Berkeley Real Estate
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Berkeley Real Estate.
Where anything that happens happens here first...oh, and a great place to find exceptional real estate too.
Back in 1866--or so the story goes--a trustee of the College of California stood on one of the precipices overlooking the Bay in the small village of Ocean View, and recited a few lines of poetry from George Berkeley, "Westward, the course of the empire takes its way."
And so, this site of inspiration once known as Ocean View became Berkeley. Essentially, it's a one-industry town where all roads lead to "UC." In fact, of Berkeley’s slightly over 100,000 population, about 1/3 are estimated to be students at UC.
Some have called it a collective of "fascist liberals,” yet this never-ending social experiment is as charming as it is scenic--a living dichotomy. So it's no wonder that Berkeley is the birthplace of the free speech movement, Alice Water's California Cuisine, Bernard Maybeck's renaissance of American architecture, and, yes, even Oppenheimer's and Lawrence's first radiation lab. And it’s no wonder so many people want to live here and find great real estate. In fact, Berkeley is known to be one of the highest priced cities in the near East Bay, with the exception of real estate in Piedmont and the Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland. It essentially has four main neighborhoods: North Berkeley and Berkeley Hills, South Berkeley, West Berkeley and Claremont/Elmwood.
More About The Neighborhoods
The quintessential Berkeley brown shingle can be found throughout the Berkeley Hills and the Claremont and Elmwood neighborhoods.
North Berkeley and the Berkeley Hills, sometimes known as Maybeck/Julia Morgan country, are on the north side of campus. Prices are generally higher on this side of campus than the South side. Besides the wonders of these architectural pioneers, you'll find quintessential Berkeley brown shingles, 1920's Mediterranean’s and bungalows real estate dotting the small tree-lined streets through the hills. In the “flats,” neighborhoods like the Gourmet Ghetto, Northbrae and Westbrae attract lots of young families. A little further over from north campus, and centered around Solano Avenue, you’ll find the Thousand Oaks neighborhood. Here you’ll find medium size bungalows mixed with grand homes of the twenties and thirties. Heading into the hills, you’ll find a sprinkling of older homes mixed in with houses from the fifties and sixties. At the crest of the hills runs Grizzly Peak and Tilden Park, a great natural reserve, great for hiking, biking, horse back riding, golf and merry go rounds. East of that is the other world of Orinda and Contra Costa County.
South Berkeley is considered everything south of University Avenue. There's a vast selection of spruced up small California bungalows and Craftsman homes built between 1910 and 1940. Many people like South Berkeley for its "real" (i.e. unpretentious) personality. But even in this down-to-earth neighborhood, a 2-bedroom house typically sells for more than a half million dollars.
West Berkeley is the former city of "Ocean View"--or everything between San Pablo Avenue and the Bay. This former industrial area of Berkeley is now home to the well known 4th Street shops, full of artistic furnishings, urban chic and great real estate. Small bungalows and a smattering of lofts are found throughout this popular "starter" neighborhood.
Claremont/Elmwood are side by side neighborhoods of stately homes that line the blocks either side of College Avenue up into the lower hills. These beauties are anchored by the Grande Dame of them all--the Claremont Hotel. The Claremont neighborhood, Berkeley’s most expensive neighborhood for real estate, extends up into the "Fire Area" on the Oakland border where a new wave of architecture shows off its multi-million dollar alternatives to tract housing. Elmwood is the slightly less stately, although still pricey, neighborhood below College Avenue, running between Rockridge and UC.
Berkeley is Ground Zero for many charming Craftsman houses with front yard gardens.
