Antelope Valley Is Upscale Bound

Five years ago, developer Capital Pacific Homes was selling similarly outfitted homes in the upscale Orange County suburb of Laguna Niguel for $2.2 million.

But here in the arid, recently plowed high desert in west Lancaster, where Joshua trees sprout in wild clusters across from rows of new houses, they're going for about $500,000.

Scott Coleman, a 33-year-old actor from Culver City, bought one. So did Mark Snaer, 27, a recently trained air traffic controller from San Diego. So did Monica Carreon, 26, a stay-at-home mother from Long Beach whose husband is a welder.

The Antelope Valley has long been a magnet for development, but these days, the boom is accelerating and going upscale.

Lancaster, the fastest-growing city in Los Angeles County, saw its assessed property values increase about 29% last year, according to a report released last week by the county. And its neighbor to the south -- Palmdale, the second-fastest growing city -- was not far behind.

By comparison, property values in the city and the county of Los Angeles increased 11%.

"Nowhere else in L.A. County has been like that," County Assessor Rick Auerbach said. "And the reason is that there is land to build on."

There's so much land that developers offer middle-class and even working-class buyers huge homes on lots that in other areas would be used only for multimillion-dollar houses.

And though some parts of Southern California are beginning to show signs that the housing boom is stalling, planners say the expanse of raw land in the Antelope Valley means growth will continue.

The Southern California Assn. of Governments projects that the Antelope Valley's population will rise from about 290,000 to nearly 500,000 in the next 15 to 20 years. Several planned communities are also slated to the west and south, adding more than 100,000 residents.

But amid the rising home values and booming growth, the Antelope Valley also shows signs of strain.

Even with the influx of middle-class residents, parts of the valley remain poor. In Lancaster, violent crime has dropped in recent years but property crime is up. Law enforcement officials said they are dealing with gang activity that they say has come to the valley as residents move in from urban parts of Los Angeles.