Silver Lake
Silver Lake Quick Facts
- Where it is: Central Los Angeles between Los Feliz to the north, Echo Park to the southeast and East Hollywood to the west, wrapped around the Silver Lake Reservoir. Inside the City of LA.
- ZIP codes: 90026 south of the reservoir, shared with Echo Park, and 90039 on the north side, shared with Atwater Village.
- Getting Downtown: 10 to 15 minutes by car via Glendale Boulevard or the 101.
- What homes cost: Median sale $1,333,000 over the last twelve months. The MLS files Silver Lake and Echo Park as one area. The typical sale was a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,520 square foot house. 121 homes for sale right now.
- Is it safe: Yes. Busy, not dangerous. Car break-ins around Sunset Junction and the reservoir lots are most of what gets reported. Full answer below.
- The one thing to know: The reservoir loop is the neighborhood’s front yard. Homes within a few blocks of it carry a premium that shows up in every comp.
Silver Lake Market Data: October 2026
What actually happened in Silver Lake and Echo Park over the last twelve months, straight from the MLS. The MLS files these two neighborhoods as a single area, so both guides carry the same figures.
| Median sale price | $1,333,000 |
| Median days on market | 17 days |
| Homes sold in the past 12 months | 410 |
| The typical home that sold | 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,520 sq ft |
| Homes for sale right now | 121 active, 152 with pending |
| Median asking price right now | $1,450,000 |
| Enough homes for sale to last | 3.5 months |
| Change from a year ago | Up 0.4%, essentially flat |
How fast do homes sell in Silver Lake?
Of the 410 homes that sold, 281 of them, about 69%, were in escrow within thirty days, and those closed at 107.0% of asking price. The homes that took thirty-one to sixty days closed at 97.9%.
That is a gap of 9.1 percentage points. On a median asking price of $1,298,500, it is roughly $118,000.
Speed is not a bonus in this market. Speed is the price.
Is the Silver Lake market going up or down?
Flat, and that is the honest answer. The median sale price moved up 0.4%, from $1,328,000 to $1,333,000, and sales were essentially unchanged at 410 against 408. What did change is the cost of being slow. The first-month premium widened from 5.0 points a year ago to 9.1 points today.
How many homes are for sale in Silver Lake right now?
121 homes are on the market, 152 counting the ones already in escrow. At the current pace that is about 3.5 months of supply.
They are asking a median of $1,450,000. What is still on the market has been listed a median of 27 days, against 17 days for what sells.
Source: The MLS/CLAW, Area 21 (Silver Lake and Echo Park). Closed sales October 1, 2025 through October 1, 2026, 410 sales. Active and pending inventory as of October 1, 2026. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Compiled by Glenn Shelhamer, The Shelhamer Real Estate Group, CalDRE #01950995.
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Welcome to Silver Lake
Silver Lake is a hillside neighborhood a few miles northwest of Downtown Los Angeles, built around the Silver Lake Reservoir. It is known for its modernist architecture, its walkable stretch of Sunset Boulevard, and a long history as home to artists, musicians and filmmakers.
Homes run from 1920s Spanish revival on the ridge above the water to midcentury houses by Richard Neutra and John Lautner tucked into the hills. This guide covers where the neighborhood starts and stops, what the homes are like, what to check before you buy, and what it is like to live here.
Is Silver Lake Safe?
The short answer
Silver Lake is safe to live in and busy to walk through, which is where any reputation comes from. Almost everything reported here is property crime, and it concentrates on Sunset Boulevard, at Sunset Junction, and in the parking around the reservoir. Violent crime is rare and is not what people who live here deal with.
What actually happens
Car break-ins lead every month. A car parked near Sunset Junction or in the reservoir lots with anything visible inside is the most common target in the neighborhood. Catalytic converter theft comes in waves. Package theft runs third. Tagging on the commercial strips comes and goes. A camera at the door and nothing on the seat handles most of it.
It changes block by block
Sunset between Silver Lake Boulevard and Hyperion is the busiest strip and carries the most reports. Hyperion, Rowena and Glendale Boulevard are traffic corridors more than anything else. Climb the hills above the reservoir, into Moreno Highlands or the Ivanhoe streets, and it goes quiet fast: narrow roads, staircases instead of sidewalks, dark at night. The southern edge toward Temple and the 101 is denser and busier and reads more like Echo Park or Westlake.
Check it yourself
Silver Lake is covered by LAPD’s Northeast Community Police Station, 3353 San Fernando Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90065, 323-561-3211. Northeast covers about 29 square miles and roughly 250,000 residents, from Atwater Village and Los Feliz out to Eagle Rock and Highland Park, so the division total blends a dozen neighborhoods together. Ask the station for the reporting districts that match the block you are looking at, or pull them from LAPD’s open data portal.
Where Silver Lake Starts and Stops
Silver Lake sits between Los Feliz to the north, Echo Park to the southeast and East Hollywood to the west, with Atwater Village and Elysian Valley to the northeast along the river. The reservoir is the center of it. When people say Silver Lake, they usually mean one of four places.
The reservoir and Moreno Highlands. The ridge on the west side of the water, laid out in the 1920s by silent film star Antonio Moreno and Daisy Canfield. Spanish revival homes, view lots, and the highest prices in the neighborhood.
Sunset Junction. Where Sunset Boulevard meets Santa Monica Boulevard. Coffee, restaurants and shops within walking distance, and you pay for that in street parking.
The hills. North and east of the reservoir, up toward Griffith Park Boulevard and Hyperion Avenue. Narrow streets, public stairs, hillside lots, and many of the modernist houses the neighborhood is known for.
South of Sunset. Down toward the 101. More apartments and small lot homes, the most attainable prices in Silver Lake, and the quickest run to Downtown.
Silver Lake Homes and Architecture
Most streets here were cut in the 1920s to follow the hills, and the lots were built out one at a time. That is why a single block can hold a Spanish revival, a Craftsman, a 1950s post and beam and a new small lot build side by side.
The modernists made the neighborhood famous. Richard Neutra built his own home and studio, the VDL House, on Silver Lake Boulevard facing the reservoir, and it is open for tours. A cluster of his houses sits nearby on Neutra Place. John Lautner’s Silvertop sits above the water. Rudolph Schindler, Gregory Ain, Raphael Soriano and Harwell Hamilton Harris all built here too.
What to check before you buy here
Hillside lots come with their own homework: the slope, the retaining walls, the soils report, and how wide the street is. Parking is tight on many streets, so count the off street spaces. Stairs from the street to the front door are common. Permits matter, because a lot of square footage in these hills was added without them. Every one of those can change what a house is worth, and we walk through each of them with buyers before an offer goes in.
Living in Silver Lake
The reservoir loop is about 2.2 miles, and it is where the neighborhood walks, runs and runs into each other. The Meadow on the east side of the water is open lawn for everyone.
Most of the coffee, restaurants and shops are along Sunset Boulevard, from Sunset Junction toward the reservoir. The Silver Lake Farmers Market sets up on Sunset too. Griffith Park is a few minutes north when you want a longer hike.
Dozens of public staircases climb between the streets. Most were built so residents could reach streetcar lines that are long gone. The best known is the Music Box Steps on Vendome Street, where Laurel and Hardy hauled a piano up the stairs in their 1932 film.
A Little Silver Lake History
Before it was Silver Lake, the area was called Edendale and Ivanhoe. Edendale, along Glendale Boulevard, is where Los Angeles made movies before Hollywood did. Mack Sennett’s Keystone studio was here, and Charlie Chaplin made his early films on its lot.
The reservoir was finished in 1907 and named for Herman Silver, a city water commissioner. In 1926 Walt Disney opened his first large studio on Hyperion Avenue. The site is a Gelson’s market today, and Disney still uses the Hyperion name.
Up on the ridge, Antonio Moreno and Daisy Canfield built their estate, The Paramour, in 1923. It is now a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument.
Buying or Selling in Silver Lake
Silver Lake prices are set street by street, and sometimes house by house. A view, a garage, a permitted ADU or a flat yard can move the number more than the square footage does. That is why automated estimates miss here.
If you own here, send the address and we will pull the sales on your block and show you how we got the number. If you are buying, we will tell you which streets fit your budget and what to check on each house before you write an offer.
About Glenn Shelhamer
I am Glenn Shelhamer, broker of The Shelhamer Real Estate Group and founder of Silver Lake Blog. Over the last 15 years I have helped buyers and sellers navigate real estate throughout Los Angeles’s Eastside, from smooth transactions to complicated ones.
If you are thinking about buying or selling in Silver Lake, I will pull the real sales on your street and walk you through them before you make a move.
Call or text directly:
310-913-9477
Instagram:
@theshelhamergroup
Email:
glenn@shelhamergroup.com
THE SHELHAMER REAL ESTATE GROUP | DRE: 01950995
Glenn Shelhamer is a licensed real estate broker DRE: 01950995 in the state of California and abides by equal housing opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. To reach The Shelhamer Real Estate Group’s office manager please call (310) 913-9477.
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