White Fence Farms, CA

Drive west across Palmdale's tract neighborhoods and the lots suddenly widen enough for a horse arena. That stretch is White Fence Farms, unincorporated Los Angeles County ground wedged between Palmdale and Quartz Hill, and it has kept its elbow room while subdivisions filled in around it. The first homes went up in the early 1950s, and new ones kept arriving in scattered waves for decades after, so a modest postwar house can sit beside a two-story custom build finished much later. Some parcels run close to three acres, and a handful of attached homes mix in near the edges. Yards are the point here. People put the extra ground to work with RV pads, detached workshops, vegetable beds or a pen for a horse or two. Streets feel less formal than the city blocks nearby, and the county, not Palmdale, looks after them. Parks sit just outside. George Lane Park in Quartz Hill has fields and a skate park, and on the Palmdale side, Marie Kerr Park spreads across 57 acres where a softball complex, a swimming pool and the city's outdoor amphitheater share the grounds with walking paths. For sit-down meals and a real grocery haul, Palmdale's big commercial streets are a quick drive away, and the Antelope Valley Freeway sits east of the neighborhood for anyone commuting south. The tradeoff is upkeep. A lot that size takes watering, weeding, fencing and time, and almost nothing is close enough to walk to. On lots this size in White Fence Farms, weekends tend to disappear into the workshop, the garden and the fence line.