Montrose

Partly. Glendale annexed Montrose block by block between 1951 and 1955, and the line stopped roughly at the rear of the lots on the north side of Honolulu Avenue. Most of the Montrose Shopping Park, the branch library and the streets south to Broadview Drive are in the City of Glendale. Montrose Avenue, Florencita Avenue and the blocks north to Foothill Boulevard are unincorporated La Crescenta-Montrose. The Census Bureau defines that community as the parts of the valley not inside Glendale or La Cañada Flintridge. Both sides share the 91020 ZIP code, the Montrose-Verdugo City Chamber of Commerce and Glendale Unified schools.

The three-block business district on Honolulu Avenue between Ocean View Boulevard and Verdugo Road. In 1967 the merchants rebuilt the street with curb-outs, benches, decorative walls and landscaping to slow traffic, and the City of Glendale bought the lots behind the shops for parking. The Montrose Shopping Park Association formed in 1968 and has run the business improvement district since 1973, with nearly 200 member businesses. It puts on the Sunday Harvest Market, the Arts and Crafts Festival, a car show, a film festival, Halloween on the avenue and the Montrose-Glendale Christmas Parade.

Just after midnight on January 1, 1934, mud and debris from fire-stripped mountains swept through the Crescenta Valley, destroying more than 400 homes and killing at least 45 people. Fires in November 1933 had burned the San Gabriel slopes above the valley, and a week of storms in late December dropped about 12 inches of rain before the earthen check dams in the canyons gave way. The flow cut through La Cañada, La Crescenta, Montrose and Tujunga. Twelve of the dead had taken shelter in the American Legion hall on Rosemont Avenue. The Army Corps of Engineers and Los Angeles County then built the debris basins and channels that protect the valley today. A monument at Rosemont and Fairway avenues was dedicated on January 1, 2004.

Glendale Unified School District, which serves the city of Glendale and the unincorporated communities of Montrose and La Crescenta. Its school finder assigns the streets around the Shopping Park, on both sides of the city line, to John C. Fremont Elementary, Rosemont Middle School and Crescenta Valley High School. That covers the 2200 to 2599 blocks of Honolulu Avenue, Florencita Avenue, Glencoe Way, Sparr Boulevard, Broadview Drive, Las Palmas Avenue and the 3400 to 4199 blocks of Ocean View Boulevard. Fremont is on the Glendale side; Rosemont and Crescenta Valley High, which opened in 1960, are in unincorporated La Crescenta. Confirm the assignment for an exact address with the district.

Only on the county side. North of the city line, in unincorporated La Crescenta-Montrose, Los Angeles County's rent stabilization ordinance caps increases on most fully covered units at 1.919 percent through June 30, 2027. The Glendale side has no local rent cap: state law (AB 1482) limits most older units to 8.7 percent a year from August 1, 2026, and Glendale's Rental Rights Program adds just-cause eviction for buildings of three or more units and relocation assistance when an increase tops 7 percent. Houses and condos are mostly outside both local programs. Check the parcel's jurisdiction before you underwrite a rental.

Parts of it are. On the CAL FIRE map released for Glendale on March 24, 2025, points we checked on the Shopping Park blocks of Honolulu Avenue and on Broadview Drive west of Ocean View came back unzoned or Moderate, while Broadview east of Ocean View, the lowest blocks of Ocean View Boulevard and Sparr Heights came back Very High. The San Gabriel foothills above La Crescenta and the Verdugo slopes to the south are Very High. Unincorporated parcels north of the line follow the state's map for county land instead. Check the exact address at the state's FHSZ site, since a Very High parcel carries defensible-space, inspection and AB 38 disclosure rules.

About $950,000 to $2.1 million for a house near the village as of late September 2026. On September 25, 2026 a handful of houses within a few blocks of Honolulu Avenue asked $949,000 to $2.095 million, along with a townhouse at $899,000 and a condo at $665,000. Two small income properties nearby asked about $965,000 and $1.15 million. Lots are flat and modest, so condition and walking distance to Honolulu Avenue move price more than views do.

Every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, on Honolulu Avenue in the Montrose Shopping Park. The Harvest Market brings certified California farmers selling produce, baked goods, flowers, nuts and berries. It closes on Easter Sunday and a few other dates, and free parking is available during the market. If you're weighing a house nearby, walk over on a Sunday morning before you write an offer.

91020. That ZIP covers the village on both sides of the Glendale city line, so a 91020 address can be in the City of Glendale or in unincorporated La Crescenta-Montrose. Some Glendale blocks south of the avenue, including Broadview Drive and the lower blocks of Ocean View Boulevard, use Glendale's 91208 instead. The ZIP doesn't tell you the jurisdiction, so check the parcel on the county assessor's map.

About 4 miles by road to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 12 to Hollywood Burbank Airport and 13 to downtown Los Angeles, measured from the Shopping Park. Old Pasadena is about 7.7 miles away and the Americana at Brand in downtown Glendale about 6.5. The 210 Foothill Freeway runs along the north side of the valley with exits at Ocean View Boulevard and at Pennsylvania and La Crescenta avenues, and the 2 runs south to Glendale and the 134.

Not in a FEMA flood zone at the points we checked, but its eastern blocks are in a state liquefaction zone. FEMA maps the sampled Montrose streets as Zone X, minimal flood hazard, and the debris basins and concrete channels built after the 1934 flood still carry the mountain runoff. On the California Geological Survey's seismic hazard map, points from the 2200 block of Honolulu Avenue east to Verdugo Boulevard and south along Verdugo Road, Broadview Drive and Clifton Place fell in a liquefaction zone, while points farther west on Honolulu did not. Sellers must disclose the zone, and new construction in it needs a site-specific geotechnical investigation.

Montrose is a village built around a main street on the flat valley floor, with modest lots, apartments on the side avenues and a city line through the middle. Verdugo Woodlands, south past Sparr Heights, is a residential canyon along Cañada Boulevard and Verdugo Road with larger, tree-shaded lots and no commercial street of its own. Montrose feeds Rosemont Middle and Crescenta Valley High; Verdugo Woodlands feeds Wilson Middle and Glendale High. Fire zones in Montrose vary block by block, from unzoned on parts of Honolulu Avenue to Very High south of it; Verdugo Woodlands is Very High throughout.

Read the Verdugo Woodlands guide