwin Park and Inglewood,� said Keith Lewis, “but for what we wanted to pay, Fox Hills offered the most for our money.�

Fox Hills parents of school-age children are happy about a recent development in the community. The Los Angeles Unified School District voted in May to allow the 200 Fox Hills public-school students to switch from LAUSD to the highly regarded Culver City district.

Until the 1960s, Fox Hills was a slice of unincorporated Los Angeles County inhabited by few families with schoolchildren. When the area was annexed to Culver City, the schools were never shifted. Come July, 1994, the oversight will be rectified--to the delight of parents, and real estate agents, hoping for a boost to property values.

“I am thrilled that my 4-year-old son will be enrolled in a smaller district,� said Laurie Brumfield, who operates her desktop-publishing business out of the three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot condo on Green Valley Circle that she bought for $175,000 in 1989.

Culver City schools have a prestigious reputation that is well earned, said Dr. Vera Jashni, deputy superintendent of the Culver City School District. She points to the California State Distinguished Award that Culver City High School won last year (one of only a handful of Southland schools so honored) and to her students’ low dropout rate.

“We have excellent parental involvement, and if you have a problem you can get the school superintendent on the phone. Try that in the LAUSD,� Jashni said. “For years, parents have been telling me that they bought in Culver City primarily for the schools.�

The neighborhood’s geography also attracts home buyers, said Jay Cunningham, Culver City planning chief. “Fox Hills is set up on a hill, giving it good views and cool ocean breezes,� he said.

Doug Moore, a high school English and history teacher, is a Fox Hills old-timer: He’s lived there since 1973, when he paid $22,500 for a 900-square-foot, one-bedroom condo on Canterbury Drive.

“This is the best place to live in L.A.,� boasted Moore, who just happens to be president of the Fox Hills Property Owners Assn. “You can work in the business park here and walk to work--that’s rare for Los Angeles.�

Twenty years ago, Fox Hills was a wide expanse of open land, with dirt bikers roaming the grassy hills. Giant eucalyptus trees lined the streets. The only major real estate holdings were the Holy Cross and Hillside cemeteries that still sandwich the area. A golf course blanketed much of the community through the 1950s, until Home Savings, the area’s original residential developer, sparked an apartment-building boom in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

By the end of the ‘70s, the apartments were converted to condominiums. “The prices were cheap--$35,000 for a one-bedroom unit--and speculators rented them out to undesirable tenants,� recalled Bonnie Hoffman, an agent with Prudential California Realty, who has lived in Fox Hills since 1978.

The combination of renters and absentee owners resulted in poor upkeep of buildings and a general deterioration of the neighborhood. Hoffman remembers seeing prostitutes and pimps wandering the streets and drug dealing around the basketball court at Fox Hills Park.

Hoffman, who said she walks her dog each night with no fear, insists any notoriety that lingers from those days is no longer warranted. Owners, rather than tenants, live in most of the residential units, the basketball hoops have been removed and, with the October, 1991, opening of a California Highway Patrol office at Centinela and Bristol Parkway, police presence in Fox Hills has never been stronger.

Violent crimes have fallen 40% in Culver City since 1980, said Lt. Joe D’Anjou, a crime-prevention specialist with the city’s police department. “Culver City is the safest community on the Westside,� he said. “We have 70% of our officers on the street at any moment, and our response time for an emergency call averages three minutes or less.�

But favorable statistics or not, some Fox Hills residents concede that the area’s density can lead to problems. One woman confided that she has carried a cellular phone and an alarm beeper with her at night since her home was burglarized three years ago. Other homeowners complain that the crush of people can result in noisy neighbors; dangerous, fast-moving traffic on such busy thoroughfares as Green Valley Circle and Bristol Parkway, and weekend street-parking headaches.

Still other residents lament the climate of fear created by teen-agers loitering around the Fox Hills Mall bus stop.

Nonetheless, 33-year-old Dan Rosman, who just four months ago paid $143,000 for a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom townhouse with a loft on Doverwood Drive, has no regrets about his move to Fox Hills.

“This area has less hustle and bustle than other parts of West L.A,� he said.

Besides, others argue, living close to neighbors has its rewards. “I know the butcher and the shoemaker and everyone says ‘Hi’ to me,� said Bonnie Hoffman. “We are a neighborhood where people watch out for each other.�

At a Glance

Population 1993 estimate: 5,563 Median age: 38.4 years

Annual income Per capita: 24,971 Median household: 48,944

Household distribution Less than $30,000: 22.5% $30,000 - $60,000: 40.7% $60,000 - $100,000: 27.0% $100,000 - $150,000: 6.7% $150,000 +: 3.3%