WESTLAKE VILLAGE : Home Buyers Flock to Area After Quake

You don’t have to look as far as Ventura County to find a post-earthquake economic boom.

Real estate agents in Westlake Village say that since the earthquake, it’s hard to keep up with the demand for housing in the area.

“Our little Conejo Valley is being inundated,” said Stephanie Bell Eagle of Birchwood Realty/Better Homes & Gardens in Westlake Village, which lies on the western border of Los Angeles County. “We don’t have enough inventory to go around, all the hotels are booked, and it’s just madness.”

Since the Jan. 17 quake, home hunters have flocked to far-flung areas like Thousand Oaks seeking to escape the earthquake-scarred San Fernando Valley.

Westlake Village is closer to the quake zone, but it sustained little damage in the quake and is now getting a piece of Ventura County’s good fortune.

Real estate agents and apartment managers say the town has become the refuge of choice for many people who want to escape the quake zone without really leaving the area.

Jan Surratt, manager of The Knolls, an upscale apartment building, said that the first week after the quake an unprecedented 170 prospective tenants visited the apartment offices seeking housing.

The apartment building is full, and there is a long waiting list, she said.

“Everyone is full out here,” she said. Some of the new tenants are employees with insurance firms temporarily relocated to the area to handle insurance claims. Others are moving from damaged homes in the Valley, and a considerable number are simply moving because they are afraid to stay near the fault, Surratt said.

“They are just feeling uncomfortable and, especially if they are renting, they just want to live some place where they feel better,” she said.

Rentals are so tight in town that prospective tenants have been known to make appointments to view a home, only to find that it was rented during the time it took them to drive over, said Bell Eagle.

The housing market is not alone in receiving a boost from the quake.

Westlake Village City Councilman Doug Yarrow said several businesses have relocated employees to offices in town since the quake, including large insurance companies and Packard Bell, which moved part of its operations into the area after its Chatsworth offices were damaged.

Janet Levett, president of the Westlake Village Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber’s phone lines have been ringing off the hook since the quake. She expects that much of the new demand for office and residential space will be temporary. But nonetheless, “we are hoping some have come to stay,” she said.