 In 2007, Coldwell Banker lists Beverly Hills as the most expensive housing market (second year in a row) in the United States, with a median home price of $2.21 million dollars . According to Forbes, Beverly Hills ranks in the top 100.
[edit] Early years
The land on which Beverly Hills is now located was historically fertile because of the streams that met there in the rainy months. Water cascaded down from the canyons that became known as Coldwater and Benedict, creating a ciénaga (or swamp) at the location of present day Sunset Boulevard and Beverly Drive. The foothill site had flocks of geese and ducks, bands of wild horses and herds of antelope. Native American inhabitants, the Tongva (called the Gabrielino by the Spanish) tribe, considered it a holy site and named it "The Gathering of the Waters," which in the Spanish language is El Rodeo de las Aguas.
Gaspar de Portolà's land expedition arrived in the area on August 3, 1769. The group, composed of Portolà (the first governor of the province of California), some Franciscan priests and a cavalcade of leather-jacket soldiers and horses, traveled over the Indian trail, which would one day be Wilshire Boulevard, across the plain toward the foothills gouged with deep canyons, and made camp in the cool of the sycamore trees at the present site of La Cienega Park, near the large swamp. On September 27, 1821, New Spain became Mexico and the province of California quietly changed flags.
That same decade, retired Spanish soldier Vicente Ferrer Valdez and his wife, Maria Rita Villa de Valdez, settled on the 4,500-acre (18 km²) Rancho El Rodeo de las Aguas. Rita did not care for the name, however, and chose to call it San Antonio. The Valdez adobe home was built near what is the present day intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Alpine Drive. Valdez died in 1828, leaving Rita and eleven children.
In 1831, Los Angeles mayor Vicente Sanchez granted to Rita, jointly with her kinsman Luciano Valdez, a tract of land he named San Antonio. She began having trouble with Luciano Valdez, however, and decided that the rancho was not big enough for the two of them. In 1834, she testified before the Los Angeles City Council, bringing up a number of charges against Luciano. The council agreed and ordered him to vacate the premises. In 1840, the land grant was confirmed by the governor of California, Juan Bautista Alvarado. By 1844, Rita had built a second home, this one on Main Street in Los Angeles, where she kept her title papers and grant. She fled prior to the arrival of U.S. forces into the city in 1846. When she returned, she found her papers had been stolen.
 California was admitted as a U.S. state on September 9, 1850. The United States Board of Land Commissioners later confirmed her title. However, prior to this, Rita sold the rancho in 1854 to Benjamin D. Wilson and Major Henry Hancock. Hancock sold out to William Workman, who planned to grow wheat. But after one successful season, the drought of 1863–1864 put a temporary end to farming in the area. The legendary waters dried up, crops withered and cattle died.
A brief oil boom brought a flourish of interest in the land in 1865 when the Pioneer Oil Company bought the rights to drill wells. But the wildcatting ended when the land proved as dry underneath as on top. Then newcomers arrived and herds of sheep appeared on the land, with portions being sold. James Whitworth bought a 125 acre (0.5 km²) parcel between what became Robertson and La Cienega Boulevards, north of what became Pico Boulevard, and Edison A. Benedict built a home in 1868 at the mouth of the canyon that bears his name. Benedict and his son, Pierce, bought adjoining land, planted walnut trees, beans and other vegetables and raised bees.
The De Las Aguas Land Association was formed with headquarters in San Francisco. Nearly the whole ranch was divided into 75 acre (303,000 m²) farming lots with the center reserved for the "Town of Santa Maria," which was to be split into five acre (20,000 m²) lots to be sold at $10 each. The proposed main street of the town was Los Angeles Avenue, now Wilshire Boulevard. The plans were dropped followed another drought, and the land reverted to sheep ranching.
Henry Hammel and Charles Denker, owners of the United States Hotel in Los Angeles, then purchased the land. Lima beans were the only crop to flourish, along with the sheep, but their ultimate dream was to establish a subdivision called Morocco. During their ownership in the 1880s, there was a land boom and a steam train brought buyers from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, passing through the Hammel and Denker Ranch. A station named Morocco, with a town of the same name was shown on the map of 1888, but the station and the town existed only on paper. The land boom collapsed, taking their plans along with it.
[edit] Creation of Beverly Hills
[edit] Middle years
 In 1906, the community of Beverly Hills was developed with winding roads and tree-lined streets. The community was designed to allow the buyers to build a custom house on the land they purchased in the new development, so Beverly Hills was never designed as a tract housing development. During its construction, Beverly Hills was never intended to be a haven for the affluent but rather a rural community with homes on large lots. The developers decided to name it Beverly Hills after a city in Massachusetts named Beverly. Developers wanted to create a west coast replica of this town-although it transformed over the years to be quite different.
In 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford bought land on Summit Drive and built Pickfair, the house that would remain Pickford's home after she and Fairbanks divorced and for the rest of her life. Other wealthy movie people followed them and settled in Beverly Hills. Will Rogers, a wisecracking political humorist, wrote of the land boom in 1923, "Lots are sold so quickly and often out here that they put through escrow made out to the 12th owner... They couldn't possibly make out a separate deed for each purchaser; besides, he wouldn't have time to read it in the 10 minutes' time he owned the land." The movie colony was well entrenched by 1928 when Harold Lloyd built his mansion in Benedict Canyon, followed by John Barrymore, Robert Montgomery and Miriam Hopkins. Thus, Beverly Hills became famous for being home to the rich and for the large, stylish mansions of famous movie stars.
The population in 1920 was 672; in 1924, it was 5,000; by 1930, it was 17,429. The issuance of building permits in 1918 totaled $35,200; in 1919, $304,900; in 1921, $787,729; 1922, $1,838,994.
The track that would become the Beverly Hills Speedway, 1912
In early 1920, the Beverly Hills Speedway, a 1.25 mile wood oval track with turns banked 35 degrees, which was built at a cost of $500,000 on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard between Beverly Drive on the east and Lasky Drive on the west in Beverly Hills, was opened. Joe Boyer ran his race car 110 mph during the exhibition run. The races drew huge crowds and radio broadcasts were on a par with today's Indianapolis 500. There were also some aviation shows, another national craze. The speedway was closed in 1924 and the site was later subdivided for housing and businesses.
In 1923, annexation to the city of Los Angeles was proposed, but faced opposition. Residents Mary Pickford, Will Rogers and others mobilized local voters against the plan. Those for annexation argued that Los Angeles would provide an adequate supply of better quality water for growth. Workers left bottles of sulfur-smelling water on the doorsteps of every home in Beverly Hills with a label that read: "Warning. Drink sparingly of this water as it has laxative qualities." Despite the campaign tactics, annexation was defeated 507 to 337. The following year, the city voted $400,000 in bonds to purchase the water system from the Beverly Hills Utilities Company and drill additional wells.
This fight for an independent city was arguably the first union of show business and politics in the United States. When Will Rogers became involved in local city government the community received international advertising. In 1925, Rogers was given the title "Honorary Mayor of Beverly Hills," becoming the first and (to date) only person so honored. The same year, the citizens of the city voted a $100,000 bond issue to purchase with Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Venice 385 acres (1.6 km²) for the building of UCLA. There were ninety-six miles (154 km) of paved streets in the city limits by 1927. In 1928, the Beverly-Wilshire Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard between El Camino and Rodeo Drives, part of the old Beverly Hills Speedway, was completed. That same year, Greystone Mansion was completed by Edward L. Doheny, Jr., the only son and heir of wealthy oil man Edward L. Doheny. And in 1930, horses were banned in the City of Beverly Hills.
 Beverly Hills continued to grow. Promotional materials from the period touted the young metropolis as the "center of the next million." Fortunately, human-scale public improvements helped soften the effects of growth. In the early 1930s, Santa Monica Park was renamed Beverly Gardens and was extended to span the entire two mile length of Santa Monica Boulevard through the city. At its Santa Monica and Wilshire corner, the Electric Fountain, a constant symphony of form and color at night, was installed, with a small sculpture at the top of a Tongva kneeling in prayer, homage to the heritage of Beverly Hills as a wellspring of fertility and abundance.
Will Rogers standing with a model of plans for constructing City Hall
The following year, 1932, a new Italian Renaissance-style City Hall was opened. By 1933, however, the Depression hit Beverly Hills. The city and school board cut salaries to save funds. In February, some 161 parcels of land were advertised for sale for delinquent lighting assessments. The Chamber of Commerce established an employment bureau and the mayor requested a branch welfare office from the County of Los Angeles.
Despite these problems, in April 1934 there was a huge celebration over the dedication of the city's new United States Post Office. The civic festival that followed was called Beverly Hills on Parade. By 1937, the city had weathered the storm of the Depression and was riding the crest of a wave of retail sales that reached more than $20,000,000 and bank deposits topped the $25,000,000 figure. Property values of that year showed a 30% increase over the previous year and new buildings were being opened regularly.
In the years after World War II, energies were again turned toward the building of the city; businesses and residential areas began to flourish.
[edit] Contemporary Beverly Hills
By the 1950s, small vacant lots remained and developers cropped whole mountains to ease the housing shortage. The Trousdale Estates area was eventually annexed and an expensive housing development began to take shape in the hills above the city. Beverly Hills marketed itself as one of the most glamorous places in the world to shop. The Golden Triangle, with Rodeo Drive at its center, was marketed as the apex of chic shopping and fashion.
The Via Rodeo, the first new street in Beverly Hills in seventy-six years, was completed in 1990. The Spanish cobblestone street leads to 2 Rodeo Drive, a "mini-mall" with upscale shops and restaurants. In 1992, the Beverly Hills Civic Center was opened. Designed by architect Charles Moore, it links the new public library, fire and police departments with the historic City Hall. The exterior of the old public library, which had featured a mosaic resembling books on a shelf, appeared in stock shots in The Brady Bunch as Mike Brady's office building.
 A little known fact about the center divider that runs from North Santa Monica to Sunset in the middle of Rodeo Drive is built in place of a trolley track, once ran from downtown Beverly Hills to the Beverly Hills Hotel along that route.
While the city derives its unique personality from being favored by show business people; and it is true that many actors, writers, directors and producers live in the city and take part in civic life; many professionals, doctors and lawyers, have homes and offices in the city also. The Beverly Hills Unified School District, with its four K-8 schools and the Beverly Hills High School, boasts particularly high academic achievement.
The city's image has been enhanced by being featured in television shows and movies set in Beverly Hills, including the The Jack Benny Program (1950 to 1954), The Beverly Hillbillies (1962 to 1971), the Beverly Hills Cop movies, and Beverly Hills 90210 (1990 to 2000). There's a worldwide hit animation series Totally Spies based in Beverly Hills, as three teen girls attend fictional Beverly High School are part-time undercover spies.
Rodeo Drive, Beverly and Canon Drives all recently underwent construction to widen the sidewalks and beautify the streets. New construction has also just been completed that added more parking for visitors to the famed shopping area.
2 Rodeo Drive and its "Spanish Steps" is at the heart of the exclusive shopping district on Rodeo Drive.
[edit] 90210
90210 is a ZIP code in Beverly Hills, made the most famous postal code in the world by the television series Beverly Hills 90210 and because of the celebrity residents that reside in the area. (West Beverly Hills High School is a fictional high school.) The real Beverly Hills High School is actually located in 90212. Beverly Hills also has two additional ZIP codes based on the general area. These ZIP codes are 90211 and 90212. In 1983, the local weekly magazine "Beverly Hills 213" debuted as the city's first color ultra-luxury magazine. The population of 90210 is 21,396 .
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