You will have read Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman’s post on the new format for Sweet Digs. From now on, this blog will focus on proprietary, leading-edge indicators of what is happening to home prices in the Bay Area with lots of juicy, Redfin-exclusive pricing data.

So do continue to bookmark this page, and for those of you who would like to carry on chatting and exchanging insights and gossip about real estate in the East Bay, and Berkeley and Oakland in particular, please join the conversation on my newly launched blog, Home Girl.

I look forward to your visits and to “speaking” with you soon.

[Photo credit: http://www.mainelife.net/images/BayBridge2.jpg]

We’re all hurting right? The economic meltdown has affected us all in one way or another, directly or indirectly.

Well, perhaps not all of us. I hear that a certain homebuyer, feeling no compunction to bother with the tedious nitty gritty of mortgage negotiations, put down a cool $2.1 million cash — yes cash – for 2946 Russell Street this month. This 3/3.5, 3,400 sq ft Prairie-style home in The Elmwood listed at $1,950,000 but was no sooner on the open market than it was snapped up (for 8% over asking).

It seems to be part of a mini-trend, with a handful of $2m homes selling in the vicinity: 2905 Garber Street (above left), also Prairie style and also 3,400 sq ft (4/3), has its first open this Sunday, price: $1,925,000 ($599/sq ft). And nearby 59 Domingo Avenue (above right) also Prairie, also priced at $1.9m, swiftly went into contract after hitting the MLS a couple of weeks ago.

For us mere mortals, I would recommend the following two reasonably priced homes in the Thousand Oaks neighborhood:

505 Curtis Street (right) is 2/2, 1,100 sq ft bungalow on a tree-lined street bordering Thousand Oaks but actually in Albany, with a “sun drenched kitchen”, French doors to a deck and garden and a separate studio space with a bath, built with permits. Price: $699,000 ($635/sq ft).

858 Peralta Avenue: this 2/1, 1,004 sq ft Berkeley bungalow has been completely remodeled and comes with a large kitchen, deck and garage. Price: $699,000 ($696/sq ft).

Mosey on down there on Sunday — I gather cash in hand is not mandatory.

If you’re in the requisite price bracket, these three homes are worth investigating in my view:

931 Grizzly Peak Boulevard (above)  is that rare thing in Berkeley: a new home. Or effectively new. It was recently rebuilt from the bottom up and is all shiny and squeaky-clean inside and out. There’s a vaguely nautical atmosphere to the way it is being presented (staging by Scout), accentuated by multiple decks and Bay views. The kitchen (above right) is particularly nice. Reduced from $1,499,999 to $1,399,000 ($508/sq ft) after 25 days on the market.

 791 Hilldale Avenue in north Berkeley is an attractive 4/2 traditional on a double lot. It has partial Bay views, a lush garden and its stand-alone studio cottage is a cut above (above right). Its price has been reduced from $1,150,000 to $1,085,000 ($481/sq ft) after 60 days on the market.

6421 Benvenue Avenue in Oakland (above) intrigued me when it was first listed in July. A swift potential sale fell  through and it has been back on the market for a few weeks (although it’s being touted as a new list).

Designed by John Hudson Thomas in 1916, it’s a good-looking house with all the ingredients necessary to make something pretty special — good layout, original features, large bedrooms, a “spa pavilion” and a huge garden. There’s updating to do, a large studio with potential — and a more elegant way to access to the backyard would be nice, but it’s a great neighborhood. I like this place. Price reduced from original $1,095,000 to $1,049,000 ($528/sq ft).

I have long thought the Piedmont Avenue area of Oakland has a huge amount to offer and yet seems to be somewhat overlooked when surveys are taken of the joys to be had of living in the Bay Area.

Reasons to like this spot include the fabulous Piedmont Avenue itself with its extensive choice of stores, restaurants and cafes. It’s all there, from Fenton’s Creamery to Piedmont Grocery, from a highly regarded yoga studio, to the quirky Dr Comics & Mr Games, from useful stores such as a cobbler to serious cycling hot spot Montana Velo, from where my son is determined to acquire his next bike.

Half a dozen of my favorite restaurants are on this street — including Dopo and Bar Cesar (above, middle), and at least one is run by an Alice Waters alum: Mary Jo Thorenson’s Jojo.

The Piedmont cinema (above left) is a gem — showing art house and foreign movies; the Frederick Law Olmstead designed Mountain View Cemetery (above right) is a splendid place to take a bracing walk and pause for spectacular Bay views; and to top it all there’s a real down-home neighborhood feel to this enclave — not something that can necessarily be said of nearby chi-chi Piedmont proper.

The Chronicle might have put it best:

“Block for block, it may be the most interesting and eclectic district in Oakland.”

Current Redfin estimates put the median price per square foot of a single family house in the neighborhood at $469.  Here are three interesting recent listings to investigate:

4384 Howe Street: a remodeled, 2+/2, one-level Craftsman with bonus room opening onto back deck. Price: $549,000 ($469/sq ft).

4135 Howe Street:  a 2/1 updated Craftsman bungalow with two car garage and French doors to large deck and garden. Price: $675,000 ($764/sq ft).

4141 Piedmont Avenue: 1/1 condo in 1970s 10-unit block, with one-car garage, updated in “mid-century” style with bamboo floors. Price: $369,000 ($590/sq ft).

Related links:

Piedmont Avenue neighborhood data from Redfin

Sweet Digs: A Neighborhood with Curb Appeal

San Francisco Chronicle neighborhood review: Piedmont Avenue

[Photo credits: cemetery: www.mountainviewcemetery.org/; Cesar: www.barcesar.com; cinema: flickr.com]

BJ wrote:”…I keep hoping things will get more affordable in the inner Bay Area. Maybe someday or maybe I should quit hoping.” While BB said: “I’m a buyer, and I want prices to go down, but this is scary… I’m waiting 3-4 more years before buying, maybe…”

With them, and others like them, in mind — good folk who feel this market is never going to be kind to them despite, or perhaps because of, the momentous financial upheavals of late — I say this: there are deals to be had in hot spots like Berkeley. Reader Toady is convinced of it. He just bought a “nice big house with income units” in the city. And he reports that: “After we put a new foundation under it, we’ll be out about $258/sf.”.

So today I bring you three properties currently for sale that I believe are at least worth investigating for their “bargain potential”. Two of them come in at under $600K. (Securing a mortgage is a whole other matter and not one that I, unfortunately, will be able to help you with.)

2434 Byron Street (above): Let me pre-empt those of you who will question the location of this home, but I happen to think San Pablo Avenue, which is nearby, is a very interesting street, full of quirky boutiques and go-to restaurants. This 3/2 home looks like it has a lot of charm and appears to be in ship shape. Price: $595,000 ($387/sq ft).

2314 1/2 Blake Street (above): This 2/1.5, 2-story condo is intriguing because it seems more like a single home and is effectively invisible from the street, being on the back of a lot behind some street-facing units. It looks like it has been smartly remodeled and has an appealing garden, reached through French doors off the living room.

Lastly, it is worth noting that a home I have been following for a while, 1730 Sonoma Avenue in the Monterey neighborhood of north Berkeley (pictured right) — a 3+/4 Cape Cod with a solar-heated swimming pool and master suite with city views — is down $601,000 (or 33%) from its original asking price of $1,849,000 to $1,248,000.

That’s either a storming case of initial overpricing, and/or an out-and-out bargain.

2343 Mastlands Dr.
4bd/3ba
Sold for $550,000 on September 3, 2008.
Square Footage: 2150
Built in: 1958
Lot size: 11,761 SF

Sales History

All this talk from our presidential candidates of “Wall Street” versus “Main Street” has prompted some interesting discussion on what people understand these terms to mean. A particularly erudite conversation was held over at one of my favorite blogs, Nancy Friedman’s Fritinancy. (Wherefrom I glean that London doesn’t have a single road that is named Main Street — this is patently an American tradition.)

Which has led me to ponder on Berkeley’s “main street”. Does it in fact have one? And if not, why not?

The contenders, in my view, would be Shattuck Avenue, Telegraph Avenue, Fourth Street, Solano Avenue and College Avenue. The fact that there are five potentials here is worrying enough — what happened to the concept of a city having a natural centre?

Shattuck wins from a historical perspective (the original street had trains and then trams running down its center I believe), and is located in the heart of Berkeley’s downtown, for what that is worth. It is also where Berkeley’s founder, Francis Kittredge Shattuck, chose to make his home.

Telegraph is Cal heartland and no doubt students would consider it to be the city’s real hub. Fourth Street is the go-to retail hot-spot but I’m not sure if that is enough for it to qualify for the “main street” prize (although fans of Santana Row would disagree, this shopping mecca having all but made redundant San Jose’s downtown on a weekend).

Lastly we have Solano and College — both bustling, vibrant streets with all the requisite eateries and social amenities one would expect to see on a main street but… well, aren’t they neighborhood gathering spots rather than a city’s nucleus?

What are the characteristics of the principal thoroughfare of a city? And why is it so difficult to identify one in my adopted home?

[Photo credit: www.weblo.com/domain/available/ mainstreetnet. com/]

I am pleased that 5925 Broadway in Oakland (above left) has come on the market because I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about this house for a while.

Every time I drive by this property, which is on a busy section of Broadway just before it intersects with the ramp for the Grove Shafter freeway, it strikes me what a contrast the home represents to its neighbor. As you can see from the photo above, 5925 has had a stylish exterior paint job. The muted color is a smart choice as it lends the house a tidy, clean appearance and gives the impression that other elements, such as the windows, ironwork, the interiors and possibly the roof may also have been seen to.

Common wisdom would suggest that having a somewhat unkempt neighbor won’t do you any favors when you are trying to sell your home. But in this case I think the sharp contrast plays to the advantage of this $795,000 house. And, given its location (nothing to shout about — see photo right of junction just yards from the home’s front door), it needs all the help it can get.

There are a few other new listings in this Berkeley-Oakland border neighborhood which make for good comparables:

6165 Brookside Avenue: “New from studs out” 3/3 home on a 1/4 acre lot with Bay views in backyard — also very close to freeway. Price: $1,249,999 ($595/sq ft).

5701 Broadway: Cute-looking 2+/1+ bungalow with an impressive bay window and built-ins, but still on busy road. Price: $769,000 ($626/sq ft).

5602 Taft Avenue:  5/2.5 home with flexible floorplan and converted garage and workshop. Price: $945,000 ($408/sq ft).

And another thing: Oakland home prices may be tanking, but commercial real estate is doing fine thank you very much, according to a recent story in the New York Times, with companies such as San Francisco stalwart Levi’s looking to cross the bay and the long-time-coming $50m Jack London Market project providing fuel for the fire (hat-tip Curbed SF).

I believe Bates is under large powerlines

and

In the street view for Bates, if you angle the view upwards you can see the large powerstructure

Sure enough, checking out the Google street view for the Bates home, you can see a humongous transformer in the backyard. Ahhh…Nothing like Redfin readers to give you the lowdown on real estate. This prompted several other cool readers (hi Art, David, Jackie and Adam!) to discuss the perils of having a huge hunk of power structure hovering over you: loud humming, definitely not eye candy and possible adverse health effects from EMFs (electromagnetic fields). Thanks dear readers! Not only did you educate me on yet one more item to be aware of when purchasing a house, you got me investigating EMF’s (for this thirtysomething, I hitherto only knew EMF as the band that sang the catchy “Unbelievable”, you know, that song that was played at proms and clubs across the US in the ’90′s?) Interestingly, I couldn’t find much that has been written about EMFs after 2002 when the California Environmental Health Investigations Branch was commissioned to do a study on their alleged health hazards. (See California EMF Program and their Short Fact Sheet on EMF ). 

The World Health Organization (WHO) website also has a pretty comprehensive and user friendly overview of EMF’s. What sturck me most was one of their tables comparing acceptable exposure limits.  They note that 5,000 V/m (volts per meter) is the highest acceptable “public exposure” while 10,000 V/m is the highest “occupational exposure”.  Ok. Fine. So just know what you’re getting into if you work in a field where you’ll have high occupational exposure, right?  Not so fast. You should also be aware of possible high exposure if your home is close (under?!?) a power transformer, since “powerline exposure beneath large power lines” is estimated to be around 10,000 V/m (compare this to only 100 V/m exposure for homes not near power structures).  Of course, this brings me to the Trestle Glen homes. How much will you be exposed to under those big suckers? While much of the research has not found conclusive evidence of the health risks they pose, WHO states:

There is no doubt that short-term exposure to very high levels of electromagnetic fields can be harmful to health. Current public concern focuses on possible long-term health effects caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields at levels below those required to trigger acute biological responses.

and

Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.

 However, the 2002 California study found:

an association between leukemia and…high magnetic field exposure such as living very near a powerline…

All of this sheds some light on why some of these Trestle Glen homes might be having a hard time selling (on top of our already disastrous market). But what do you say? Would you think twice about living under a power transformer? Let me know your thoughts, and again, a big shout out to everyone who brought my attention to transformers and EMFs in the first place!

More links discussing EMFs:

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health 

US Department of Labor OSHA ELF Radiation Hazard Locations and Solutions

Wi-Fi As A Health Hazard

Electric Power Research Institute

My assumption is that people are getting their houses out there before the winter sets in. The economic meltdown will also be playing a part — if you’ve lost your job or a huge slice of your pension has been wiped off the slate, downsizing on your home and stashing some cash under your mattress sounds like a good idea right now.

It will be of some comfort to home sellers to know that, at least over the past month or so, prices are holding their own in the city. Check out Bob Blumberg’s monthly sales report for August and look closely at the “list price versus sales price” percentages — a majority are comfortably close to 100%, with many in excess of that.

The tables below show two weeks’ worth of homes sold in Berkeley in September (weeks ending 21 and 28).

Let’s look at how these homes fared in terms of ticket versus closing price:

10% UP: 699 Hilldale Avenue, a 2/1 1930s home with inner courtyard and partial views, sold for $810,000 on a list price of $735,000.

2% DOWN: 3122 Eton Avenue (pictured right), a brown-shingle duplex with 2+/1 upstairs and 3/1 down and a two-car garage, sold for $1,170,000 on a list price of $1,198,000.

8% UP: 76 Plaza Drive, a 1961 3-bed one-level in a pricey neighborhood, sold for $1,285,000 on a list price of $1,195,000

SPOT ON: 1481 Campus Drive, a 3/2 mid-century “livable light fixer” in the north Berkeley hills, did take almost a year to sell, but it went for $750,000 on a list price of $749,000.

12% DOWN: 1531 Oregon Street, a 3/2, 1,294 sq ft home, sold for $350,000 on an asking price of $399,000.

3% DOWN: 1357 Northside, a 3-bed home unfortunately associated with a heartbreaking family murder, perhaps understandably, sold for $599,000 on a list price of $620,000.