Contest: San Francisco's Bernal Heights vs. Oakland's Grand Lake, What's the Better Value?

San Francisco's Bernal Heights vs. Oakland's Grand Lake: What's the Better Value?

Last week I wrote a piece about Oakland versus San Francisco. The piece highlighted Oakland as the number one turnaround town in the nation and debunked some of the rumors flying around about it not being a great alternative to San Francisco. This week I wanted to expand a little on that post and give a comparison about what buyers get for their money in Oakland versus San Francisco.

I lived in The City for most of my life and because I was very young and living in San Francisco I got an opportunity to live in most of the neighborhoods while they were still “vibrant.” As an example I grew in Bernal Heights when it was still a working class neighborhood. I lived on 16th and Dolores when the Valencia Gardens housing project was still there and still “VG.” I lived in Noe Valley when it was still affordable and lived in Sunnyside when the outer mission was still considered the Valencia corridor.

I lived in Oakland while I was in high school and returned about three years ago to the same neighborhood. I sell homes across the East Bay, from Vallejo to Fremont, Redwood City to San Rafael, with my focus being Oakland, Piedmont and Berkeley.

This time I am going to show what you can get in the West Bay versus the East Bay for the same amount of money ($699,000) in and in roughly comparable neighborhoods based on services. I equate San Francisco’s Bernal Heights with Oakland’s Grand Lake area with because of the hills, availability of parking, the restaurants, and so on in the area.

That being said, let’s look at a side-by-side comparison.

San Francisco’s Bernal Heights $699,000

148 Elsie Street in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood is a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom 700 square foot home on the coveted Northwest side of the hill. The agent, Anthony Koutsos, reminds me that this is not a typical home for the neighborhood. The house is redone and has a fantastic view of Twin Peaks.

Oakland’s Grand Lake $699,000

821 Walker Avenue in Oakland’s Grand Lake neighborhood is a 4 bedroom, 3 and a half bath, 2355 square foot, traditional craftsman style property zoned as a duplex but easily convertible to a single family residence. “This property needs a little work but is an excellent opportunity to get into the neighborhood” says the agent Bernie Myers. He goes on to point out additional bonus areas beneath the main house that could potentially be used to keep the legal duplex status after converting the upper units into a single family.

Both Bernal Heights and Grand Lake neighborhoods are excellent neighborhoods and the differences are slight except in one vital way. Grand Lake is still affordable to most buyers. Because I grew up in Bernal Heights and have such fond memories of the neighborhood I my feelings lean toward Bernal. But the closest neighborhood I could find in Oakland, which has the same feel, services, weather, access to transit, and cultural diversity is Grand Lake. Grand Lake also has a neighborhood theater which plays first run films.

This comparison is torturous for me but the “your money goes further” factor in Oakland really puts Grand Lake in the running as a contender.

Let me know which house you think is the better value, and why, and the best answers will get $10 Starbucks egift cards.

If you have any other questions, or want to share your story, please reply to this post, contact me via my website, my facebook page, or on Twitter @AmericaFoy.

All of these properties are available now and all the listing agents’ information is available via the links. I want to thank the agents for letting me feature their listings in this article.