The Chumash named this valley for its thread-like clouds. Spain granted it as a rancho in 1795. Hollywood shot 3,500 pictures in its eastern hills, and the engines that carried Apollo were test-fired above them. I did something smaller, but with everything I had: I drove over the Santa Susana Pass, ran the math — and moved here.
The east end of Simi Valley is the old end — the depot, the movie ranch, the first neighborhoods. Understand its story and you’ll understand why 93063 behaves differently from every zip around it.
“People have been choosing this valley on purpose for a very long time.”
The Chumash village of Shimiji’ sat in this valley for thousands of years, named for the thin, stringy clouds that drift over the ridgelines on cool mornings. Watch the sky from Rocky Peak at dawn and you’ll see exactly what they named it for — some facts you verify with your own eyes.
Spain granted Rancho San José de Nuestra Señora de Altagracia y Simí — 113,009 acres — to Santiago Pico. It was the earliest Spanish land grant in Ventura or Santa Barbara counties. Every deed in this valley, including mine and maybe someday yours, descends from that single piece of paper.
The overland stage crossed the Santa Susana Pass from 1861, dropping into the San Fernando Valley down the infamous Devil’s Slide. Farming colonies followed; the town’s first American-era neighborhoods took root at the valley’s east end — which is why the oldest bones in Simi Valley are in this zip code.
The Santa Susana Depot opened in 1903, and the rail tunnel through the pass was finished a year later. The restored depot still stands on Katherine Road as a museum — and the same corridor now runs Metrolink from the Simi Valley station, in this zip, straight to LA Union Station. The east end has been the connected end for 120 years.
Stuntman and screen cowboy Ray “Crash” Corrigan bought 1,500 acres at the valley’s eastern edge in 1937. Corriganville became the most-worked movie ranch of its era — roughly 3,500 productions — and from 1949, a dollar-admission amusement park where families watched live stunt shows in “Silvertown.” Bob Hope bought it in 1965 and renamed it Hopetown.
In the hills above east Simi, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory test-fired the engines of the space race — the hardware that carried Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. Old-timers remember the ground humming on test days. That history left a cleanup obligation too, and I address it straight-on in the answers below, because you deserve the whole story.
The 118 opened the pass in 1968; the city incorporated in 1969. Corriganville burned in 1970 and again in 1979, and the movie-ranch era gave way to the family era — tract by tract, the valley filled with people trading LA density for room to grow. The pattern has never stopped.
East Simi is trailheads, the train, the Knolls’ cabin-born character homes, no-HOA value pockets, and hillside neighborhoods with the movie ranch as a public park at the end of the street. It’s not the flashy end of town. It’s the end with the story — and, for my money, the better math. Literally: it’s where I live.
Corriganville Park keeps the footprint of the golden-age movie ranch — stone foundations, the old lake where Rin Tin Tin swam, interpretive markers along the trail. It’s a neighborhood dog-walking park that happens to be a Ventura County Historical Landmark.
Rocky Peak, the Hummingbird Trail, and the Chumash Trail all launch from east Simi’s edges — sandstone caves, valley views, and spring wildflowers within minutes of the neighborhoods below. Trail access from the property line is a real amenity here, not a brochure line.
The 1903 Santa Susana Depot on Katherine Road is restored and run by volunteers, model railroad included. Twenty minutes inside explains the entire east end: this was the town’s front door, and the neighborhoods grew out from it.
Santa Susana Knolls grew from 1920s weekend cabins into a hillside neighborhood of one-of-a-kind homes on winding lanes — artists, oaks, and owners who’d riot before accepting an HOA. No two houses match, which is exactly the point, and exactly why it needs a careful eye at purchase.
The Simi Valley Metrolink station sits in 93063 — Ventura County Line, direct to Union Station. East-siders board first, sit down, and pass the 118’s brake lights from a window seat. It is the single most underrated fact in this zip’s value math.
Most cool mornings, thin threads of cloud drift over the ridgelines and burn off by nine — the Shimiyi the Chumash named the valley for. Two thousand years of residents have watched the same weather from the same spot. You’d be in good company.
East Simi isn’t one market — it’s distinct pockets with different vintages, different rules, and different reasons to win. Here’s the map I’d draw for family.
Hillside construction largely from 2002–2010 — modern floor plans, panoramic views, parks built in. The move-up buyer’s answer when they want new without leaving the valley. Premiums track the view corridors; know which phase you’re buying.
Established, well-located, and largely free of monthly dues — a first-buyer and long-holder favorite. Solid bones and mature streets make it one of the cleanest entries into Simi Valley ownership, which keeps demand steady through every cycle.
Character you cannot manufacture: custom homes grown from 1920s cabins on oak-lined lanes. Priced right it’s the best personality-per-dollar in the corridor — but septic, slopes, and private-road questions mean you want an agent who’s walked these hills. I have.
Larger parcels, privacy, and canyon-edge settings for buyers who want space above everything. You trade convenience for acreage and views — a trade that has historically aged well for patient holders on the east end.
The workhorse of the market: established streets, walkable schools, quick 118 access, honest pricing. Where most east-side ownership stories start — and where the rent-vs-own math flips fastest for young families coming over the pass.
Neighborhoods within an easy drop of the Metrolink station quietly serve LA-office households better than most LA zips do. As long as people work downtown and hate the 118 at 7am, walk-to-train proximity is an appreciating amenity.
Want the actual number for your home? Printed prices go stale; structure doesn’t. For live figures I built the 93063 Equity Audit — real comps, pulled personally, returned in one business day. Or just ask me for this week’s read on any pocket above.
The standing dates that turn a zip code into a hometown.
Right here in 93063 at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park — two stages, a hundred craft booths, gumbo by the gallon. It started as a Rotary clambake in 1988 and grew into one of the largest festivals of its kind west of the Mississippi, with millions raised for local causes.
The hometown fair-and-parade tradition — carnival rides, community floats, and the particular small-town feeling LA transplants say they moved here to find. Bring cash for the kettle corn.
Volunteers keep the 1903 Santa Susana Depot museum open on weekend afternoons, model railroad included. The best free history stop in the zip — and a reliable kid-pleaser after a Corriganville walk.
Rocky Peak, Hummingbird, and the Chumash Trail turn green after the rains, and the Shimiyi clouds put on their best mornings. The six weeks locals quietly consider the valley’s most beautiful.
I grew up on the other side of the Santa Susana Pass — Chatsworth and West Hills, in a family of builders and hands-on tradespeople, with a stretch in San Diego that gave me fresh eyes. I knew the West Valley block by block. Which is exactly why the question wouldn’t leave me alone: what does my money actually buy on each side of this pass?
So I did the thing I now do for every client. I drove the 118 — the same corridor the stagecoaches, the railroad, and half of my childhood crossed — and I looked honestly. Lot sizes. Price per square foot. Schools. Commute math. The quiet. Then I moved to Simi Valley. Not because a brochure told me to. Because the evidence said so.
That decision is the spine of how I work. When a family asks me whether the move over the pass is a real upgrade or just a different set of trade-offs, I don’t have to guess — I’ve lived both sides of the answer. I know what you gain (room, calm, the train, the trailheads) and I’ll name what you give up (walkability, a little nightlife) before you sign anything.
And I chose the east end deliberately. The old end. The one with the depot and the movie ranch and the morning clouds the Chumash named the whole valley for. My family’s story crossed the pass in one direction; yours might cross it in the other. Either way — I know the road.
Including the one most agents hope you won’t bring up. I’d rather you hear it from a resident, with the facts.
Here’s the whole story, because you deserve it and because I bought a home here with it in full view. The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, in the hills above east Simi, test-fired the rocket engines of the space race and hosted nuclear research decades ago. It left real contamination, and it is now one of the most scrutinized cleanup sites in California — under active state (DTSC) oversight, with hundreds of structures demolished, tens of thousands of soil and groundwater samples analyzed, groundwater treatment running, and final soil-cleanup phases moving forward under binding agreements with Boeing, NASA, and the Department of Energy.
What should a careful buyer actually do? Three things. Read the natural-hazard and seller disclosures — the site appears there, as it should. Review the public record yourself: DTSC publishes the monthly status reports, and I’ll send you the links rather than summarize them selectively. And then weigh it the way you weigh every fact — against schools, price, commute, and the life you’re building. Families keep choosing this valley with eyes open, mine included. What I won’t do is pretend the question doesn’t exist. Straight answers, even the uncomfortable ones — that’s the deal.
East versus west, old versus new. 93063 is the east half: the original town, the depot, the Metrolink station, Corriganville, the Knolls, and the fastest jump onto the 118 toward LA. 93065 is the west half, anchored by newer master-planned communities like Wood Ranch. Neither is “better” — they reward different buyers. East wins on commute math, character, and value per square foot; west wins on newer construction and planned amenities. I’ll tell you which one your priorities point to, even if it’s the one across town.
Rush hour on the 118 is no joke, and I won’t dress it up. But east Simi holds the two best cards in the deck: you’re the first on the freeway heading east, and the Metrolink station is in this zip — direct to Union Station, no brake lights. A lot of my clients drive to LA twice a week and ride the train the rest. If your office is in the Valley itself, the math gets even friendlier. Tell me where you work and I’ll give you the honest door-to-door number before we ever tour a house.
It’s the older side, which is a different thing. The east end carries the town’s original bones — and older, in real estate, often means bigger lots, established trees, no HOA, and pricing that hasn’t been marked up for a clubhouse you won’t use. You frequently get more land and more character per dollar here, with the train and the trailheads thrown in. That’s value, not consolation. I weighed both sides with my own money and picked the east end. That’s the strongest opinion I can offer.
My family’s story runs along the Santa Susana Pass — raised on one side, home on the other. Read it in order, or start where you’re standing.
Where I’m from. Stagecoach ruts, movie rocks, horse zoning — the roots.
Chapter II 91304 West Hills · Canoga ParkWhere I learned to build. Moon engines, a 700-year-old oak, and the neighborhood that renamed itself.
Chapter III 93063 East Simi ValleyWhere I chose home — after one honest drive over the pass with my own money on the line.
Moving over the pass, selling an east-side home, or weighing the Knolls against Big Sky — I’ll give you the resident’s read first and the strategy second. One conversation, no follow-up campaign, no pressure. That’s a promise I publish.
The 93063 Equity Audit pulls your real comps — not a Zestimate — and shows the hidden equity moves specific to this zip. Free, personal, one business day.
Run the Equity Audit