By the Numbers : Census: Tally backs some notions and holds a few surprises on homeownership, the sexes, seniors and children.
The ocean of statistics collected by the 1990 U.S. Census Bureau about the residents of the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys confirms some stereotypes and washes out others.
The data from the survey conducted last year represents the freshest available numerical profile of the area. As the data continues to trickle out over the next several years, it will be avidly sought by retailers, real estate agents, direct marketers and others, and bought, sold and repackaged like any other hot commodity.
Some glimpses:
Housing
When one thinks of the San Fernando Valley areas where residents are most likely to own houses, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Encino, Tarzana and Chatsworth come to mind because residents of those communities are affluent.
In addition, homeowners organizations in most of those communities cry loudly about construction of new apartment buildings and condominium projects. They fret when they think the single-family housing and suburban character of their communities are threatened.
But, according to the 1990 census, the common wisdom is only partially right.
The communities of Encino and Tarzana, for example, have a combined 63.5% rate of homeownership. But the less affluent communities of Arleta and Pacoima, also thought of as a single community by city planners, have a homeownership rate that is only slightly lower--63.4%.
The top five Valley planning areas, by the percentage of homeownership, are: Granada Hills-Knollwood (72.9); Sylmar (70.8); Chatsworth-Porter Ranch (69.2); Sunland-Tujunga (65.1), and Encino-Tarzana. Arleta-Pacoima is a close sixth.
The areas with the lowest percentage of homeowners among their residents include: North Hollywood (30.5); Van Nuys-north Sherman Oaks (33.5); Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake (45.7), and Mission Hills-Panorama City-Sepulveda (47).
The average income of an area’s residents is one of two key factors contributing to homeownership rates.
The other is the cost of that housing. In the Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake area, 42% of the residents who owned their dwellings said their homes were worth more than $500,000.
Only 0.2% of the Arleta-Pacoima residents gave similar estimates. On the other hand, 28% of those residents estimated their homes’ value at $150,000 to $175,000.
Frank Cwick, a real estate agent based in Arleta, said the area’s older residents bought their homes after World War II and are now moving out. Young couples attracted by relatively reasonable prices are replacing them. “We’re getting a lot of younger ethnic couples,” Cwick said. “It used to be all whites.”
The percentage of homeownership fell in some of those more affluent areas due to the rapid pace of apartment construction during the 1980s. The census did not specifically track the number of apartments versus single-family houses, but the city’s rent stabilization unit does.
Between 1986 and 1991, the number of apartments in Sherman Oaks-Studio City increased by 20.5%, more than twice the rate of population growth in the area. On the other hand, the number of apartments in the Mission Hills-Panorama City area went up by 20.6% during that period, about half the rate of population increase that occurred in the area.
The area of Los Angeles where residents were least likely to own their homes was Westlake, which has experienced a tremendous growth in Central American and Mexican immigrants. Only 5.5% of the residences there were owner-occupied.
Although the number of residents of that area, west of downtown, increased by 15,131 during the 1980s, the number of occupied housing units fell by 3,165.
The area of Los Angeles where residents were most likely to be homeowners was Bel Air-Beverly Crest, where 88.2% said they owned their homes.
Other housing facts: number of people in city of Los Angeles living in nursing homes: 17,717; number living in college dormitories: 17,251. Some San Fernando Valley-area communities that had no people living in a group setting, including nursing homes, jails and homeless shelters: Agoura Hills and Hidden Hills.
Number of people seen living on the streets in Hidden Hills: 0; in Glendale: 17; in San Fernando: 1; in Arleta-Pacoima: 467.
Percentage of rented units in the city of San Fernando occupied by seven or more people: 7.5; percentage of rented units in Encino-Tarzana occupied by seven or more people: 0.4. Percentage of Glendale households consisting of a single person: 27.8; percentage of San Fernando households consisting of a single person: 14.5.
Battle of the Sexes
Where in the Valley do the numbers suggest an unmarried single woman who wants to meet single guys enjoys the greatest odds?
The answer is the southern Van Nuys-northern Sherman Oaks area, where never-married males over the age of 15 outnumber never-married women 22,874 to 16,543.
In fact, in every Valley community, the number of single men who have not been married greatly outnumber women in similar circumstances.
Countywide, the total number of men and women is fairly equal. The greatest difference in northern Los Angeles County and the San Fernando Valley was Encino-Tarzana, where women accounted for 52% of the population.
The closest any community came to achieving a perfect balance of men and women was Santa Clarita, where men accounted for 49.96% of the population, giving women the slightest of edges. The city of nearly 111,000 people had just 78 more females than males.
The number of males who flocked to Los Angeles during the 1980s exceeded the number of new females by nearly 80,000, and put them in the majority citywide. Women accounted for 51.1% of the city’s population in 1980, but only 48.9% in 1990.
Asian Community
When commenting on Southern California’s growing Asian-American population, demographers and other experts often lump the many different countries and cultures together. But the 1990 census broke Asians down by nationality and found that the largest group of Asian-Americans were originally from the Philippines (2.5% of the city’s population), followed by Korea (2.1%) and China (1.9%).
In the San Fernando Valley, the largest pockets of Asian-Americans were of Korean descent. Korean-Americans accounted for 5.2% of Glendale’s population, the greatest concentration outside Koreatown in the Wilshire area of Los Angeles. Korean-Americans also represented 5.1% of the population of Granada Hills and 3.8% of the residents of Chatsworth-Porter Ranch.
On the other hand, the smallest group of Asian-Americans in the city of Los Angeles are the Hmong, the Laotian mountain tribesmen and women.
Only 30 people citywide identified themselves as Hmong, 26 of them in the Harbor Gateway area.
Two Hmong lived in the Canoga Park-Woodland Hills area, one in northeast Los Angeles and one in Sun Valley.
In the county, the 359 Hmong are the second smallest group of Asian-Americans. The smallest group, with only 210 people, is listed in census data as “other Micronesian,” which means Micronesians who are not from Guam. Micronesia consists of 2,250 islands scattered over 3,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean, north of New Guinea and the Equator. Only 110 of the islands are inhabited and, after Guam, the best known is Nauru.
Young and Old
Anyone thinking of going into the child-care business might give Palmdale a good look. Children age 5 or under accounted for 15.4% of Palmdale’s 69,000 residents, one of the highest percentages in the county. Countywide, preschoolers and kindergartners accounted for 9.8% of the population.
At the High Desert Christian Center in Palmdale, director Madeleine Tattoon said there is a waiting list every year for the center’s 72 preschool slots. “That makes it very difficult” for parents, Tattoon said.
Tattoon said she has noticed that as the cost of day care rises and spaces become rare, more mothers are staying home with their children full time or part time instead of putting them in preschools and day-care centers.
“There are more kids and I find that more mothers are staying home and trying to do without,” she said.
Other areas where one is likely to find day-care spots filled and park playgrounds busy include San Fernando (12.8% of the population was 5 or under), Arleta-Pacoima (12.4% under 5) and Sylmar (11.3% under 5).
Areas where a spot on a park swing is most likely to be open include the Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake area (5.3% under the age 5), Encino-Tarzana (6.4% under 5) and Northridge (6.8% under 5).
Those latter areas also are among places with the highest concentrations of people age 65 and over. That age group accounts for 15.6% of the population in the Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake area, 15.2% in Encino-Tarzana, 14.5% in Burbank and 13.3% in Glendale.
Isidor Steinhart, 75, moved into his house in Sherman Oaks near Chandler Elementary School in 1966, looking for a place to settle down and raise a family. More than 25 years later, he is still there, even though his children have long since grown up and moved away.
Most of his neighbors, many of whom moved there about the same time, are still there as well. Steinhart speculated that stable population may be one of the reasons the southern edge of the Valley is home to a high percentages of seniors.
Steinhart said these longtime residents bought their homes with a different attitude than many younger buyers today. Rather than looking at a house as a speculative investment, Steinhart said he and many of his neighbors consider their houses to be homes, places to set down roots and develop ties to the community.
“I can’t think of living anywhere else,” said Steinhart, who is active in senior affairs and spends several days each week at senior centers around the Valley.
Steinhart and many of his neighbors stayed, but their children grew up and moved away. The Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake area has the lowest percentage of residents who are married couples with children of any community in the Valley. That group accounts for only 11% of the households.
Ranking high on that scale were Agoura Hills, Arleta-Pacoima, Hidden Hills and Palmdale.
Times staff writer Aaron Curtiss contributed to this story.
