Can I afford Rockridge? (neighborhood, school, university)

[thewheeler]

Hi there-
I am moving to berkeley for grad school and looking for a 2-bedroom with my boyfriend. We love rockridge and also really like the cute area south of university in between sacramento and mlk. Everything we've seen so far in those areas has been smallish, dingy or old or way out of our price range (below $1700). We found an amazing place for $1600 in temescal, which is good but not our favorite area. If we hold out another month, do you think we can find a good place for that price in rockridge or the berkeley neighborhood or should we go with temescal? I'm not from around there so it's hard for me to tell what the market is like. Thanks!

[artemis78]

It will definitely be tough in Rockridge (though I have no clue on the area near campus). There are occasionally 2BR places out there in that range (especially if you're willing to be close to the freeway and/or BART tracks) but it's not the norm. I would expect to put a lot of legwork into the hunt---but you might luck out. There are lots of places in Temescal in that range, though, so waiting isn't necessarily closing the door on that option.

[18Montclair]

Temescal is not a bad alternative and its much less yuppified than Rockridge-I like that.

Even though I'll admit that I live in Upper Rockridge. LOL