$1 Million To Spend: What’s Better, The City Or The (Non) Burbs?
I’m a city person at heart and, although I love Berkeley, I admit that on some days I find it a little provincial and I am overcome with the urge to make haste to San Francisco for an urban fix.
Time in the city usually does the trick and I return happy to my familiar haunts. I even get defensive when city snobs dare suggest I live in a suburban wilderness — such as the SF fashion designer I spoke with on the phone today who kept referring to the East Bay as “out there”. (It’s not Walnut Creek for goodness sake.)
I was having a business lunch on Fillmore Street this week and couldn’t resist eying up the For Sale signs in the neighborhood. An old town house on Filbert Street caught my eye — dilapidated but with an air of faded grandeur, it was already pending sale so I will never know how much I would have had to fork out to buy it.
However these musings prompted me to play the old “money for money” game. What would three different price points buy in San Francisco compared to Berkeley (and I know that I’m comparing apples to oranges and I know that precise neighborhoods matter a lot…) but here goes:
$1,500,000:
San Francisco: 2730 Fulton Street (above left). A 4/2.5, 3,220 sq ft family house next to Golden Gate Park ($466/sq ft).
Berkeley: 6803 Buckingham Boulevard (above right). A 5/3.5, 4,170 sq ft house with media room, Bay views and so on ($359/sq ft).
$1,000,000:
San Francisco: 1520 Florida Street (above left) a 3/2, 1,696 sq ft single family home in Bernal Heights ($590/sq ft).
Berkeley: 21 Florida Avenue (above right). A 4/2, 2,260 sq ft Mediterranean style 1930s house near Kensington village ($440/sq ft).
$800,000:
San Francisco: 411 San Francisco Street (above left). A 2/2, 1,632 sq ft contemporary loft apartment in North Beach (with a very cool fountain outside) ($632/sq ft).
Berkeley: 1442 Campus Drive (above right). A 3/2, 1,828 sq ft mid-century home on hillside setting in north Berkeley with Bay views ($437/sq ft).
Of all of them, the one that appeals most immediately to me is the North Beach Malt House loft (the most bucks per square foot of course — what I can I say I have expensive taste), but there’s something I don’t know because it’s been on Redfin for 190 days…
