Neighborhood of the week: Hollywood Hill

They came to Hollywood Hill for the schools but found much more to stay for.

The Northshore School District's reputation originally drew Jill Sjolin, her husband and their three children to Woodinville's Hollywood Hill neighborhood nine years ago.

They were pleasantly surprised to find a winery district at its base, and homes where people could view Seattle's skyscrapers, and hot-air balloons wafting through the sky on summer evenings.

"We didn't really know what we were stumbling upon, what a special area it was," said Sjolin. All this has made Hollywood Hill (not Hollywood Hills as it's called in Los Angeles) a much sought-after neighborhood. The median home price is in the mid-$600,000 range, and homes are mostly occupied by families, not singles, Sjolin said.

Resident opposition to constructing a neighborhood sewer system has kept new-home construction to a minimum.

"It's a coveted area, it's expensive, people pay top dollar for it," said Sjolin, who works as a Windermere Real Estate agent in the area.

But with interest rates low and home values lower than in the recent past, people who didn't think they'd be able to buy in the area are being surprised, she said.

"Now people are buying things they never thought they could."

During the first six months of this year, 25 homes in Hollywood Hill were sold and the median price was $636,275, according to statistics compiled by Windermere Real Estate.

The most expensive home sold for $1.7 million; the least expensive for $337,000.

Those figures put Hollywood Hill prices above the typical home price for Woodinville. According to Seattle-based Zillow.com, the median value of all single-family houses in Woodinville, not just single-family houses recently sold, was $407,100 in July, down 4.8 percent year-over-year.

Meanwhile, the median value of all condos in Woodinville was $194,400 in July, down 7.4 percent year-over-year, the Zillow Home Value Index shows.

Hollywood Hill, like much of formerly rural Woodinville, was once farmland and still retains a country feeling.

That heritage comes through in the name of one of its largest developments, called The Farm, which once occupied that land.

Some of the original structures still stand, including the barn, which has been remodeled as a rental space for birthday celebrations and wedding receptions.

Hollywood Hill resident Kathy Gephart found her dream home in the farm's renovated foreman's cottage, a brown rambler with pink interiors.

Throughout the Hollywood Hill neighborhood equestrian farms and horse stables abound, and walking the Tolt Pipe Line Trail a person is as likely to come into contact with a horse and rider as with a couple walking their dogs.

"It's like waterfront to the boat owner," Sjolin said of the trail and the numerous stables that offer riding lessons and horse boarding. "I have people [clients who are horse people] coming into the area just for that."

Evidence of the area's past also lingers in the red brick Hollywood Schoolhouse, a state historical monument built in 1912 and remodeled in 1994.

Part-museum, part-gathering space, the schoolhouse has antiques from Woodinville's bygone era and makes a picturesque backdrop for dances, weddings and parties.

The schoolhouse is the central landmark in the midst of a crop of wineries and tasting rooms that have sprung up in the Sammamish Valley over the past decade.

The Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, the oldest of the wineries now dotting the landscape, is a half-mile walk from the schoolhouse at the base of the hill. Nearby is the Columbia Winery, too.

The Ste. Michelle winery was formerly the Stimson Estate, owned by a pioneer Seattle family that made its fortune in the lumber business. The holly bushes that lined the drives to the estate gave the area its name.

The entire winery area is promoted as Woodinville's "Tourist District," complete with three new roundabouts that have recently supplanted stoplights, helping traffic move more quickly through the area.

The Gepharts moved to Hollywood Hill from Kirkland's Houghton neighborhood, where they had a view of Lake Washington but little sense of privacy.

While Hollywood Hill still feels like the country in many ways, the Gepharts' house sits high up on the hill and they need only to step onto their deck to see the Seattle skyline.

"Woodinville is close enough to rural and yet not far from the city," Gephart said. "I think it meets a lot of people's needs because of that mix."

The openness of the neighborhood, without postage-stamp lots or streets choked with cars, is one thing she covets about Hollywood Hill.

"You have room to breathe," she said.