Best-Value Neighborhoods in Pasadena, CA

Daisy-Villa is a small, all-residential corner of east Pasadena, named for the two streets that meet in its middle. About 350 single-family homes fill it, with the San Gabriel Mountains right behind them. ... See Full Page

San Rafael sits on the west rim of the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, and the canyon is the reason people end up here. The Lower Arroyo runs right along the neighborhood's edge, with the Colorado Street Bridge at the north end and trails following the streambed south toward South Pasadena. ... See Full Page

Annandale is the hilly corner where Pasadena runs out at the Los Angeles line, with Eagle Rock over the ridge and San Rafael just to the east. It started as its own small community served by a Pacific Electric line, and it still sits a little apart from the rest of the city, tucked below West Colorado Boulevard. ... See Full Page

Brigden Ranch is a small slice of northeast Pasadena where the city line runs right through the neighborhood, leaving some blocks inside the city and others in unincorporated county land. Its draw sits on the edges, along North Allen Avenue and East Washington Boulevard, where Armenian bakeries, pastry shops and delis cluster close together. ... See Full Page

Linda Vista is the largest neighborhood in Pasadena by area, climbing from the Arroyo Seco up into the San Rafael Hills on the city's west side. Brookside Park and the Rose Bowl sit in the canyon below, while the Annandale Golf Club and the hillside campus of Art Center share the higher ground. ... See Full Page

East Orange Grove runs along its namesake boulevard in northeast Pasadena, with houses from the city's early 20th century boom on the side streets and the Pasadena City College stretch of Colorado Boulevard at its southern end. ... See Full Page

Hastings Ranch is the postwar ranch-house corner of Pasadena, laid out on the old Hastings family ranch at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains on the city's east side. Architect Edward Fickett designed its three tracts around 1950, and Sierra Madre Boulevard still divides the upper and lower sections. ... See Full Page

North Pasadena Heights sits just above the 210 Freeway in northeast Pasadena, a landmark district since 2006 that stretches from Paloma Street up to Whitefield Road between Hill and Allen avenues. Lot sizes and house styles change from block to block instead of repeating a single bungalow pattern. ... See Full Page

Sierra Madre Villa takes its name from a 19th-century resort hotel that once stood on a high shelf of land above Pasadena, and today the neighborhood is defined by the canyon on its western edge. The trailheads for Eaton Canyon Falls and Henninger Flats sit at its edge, with Upper Hastings Ranch to the east. ... See Full Page

Chapman Woods is a pocket of roughly 460 homes on the east side of Pasadena, most of it in unincorporated East Pasadena with a small piece inside the city. Signs mark every entrance, and the Chapman Woods Association, formed in the 1930s, still publishes a directory and keeps block representatives on each street. ... See Full Page

Lamanda Park is the working east side of Pasadena, a stretch of warehouses, lumber yards and small shops along East Colorado Boulevard that feels nothing like the city's historic districts. Rose's Sunny Slope Ranch, where vineyards and wineries ran until Prohibition, and some of the street names still nod to the grapes. ... See Full Page

Oak Knoll is the ridge at the southern tip of Pasadena, a rise pushed up by the Raymond Fault and still covered in old oaks. Streets bend with the slope, lots run large, and the San Marino line is close enough that the change is hard to spot on foot. ... See Full Page

Historic Highlands in northeast Pasadena grew from the holdings of two pioneers, and David MacPherson's railroad career still shows up on the street signs. Topeka, Erie, Denver, Atchison, Rio Grande and Santa Fe all name streets here. Catalina and Mar Vista, meanwhile, nod to the ocean views early promoters used to sell lots. ... See Full Page

Madison Heights is where the south side of Pasadena keeps its older houses a block or two from its busiest shopping corridors. Restored Craftsman, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival homes fill the interior streets, while Arroyo Parkway and Fair Oaks Avenue carry the grocery stores, drive-thrus and traffic. ... See Full Page

South Lake is the part of Pasadena where Caltech and a long shopping street share the same few blocks. Lake Avenue south of Colorado Boulevard handles the errands, and the campus a few blocks east sets much of the area's pace and traffic. ... See Full Page

Bungalow Heaven is where Pasadena kept its Craftsman era almost intact, with more than 800 small homes built between 1900 and 1930 still standing around McDonald Park. The city made it a landmark district in 1989, and neighbors have opened a few front doors for a spring home tour every year since. ... See Full Page

Orange Heights was the first neighborhood in Pasadena to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, an honor it earned on the strength of the houses that replaced its orange groves around the turn of the last century. ... See Full Page

Normandie Heights runs from Washington Boulevard north to Woodbury Road, between Los Robles and Lake avenues, and the clock tower of Westminster Presbyterian Church is the landmark most Pasadena drivers know it by. ... See Full Page

Old Pasadena is the historic downtown of Pasadena, a grid of brick commercial blocks and back alleys along Colorado Boulevard that slid into disrepair in the middle of the last century and was brought back through preservation rather than the bulldozer. ... See Full Page

Pasadena's Playhouse District, now officially called Playhouse Village, is the arts stretch of East Colorado Boulevard anchored by the Pasadena Playhouse and Vroman's Bookstore. Vroman's opened in 1894 and is the oldest bookstore in Southern California, and it still fills its calendar with author talks, signings and book clubs. ... See Full Page

Washington Square wraps around Washington Park, one of the oldest parks in Pasadena, and the story locals tell is that the land was a municipal dump until horticulturist Theodore Payne turned it into parkland in 1922. ... See Full Page

Northwest Pasadena is a large part of the city that runs from the 210 and 134 freeways north to the city line, and its character comes as much from its commercial streets as from its houses. Five corridors cross it, Lincoln, Fair Oaks, Woodbury, Washington and Orange Grove, each with its own mix of shops and small businesses. ... See Full Page

Garfield Heights is one of the oldest intact neighborhoods in Pasadena, a tract first registered with the city in 1904 and later made the second landmark district in town after Bungalow Heaven. It sits between Washington Boulevard and Mountain Street, from Marengo Avenue east to Los Robles Avenue, with Orange Heights across Los Robles. ... See Full Page

Villa Parke is a compact neighborhood in central Pasadena built around the community center that shares its name, where Villa Street meets Euclid Avenue. The center does a lot of work for the area, with sports fields, a library branch, the Villa Verde rooftop garden and a Tuesday morning farmers market that runs from 8:30 to 12:30. ... See Full Page