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Beverly Hills is indeed a separate city. Back in the mid-1970s I did some very interesting economic analysis of parts of the LA area including BH, looking at the extent to which tax rates and per pupil expenditures in the schools (as a proxy for school quality - test score information wasn't available) influenced housing prices. I was able to get some serial data over about 15 years on a couple of neighborhoods where part was in Bev Hills, part in LA county (unincorporated) adjacent. In Bev Hills, the tax rates were lower, per pupil expenditures higher, and, of course, housing prices for essential identical structures were much higher. IIRC, I could explain about 85% of the difference in housing prices with the difference in the capitalized tax burden and the difference in per pupil spending. Obvious conclusion that the statistics supported: people prefer good schools and low taxes, all other things being equal, to poorer schools and higher taxes.