Moving to Oakland/Berkeley - please help!

[ssmaster]

i don't think you can really appreciate oakland unless you have someone who lives there drive you around the varied neighborhoods.
there is a lot of misinformation from people who are not familiar with the city and reading these comments reminds me of how i ended up living in my present neighborhood. we were looking in the berkeley and oakland hills (montclair ,upper rockridge etc ) as we knew those were the "good" areas

driving down from the hills somehow we ended up at the intersection of longridge and grovesenor.looked around and thought this is a cool neighborhood!!where am we ?? i want to live here!

I had never heard of crocker highlands but within 8 months we had purchased a home there.

the point is oakland has a lot of great neighborhoods most people have never heard of but maybe that's what keeps them relatively affordable.

[snarkadoodle]

ssmaster, I totally understand what you're saying. Actually, a friend recommended Crocker Highlands to me (guess the secret's out!), but I absolutely agree that you have to spend time in any city to truly understand the various neighborhoods and lay of the land. I'm actually having a realtor drive me around next week, so I look forward to checking it your town for myself!

[snarkadoodle]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

It's a wealthier town, more cachet than Oakland, and it's a major college town and college towns always create their own real estate buzz because you have a lot of students competing for rentals as well as older people who want the benefits of being in a college town like density and lots of eating options.

Not sure why you're finding more places there, it might be a supply thing. Berkeley seems to have a better supply than Oakland for rentals especially if for roommate rentals.

Interesting. I'm actually not looking at rentals (although we'll need to find one to start out), but checking out 3+ beds, 2+ baths in Berkeley seemed to yield more of the charming older homes we were looking for, and well below $950,000, which is our cut-off. Looking at the map, I can't really tell what the neighborhoods are like, but using the "street view" feature, most of the homes look like they are in decent areas. For example, there is a 2500 sq foot, 4 bed, 2 bath on Shattuck, close to Amador, for $795,000. This isn't cheap, but by Bay Area standards it seems reasonable. Am I missing something?

[mayorhaggar]

^
That's a good location I should think. The main crappy part of Berkeley is in the SW corner, like SW of the Ashby BART station. 795k is pretty expensive but probably not by Berkeley standards. Houses in Rockridge seem to be around $580,000 for a small bungalow, maybe 2-3br, and more like $800,000 for a large 2-story house from what I've seen when I look at the places that go on sale in my neighborhood.

As I said earlier though Albany might be good to look at if you are planning on staying in your house for 10+ years, since by that point you should be able to depend on the Albany public schools being good when your kids get into middle school and high school age. Albany is pretty similar to North Berkeley, though a bit sleepier and there isn't much retail but it's very close to Berkeley. Still I think Berkeley is a better bet than Oakland if you want better public schools, but Albany should be better than Berkeley for public schools.

I don't know how common this is but if I was a parent looking for good public high schools this would really concern me:

http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-23/bay-area/29176851_1_gun-charges-gun-related-crimes-expulsion (broken link)

[jade408]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

As I said earlier though Albany might be good to look at if you are planning on staying in your house for 10+ years, since by that point you should be able to depend on the Albany public schools being good when your kids get into middle school and high school age. Albany is pretty similar to North Berkeley, though a bit sleepier and there isn't much retail but it's very close to Berkeley. Still I think Berkeley is a better bet than Oakland if you want better public schools, but Albany should be better than Berkeley for public schools.

Albany is great. If you live in the right part of town, you will be adjacent to Solano Ave, the main commercial strip that Albany and Berkeley share. It has lots of restaurants, shops and groceries. It is a little annoying to get to due to traffic. (It is the next exit up from the last Berkeley, 80E has a ton of traffic pretty much all the time. Emeryville and north are annoying because of this.) But it isn't so different than living in Berkeley. One of my favorite bay area towns.

[jade408]

Originally Posted by mayorhaggar

I don't know how common this is but if I was a parent looking for good public high schools this would really concern me:

3 Berkeley High students arrested on gun charges - SFGate (http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-03-23/bay-area/29176851_1_gun-charges-gun-related-crimes-expulsion - broken link)

Berkeley School district is still an urban one, and they do have problems with violence. But since it is a college town, they also have great access and amenities and interesting programs. You'll feel the class divide in Berkeley public schools.

[snarkadoodle]

The gun thing is concerning, although there seems to be just as much gun violence outside of urban areas. At least these kids were pinpointed and arrested - it sounds like the administration is aware of what is going on at the school.

[Porkchopz]

You have got to move to Rockridge. It's my favorite neighborhood in Oakland, hands down. You can walk to BART, have fabulous upscale shops and restaurants and cafes right outside your door, and the elementary school is wonderful. I just bought a home in Oakmore but if I had your budget, I wouldn't want to live so remotely.

[snarkadoodle]

Originally Posted by Porkchopz

You have got to move to Rockridge. It's my favorite neighborhood in Oakland, hands down. You can walk to BART, have fabulous upscale shops and restaurants and cafes right outside your door, and the elementary school is wonderful. I just bought a home in Oakmore but if I had your budget, I wouldn't want to live so remotely.

We really like Rockridge, and it is at the top of our list for Oakland neighborhoods. BUT...there are two issues that I'm wondering about:

1) We want to rent first, and we're not sure about the availability of rental housing in the area (granted, it's a weird time of year to be looking)

2) We're going to move this coming summer, so we probably won't have an address until July. This means that our kiddo going into the 3rd grade will have to register for schools pretty late. Any sense of whether the local school should have room for a kid who lives in the neighborhood, or is it likely we'd have to drive him across town to a school with more space?

Thanks!

[jade408]

Originally Posted by snarkadoodle

We really like Rockridge, and it is at the top of our list for Oakland neighborhoods. BUT...there are two issues that I'm wondering about:

1) We want to rent first, and we're not sure about the availability of rental housing in the area (granted, it's a weird time of year to be looking)

Since you aren't looking for a 1 bedroom rental, it should be doable. There aren't many apartments for rent in the area, but you could definitely find a house. I have a few friends who are renting small homes in the neighborhood.