Realtors expect entertainment executives to clamor for homes.

What local communities will be the hottest residential real estate markets in 1997?

Just ask anyone who is making it big - or even semi-big - in show business.

Executive homes in the Westside's high-end markets - Beverly Hills, Westwood, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Bel-Air - will see substantial value appreciation in 1997, due in no small part to demand from high-income entertainment executives and creative types.

"The biz" also prefers the better neighborhoods in and around Santa Monica, as well as "south of The Boulevard" (that would be Ventura) districts in the San Fernando Valley.

"We are seeing tremendous demand from the entertainment field," said Fred Sands, of Brentwood-based brokerage Fred Sands Realtors.

"Our Studio City office has had periods recently when 50 percent of its sales were (entertainment) industry-related. There are lots of people in their 20s and 30s who are making good money," Sands said.

However, the general outlook in the residential real estate community is for modest recovery - with some of the most expensive and least expensive market areas seeing better value appreciation than the middle markets.

The consensus among many experts is that L.A.'s luxury-home market should continue its slow recovery from the severe early-1990s recession - when values of high-end homes frequently slid 40 percent or more.

The so-called "estates market" might see values rise 6 percent to 8 percent in 1997, specialists in high-end homes are predicting.

The forecast is less rosy for working-class areas like Palmdale, El Monte, Lakewood, Van Nuys, Inglewood and other communities where people often buy their first homes. These areas are still suffering from the defense falloff, and are not close enough to Hollywood to benefit from the boom times in show business.

In many such areas, homes are not expected to appreciate in value - and may even decline, although at a slower pace, because of all the foreclosed homes still flooding the market.

Overall value movement will likely be flat in 1997 - despite the improving economy and relatively low inventories of local homes for sale.

The California Association of Realtors is projecting that sales prices statewide will continue a gradual recovery that began with 1996's modest median-price gain of 0.5 percent for single-family homes.

Actually, the CAR expects a slight improvement over that figure; the Realtor group predicted a 2.0 percent increase for 1997.

So - much to the chagrin of Southern California's homebuilding industry 1997 probably won't go down as a particularly memorable year for L.A.'s residential real estate marketplace.

As prices remain near their recessionary lows in most L.A. area markets, next year's buyers will still find better values among existing inventory than in the new-home market - likely making 1997 another lackluster year for most local homebuilders.

But that doesn't mean the volume of sales will be flat. Rather, given the continued general growth of the region's economy, local home sales will likely remain at or just above this year's relatively robust level.

That's because new jobs tend to translate into stronger demand for homes. And prices are still relatively affordable compared to the late-1980s cyclical peak, while mortgage financing should remain available at favorable interest rates.