AREA LURES SHOW BIZ CROWD.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

They want affordable luxury homes in close-knit neighborhoods with quality schools and low crime. And increasingly, those in the entertainment industry are looking toward Santa Clarita to fulfill their dreams.

With its new housing developments, emphasis on family values and ranking as the fifth-safest city in America, Santa Clarita is becoming a destination among the show business crowd.

In the Castlerock development, a neighborhood of 44 upscale homes in Valencia, five of the first eight houses were bought by executives from companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers. Castlerock marks the first upper-end homes built in about a decade in Valencia, where smaller-home sales topped the market during the recession years.

``We've definitely identified and produced a product that appeals to them,'' said Edward Zincke, vice president of sales and marketing for The Braemar Group, which built the Castlerock homes.

The largest new houses in Valencia, they offer up to 3,200 square feet of space, five bedrooms and granite countertops. Priced at an average $370,000, designs range from Montecito to French Country and early California traditional.

Zincke said his company is fulfilling a demand for luxury homes driven by an expanding entertainment industry.

``The entertainment industry has done remarkably well in recent years,'' he said. ``They continue to hire middle- and upper-level management officials and that's exactly the kind of buyer looking for the best homes in the best location.''

Among them was Greg and Paula Ferguson who bought a house in the Castlerock development. The Northridge couple and their two children decided to move to Valencia, citing a focus on family values, good schools and low crime.

``It was a floor plan we liked and it was at the end of a cul-de-sac laden with children,'' said Greg Ferguson, who recently produced four national commercials for the Summer Olympics in Atlanta. ``I know lots of people in the entertainment industry who live out there and it's a great place to live.''

Paula Ferguson, a casting director before she became a full-time mother of two, says she found her childhood home in Valencia.

``We're moving up there because we want to live in a situation like it used to be down here where you played with your neighbors, you went to the same

school, everybody knew each other and looked out for each other,'' said Ferguson, who grew up in Northridge.

She said the sense of isolation in her community is growing as more and more children attend private schools, forcing their parents to arrange play dates with friends halfway across the San Fernando Valley.

Chip and Ginny Aycock liked Santa Clarita because of its extensive network of walking and biking trails and its solid school system.

``We liked the Northbridge area, the schools and the paseo system,'' said Chip Aycock, vice president of Warner Brothers' worldwide TV and video distribution system.

Home buyers said Santa Clarita also offered large, affordable homes they couldn't find in areas such as Woodland Hills, Tarzana and Encino.

``The largest, newest homes are being built here,'' Chip Aycock said. ``Our pickings were kind of slim (in other areas).''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: (color) Gregory and Paula Ferguson and their childre n, Riley, 4, and William, 14 months, are part of a wave of entertainment-industry executives buying homes in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News