Own a building here? Burbank multifamily broker — Michael Sterman’s closing record, comparables and process →
Burbank is an independent city of about 105,000 residents in the eastern San Fernando Valley, widely recognized as the media capital of the world. The city runs on entertainment-industry employment, has its own municipal services, and operates outside LA City jurisdiction.
The city line is the boundary that matters, not a neighborhood edge. Burbank sits at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, adjoining the Los Angeles neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Toluca Lake on the west and Glendale on the east. Part of Toluca Lake lies inside Burbank, which is why an address advertised as Toluca Lake may in fact be a Burbank property governed by Burbank's rules and served by Burbank's schools.
Burbank is not a Los Angeles neighborhood. It is a separate, incorporated city of 17.35 square miles with its own council, its own city manager, its own police and its own school district, and it has been independent since 1911. Everything else on this page follows from that, and it is the single most important thing an owner or a buyer here needs to understand: Los Angeles rules do not apply. The 2020 census counted 107,337 residents, and an estimated 164,000 people work in the city — considerably more people work here than live here, which is unusual and which shapes the rental market.
Resident population around 105,000, with a working demographic heavily weighted toward the entertainment industry — studio employees, post-production professionals, creative-industry support services, plus a long-established working-class base tied to Burbank's aerospace and municipal-services history.
Mid-size buildings — the properties in this record run from ten to fifteen units — in a city with two things most of this site's submarkets do not have: a very large daytime employment base it does not house, and no local rent cap. The buyer pool reflects it. Buyers here are underwriting against market rents rather than against a stabilized roll and a regulated increase, which is a materially different exercise from the one on the Los Angeles pages of this site.
For what that looks like in practice: the 4 Burbank apartment buildings in our own closed record run from 10 to 15 units, with a median of 11. See every one of them →
A studio town built out largely between the 1920s and the 1960s, and the apartment stock reflects that: low-rise walk-ups and courts serving studio and airport employment, on a regular street grid with generous lots. Because Burbank has no local stabilization ordinance, the 1 October 1978 certificate-of-occupancy date that governs so much of this site's Los Angeles content has no significance here at all. What matters instead is the statewide test in the Tenant Protection Act, which turns on the building's age on a rolling basis rather than on a fixed historical date.
| Building | Year | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Warner Bros. Studios | 1928 | Acquired as the 78-acre First National Pictures site on Olive Avenue. Still one of the city's largest employers. |
| Walt Disney Studios | 1939 | Completed on 51 acres at Buena Vista Street, and the corporate headquarters of the Walt Disney Company. |
| The Burbank Studios | 1951 | Bought by NBC in 1951, occupied from 1952, with a multimillion-dollar complex finished by 1962. Renamed after NBC Universal's later relocations. |
| Hollywood Burbank Airport | 1930 | Dedicated over Memorial Day weekend 1930 as United Airport, and by 1935 the third-largest air terminal in the United States. Both an employment anchor and, for buildings under the approach, a noise consideration. |
The rent question is the one to settle first, and the answer is clear. Burbank has no rent control ordinance. Measure RC, put to voters in 2021, would have capped annual rent increases at 7% across roughly 24,000 units; it failed, 36% to 64%. Rental housing here is therefore governed by California's statewide Tenant Protection Act rather than by any local stabilization ordinance — see AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act, explained. For an owner comparing a Burbank building against one a mile west in Los Angeles, that is not a detail. It is a different regulatory product, and it belongs at the front of any valuation rather than in the diligence file. Burbank is one of thirteen separate cities in this desk's closing record; which city actually governs your building sets out what changes at each line.
Anchored by Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company, Cartoon Network Studios, Nickelodeon Animation, and ABC/Disney Television. Together these employers put Burbank in the top tier of single-industry-concentrated cities in California.
Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR) is within city limits. Metrolink Antelope Valley and Ventura County lines stop at Downtown Burbank station. Primary freeway access via I-5, SR-134, and SR-170.
Hollywood Burbank Airport sits inside the city and has since 1930, which is both an employment anchor and an overflight factor for buildings on the approach. The city is served by Metrolink commuter rail and by the Golden State and Ventura freeways, and its location among the studios means a large share of its renters work within a few miles of where they live.
Burbank Unified School District operates the K-12 system. Woodbury University maintains its main campus in Burbank. Burroughs and Burbank High are the flagship public high schools.
Burbank Unified School District, not LAUSD. Burbank High School, established 1908 and opened on 14 September 1914, and John Burroughs High School are the city's comprehensive high schools. The district also covers the part of Toluca Lake that lies within Burbank.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour, The Walt Disney Studios lot, The Burbank Studios (home to NBCUniversal tenants), Magnolia Park historic commercial district, and the Stough Canyon foothill trails.
McCambridge Park, Verdugo Park, Johnny Carson Park (named for the Tonight Show host), Wildwood Canyon Park, and the Stough Canyon foothill trail system. The Burbank Chandler Bikeway runs along the former Pacific Electric right-of-way.
Magnolia Park's vintage-and-boutique commercial district is Burbank's distinctive shopping and dining strip. Downtown Burbank centered on San Fernando Boulevard and AMC 16 concentrates restaurants, bars, and entertainment. The Burbank Town Center mall serves broader retail.
| Institution | Since | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Burbank Unified School District | Burbank runs its own schools rather than sitting inside LAUSD, and the district extends to the Burbank portion of Toluca Lake. Burbank High School was established in 1908 and opened on 14 September 1914; John Burroughs High School is the city's other comprehensive high school. For a tenant comparing Burbank against a Los Angeles address, the school district is one of the clearest practical differences. |
Downtown Burbank hosts the annual Burbank Bike Tour and a seasonal farmers market. The Burbank Film Festival runs annually. Magnolia Park Association coordinates neighborhood events along the Magnolia Park commercial corridor.
Burbank's identity as the media capital of the world is anchored by the studios headquartered or based here — Warner Bros., Disney, and the rest. The city is frequently referenced in film and television as the generic example of a Los Angeles-area suburb.
Burbank runs a council-manager government: an elected city council setting policy and an appointed city manager running the administration. There is no neighborhood council layer as in Los Angeles, because Burbank is the city.
Named for David Burbank, a dentist who acquired a sheep ranch that became the city in 1887. The entertainment anchor began in 1928 when Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. opened operations; Disney followed in 1940.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1867 | David Burbank buys around 9,200 acres of the ranch land the city is later named for. |
| 1887 | The town of Burbank is founded on 1 May. |
| 1911 | Burbank incorporates as a city on 8 July — the first independent city in the San Fernando Valley. |
| 1928 | Warner Bros. acquires the 78-acre First National Pictures site on Olive Avenue. |
| 1930 | United Airport, now Hollywood Burbank Airport, is dedicated over Memorial Day weekend. By 1935 it ranks as the third-largest air terminal in the country. |
| 1939 | Disney completes its studio on 51 acres at Buena Vista Street. |
| 1951 | NBC buys a Burbank studio, moving from Hollywood the following year; its complex is finished by 1962. |
| 1950 | The population reaches 78,577, on its way to today's figure. |
| 2021 | Measure RC, which would have capped annual rent increases at 7% on about 24,000 units, is rejected by voters 36% to 64%. Burbank remains without a local rent control ordinance. |
Every figure below is computed from the Sterman Multifamily Group’s own closed record in Burbank — not from a market report. Price per door falls as buildings get bigger, which is why this is banded by size rather than given as one number: comparing a six-unit building to a forty-unit building on price per unit compares two different products. Across all 4 closings the median is $298,917 per unit.
| Building size | Closings | Median per unit | Range per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4–10 units | 2 | $239,750 | $190,000 – $289,500 |
| 11–25 units | 2 | $328,333 | $308,333 – $348,333 |
The largest closing in the Burbank record is 240-260 E Providencia Ave at $5,225,000 (15 units); the smallest is 415 W Riverside Dr at $1,900,000 (10 units). The record here runs from 2023 to 2026, and the busiest single year was 2023 with 2 closings.
How these figures are calculated, and what we do not claim →
These are the 26 Los Angeles submarkets where the group has closed the most buildings, on our own record rather than a published index. The spread is the reason a citywide per-unit figure is close to useless for pricing a specific building.
| Submarket | Buildings | Units | Median per unit | Size range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollywood | 24 | 562 | $282,589 | 3–75 |
| Koreatown | 21 | 465 | $158,958 | 4–96 |
| West Hollywood | 21 | 206 | $354,286 | 2–22 |
| Sherman Oaks | 17 | 349 | $237,708 | 6–47 |
| Palms | 13 | 337 | $296,875 | 7–118 |
| Glendale | 12 | 224 | $258,854 | 5–92 |
| Van Nuys | 12 | 380 | $171,801 | 4–68 |
| North Hollywood | 11 | 191 | $271,429 | 5–46 |
| Santa Monica | 8 | 100 | $616,667 | 3–27 |
| Reseda | 8 | 506 | $156,639 | 10–138 |
| West Los Angeles | 6 | 62 | $575,000 | 7–16 |
| Hancock Park | 6 | 129 | $230,519 | 7–35 |
| Los Feliz | 5 | 123 | $225,000 | 6–48 |
| Panorama City | 5 | 178 | $135,849 | 22–53 |
| Fairfax | 5 | 31 | $425,000 | 3–13 |
| Burbank | 4 | 47 | $298,917 | 10–15 |
| Toluca Lake | 4 | 84 | $337,625 | 5–40 |
| Mid-City | 4 | 26 | $256,458 | 6–8 |
| Valley Village | 4 | 81 | $263,472 | 9–34 |
| Pacoima | 4 | 282 | $153,691 | 52–100 |
| Silverlake | 3 | 38 | $243,333 | 10–16 |
| Venice | 3 | 30 | $425,000 | 3–17 |
| Mar Vista | 3 | 21 | $354,167 | 5–10 |
| Studio City | 3 | 51 | $322,857 | 5–39 |
| Tarzana | 3 | 266 | $229,661 | 30–118 |
| Winnetka | 3 | 90 | $250,000 | 12–52 |
The place facts on this page — founding dates, acreages, opening years, boundaries — were checked against these sources on 2026-09-09. The closing figures are computed from the group’s own transaction archive. Where two sources disagreed on a number, the claim is stated only to the level both support.
The city line is the boundary that matters, not a neighborhood edge. Burbank sits at the eastern end of the San Fernando Valley, adjoining the Los Angeles neighborhoods of North Hollywood and Toluca Lake on the west and Glendale on the east. Part of Toluca Lake lies inside Burbank, which is why an address advertised as Toluca Lake may in fact be a Burbank property governed by Burbank's rules and served by Burbank's schools.
Burbank is not a Los Angeles neighborhood. It is a separate, incorporated city of 17.35 square miles with its own council, its own city manager, its own police and its own school district, and it has been independent since 1911.
A studio town built out largely between the 1920s and the 1960s, and the apartment stock reflects that: low-rise walk-ups and courts serving studio and airport employment, on a regular street grid with generous lots. Because Burbank has no local stabilization ordinance, the 1 October 1978 certificate-of-occupancy date that governs so much of this site's Los Angeles content has no significance here at all. What matters instead is the statewide test in the Tenant Protection Act, which turns on the building's age on a rolling basis rather than on a fixed historical date.
The rent question is the one to settle first, and the answer is clear. Burbank has no rent control ordinance.
Across the 4 Burbank buildings in the Sterman Multifamily Group’s own closed record, the median is $298,917 per unit, on buildings ranging from 10 to 15 units. Price per door falls as buildings get larger, so the figure for a specific building depends on its size, vintage and in-place rents.
Burbank multifamily behaves more like a one-company town than a generic LA market. When studios hire, Burbank fills. When studios consolidate, it softens. The buildings are easier to underwrite than most LA City inventory because the regulatory regime is Burbank's own ordinance, not LA City RSO.
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