Safe, middle class neighborhoods, commutable (<2 hours) to Oakland Airport? (Nice: renting, prices)

[Ruthietwos]

Thanks Nineties Flava! those are cool photos.

[jade408]

I really like the Dimond. It is very cute. There is also an excellent independent 'gourmet' grocery store: Farmer Joes in the area. The main commercial area has a pretty good mix of restaurants and good amenities. You are also really close to other areas of town with more restaurants/bars/etc.

There is a good park (Dimond Park) in there are. In the city of Oakland, there is Lake Temescal. The town 2 doors down has Lake Chabot (15 minute drive from Dimond).

Lake Temescal


Lake Chabot


Dublin/Pleasanton are very suburban. Dublin is much cheaper than Pleasanton, but they feel pretty similar. You could also look in Castro Valley (on the other side of the hill from Dublin). Also suburban, but has a lot of ranchy character. There are actually some cowboys in town.

[Setsuko]

I really like Oakland but realistically there are no houses in a safe area or near Bart that will cost 250K if you do get lucky it will need a complete renovation.

[mayorhaggar]

Read this, which Parti R (who has already posted in this topic) lists several areas in the East Bay and their typical housing prices:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-f...putations.html

It's useful because it lists dollar amounts which are hard to find...plus prices fluctuate all the time.

Going from that I think the only area south of the Carquinez Bridge where you can get houses for around 250k in a safe area with good schools are Hercules and Pinole. Concord I guess goes for that price but schools aren't as good. You could also look north of the Carquinez Bridge and still be within 2 hours of OAK airport.

Personally I would rent in a cool part of Oakland like Rockridge for a year to get used to the Bay Area and then you'd have a better and more informed idea of where you'd like to buy a house.

[Shelacious]

Originally Posted by Setsuko

I really like Oakland but realistically there are no houses in a safe area or near Bart that will cost 250K if you do get lucky it will need a complete renovation.

I think renting is good until you get a lay of the land. I've lived in Oakland for 10 years, and I still run into neighborhoods/areas I've never been in.

But I disagree with the quoted statement above in large part. I will say that I don't think that in OAKLAND, there are as many "safe" areas near BART as there might be in other cities, since BART was built along the 880, rather than the 580 corridor. However, this mainly applies along the East Oakland corridor and the West Oakland station. Downtown Oakland, and moving north are a bit different, and closer to safer housing. But generally, if you lived in Oakland/SL/Berkeley, you'd likely drive to work or take AC Transit (the east bay bus service) rather than BART anyway.

[mayorhaggar]

Rockridge is super safe and has a BART station in the middle of it. The area directly around Macarthur BART isn't great but gets better the further you go east until you hit the Piedmont Ave area which is about as safe as Rockridge.

Otherwise yeah BART stations in Oakland aren't in great areas.

[llowllevellowll]

Originally Posted by Setsuko

I really like Oakland but realistically there are no houses in a safe area or near Bart that will cost 250K if you do get lucky it will need a complete renovation.

As for BART, you're about right. That price point is a condo-laden market in areas like Rockridge, Adam's Point, Piedmont Ave, etc, but in general, if you're just looking for a safe area (not near BART) in that price point, then you're way off.

There are a growing crop of listings available (non-shorts) in the $239-$299 price point in safe areas (both condos and SFH).

How do I know? In addition to touring properties picked out by clients and for clients, I also tour 10-20 new properties every single Thursday afternoon and specifically target listings - what I call value listings - in those price points.

[mayorhaggar]

^
What sorts of neighborhoods in Oakland, PR?

[llowllevellowll]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

^
What sorts of neighborhoods in Oakland, PR?

I was going to send listings but in being as tactful as possible, I don't want to come off as too salesman-y. If anyone is interested in specific listings, feel free to PM me.

Here are a few neighborhoods that offer SFH's in safe areas in the 2's:

Eastmont Hills just off of Keller via 580 has a range between $218-$299 - both houses that are in impeccable shape. Not enough people explore this area - very underrated neighborhood in my opinion. I love the rural feeling without sidewalks lol. The one at $218 is purposefully priced aggressively to drive multiples, but at worst, that's still a mid-250's purchase.

Millsmont just east of Maxwell Park has a resurgence of aggressive-priced properties in the mid to upper 2's. Actually, my favorite house in all of Oakland is right here. The Millsmont/Maxwell Park bubble may not be for everyone, but I'm continually endeared by the area and the neighbors.

Speaking of, Maxwell Park is getting more and more affordable. Last year, the only sub-$350 properties were short sales. Now? We've got a 2/1 as low as the high-$100s and a 3/1 in the mid $2's.

In Lower Dimond, the stock goes quickly but 2/1s just off MacArthur were as low as $239. This is the most hip of the areas - admittedly though, I like Maxwell Park and parts of Eastmont Hills better, but Lower Dimond won't last.

Lower and Upper Laurel currently have a couple of listings between $230-$285 that I was in. The one below MacArthur is really nice and well-appointed.

Condos all around the city are finally in the 1's and 2's. Jack London Square (The Sierra has two good buys right now - there's a skyline view from the 8th floor in the mid-1's), Adam's Point has a gorgeous 2/2 non-short in the low-2's. Grand Lake and Adam's Point is in a similar situation that Maxwell Park was in - a year ago, everything in that affordable range was all short sales. Now we've got more REOs and a few true sales by the seller.

Grass Valley even had a listing - slight fixer but great bones - go in the 2's.

Just off 580 (Keller), those gargantuan townhouse units have a few listings in the low-to-mid 2's as well.

The market is fluctuating weekly, really, but the trend is that in hip areas, the market is bouncing back - aggressively-priced properties aren't languishing on the market but prices are still coming down in areas that fewer people know are good areas (typical). So if you're reading City-Data (in relative terms, we're pretty pro-Oakland here), you probably know a lot more about Oakland than far other factions of people, but there are many buyers who literally have no idea what's what outside of Lake Merritt, Montclair, Rockridge, and Piedmont Ave.

[mayorhaggar]

Cool...I was just curious because people are always asking for housing advice here and I never know what to tell them.

I'm pretty surprised at those prices, whenever I look at "for sale" shingles here in Rockridge the houses are pretty much always around 550K-700K even if they aren't particularly nice houses. I guess Rockridge is pretty trendy but a lot of houses here are not in great shape...I guess it's the locale that drives demand.