Even better, it has a tight-knit community, various educational opportunities, and commute options with two ferry terminals. Crown Memorial State Beach. If you want to spice up your Sundays in Alameda, you can view the aquarium and marine life exhibits at the Crab Cove Visitor Center, then linger until closing to watch the gorgeous sunset.
Walnut Creek is another great option for those seeking cheap apartments in the Bay Area. Among the biggest advantages is its accessibility by BART, but Walnut Creek also offers a charming downtown, historical buildings, first-class shops, restaurants, standout coffee shops, cultural attractions, entertainment venues, and parks.
Tucked between the rolling hills of the Tri-Valley region is Dublin. This suburban city is not just one of the cheapest places to live in the Bay Area, but also a genuinely great city to live in. Dublin is afforda ble, safe, and family-friendly.
Housing in the city is thriving, new restaurants and businesses are always opening, and shops are being constructed on every street. The climate is pleasant year-round, but if it gets too hot, you can chill at the Emerald Glen Park and the Dublin Wave Waterpark. Share with us your top cheapest places to live in the Bay Area in the comments below!
By submitting your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from California. Have a great story to tell? A unique experience to write about?
Adjusting to life in the slow lane is pretty easy, and these neighborhoods in Fresno are the ones to keep a close eye on. Do you get them a pet cobra? A centuries-old locket only they can open?
Real Estate. Rosefield licensed the Peter Pan brand in , and Skippy in Supposedly a guy left his spoon in a drink on the porch overnight and the drink froze, and thus, Popsicles were invented. Trouble with the story is, the weather rarely freezes in SF or Alameda. Suck on that, other people who claim to have invented the popsicle. Everyone knows about the race to join both sides of the US with a single railroad.
Locals know that the end of the line, the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad, is here, at the corner of Lincoln and Webster. Native Alamedans have a quaint way of mispronouncing "foreign" names. Pretty much anywhere on the South or West of Alameda will give you an awesome, unobstructed panorama of San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. So they made it their company snack bar instead. From its opening in , Neptune Beach drew hundreds of thousands of visitors until the Great Depression killed it off.
More than seven years later, there are many other American-made absinthes on the market, but St. George's is still one of the most highly regarded Editor's note: especially by us. The aircraft carrier USS Hornet exists now as a museum, offering some swell swing dances several times a year on the flight deck. But in her day, the USS Hornet was the launchpad for a daring World War II attack on Japan, and later, was on hand to pick up astronauts and the capsule from the Apollo 11 moonwalk mission.
Naturally, the ship is home to ghosts , which you can see firsthand since you can sleep overnight there. The Least Tern is an endangered species that took over the abandoned runways when Naval Air Station, Alameda, closed in The little bird packs such a political punch that it garnered hundreds of acres of prime real estate with bay views as a preserve.
It beat out a golf course and a pile of condos. Julia Park Tracey is a journalist, blogger, and author. She is an inveterate list maker. Visit her at www. Skip to main content San Francisco Lifestyle. The commute to SF is 22 minutes long.
And there's booze. We are two gay dads with two young children and I want to make certain our kids live in a community where they feel open and, not only that, see families like there own. I've been reading a lot on this forum about how wonderful Alameda is for children and we're really excited about the possibility of raising our family there -- but I did want to make certain a family like our would A feel welcome there and B that there is a diversity of families.
Thanks for any advice! There are plenty of same-sex parents in Alameda and generally, I think it would be fine place to live for your family. A couple of years ago, there was an effort to add a LGBT-themed curriculum into the K-5 schools as part of an anti-bullying, safe schools effort. It was an open process and highly controversial. Some opposed on religious grounds. Some opposed because it didn't address other protected groups but wanted it included in a broader curriculum.
However, the teachers explained they already knew how to deal with racism and other issues, but needed support to appropriately address this issue with their young students.
During the public discussions, a mom from a two-mom family said that her child had been teased in Kindergarten and 1st grade for having two moms. The curriculum was passed by the school board, despite the opposition. There was also a lot of support for the curriculum.
Several schools but not all have also done some training via Gender Spectrum, gender variance being an adjunct issue. I am not part of a same-gender family but am an advocate for diversity. I look forward to hearing what the same-gender families have to say. An Ally. I recommend you sign up with the Alameda Parents Network yahoo group. Definitely give Alameda a chance!
I'm a middle-aged heterosexual mom of a teen. As you know, parents tend to socialize more with the parents of their kids' friends, and demographically, none of my daughter's friends have gay dads. We've lived in Alameda about 13 years.
Came for the safe, quiet streets and neighborhoods. Alameda is sometimes called 'Mayberry by the Bay' but really, it's always been an industrial town, and a navy town. It was hard-hit economically by the military base closure and has been slow to recover. Compared to Berkeley and San Francisco, Alameda has been a bit slower, I think, to accept the gay community and that's caused some conflict, BUT there are quite a few gay families; I am pretty sure the lesbian moms are more visible than the gay dads are.
Alameda has also been referred to as 'The place where hipsters go to breed. I wear a lot of black and work in the arts. Unfortunately, there is a conservative streak to Alameda. Not everyone will welcome you. But that demographic is changing over time.
There was a serious debate over the inclusion of gay families in anti-bullying curriculum in our public schools. That caused a real flap but I'm proud to say that there is now some wording in our curriculum to help educate conservatives' children and, we hope, protect yours. Your commute is an important factor. Getting off-and-on Island in peak hours can be maddening, and the section of the Nimitz Freeway off Alameda is a chewed-up horror of cracked asphalt and claustrophobically narrow lanes.
Come on over, check out our neighborhoods and amenities, see what you think, and remember to be patient. The low density housing is one of Alameda's charms but it can make the process of finding a home - whether to rent or purchase - arduous. Lots of people want to live here. I hope your family finds Alameda a nice fit. Your MIleage May Vary. You will love Alameda. My wife and I moved here 4 years ago from the East Coast with our then 10 year old twins and we have felt very comfortable as a 2-mom family.
There's enough diversity, enough small-town-feel, enough good restaurants. It's great! Yes, Alameda is a bit more white and conservative than it's neighboring cities.
The military base and other things? However, that's changing -a lot. It's still in process, but Alameda needs more gay families as well as non-white to keep it moving in the right direction.
We are a queer family and my wife and I love it there! We frequently take our kids on walks through the lovely old neighborhoods. The parks are fabulous. And during Christmas time and Halloween, etc.
If we could afford it and if the yards were a bit bigger I might be able to talk my wife into living there But for now we live in East Oakland and just visit Alameda -a lot. We always feel welcome and happy there. Good luck to you and your family! Fernside District -- and possibly help find a rental in Oakland depending on into what school my daughter gets accepted. Thank you in transition. I cannot say enough good things about our real estate agent Elisa Uribe. We used her for buying not selling but she also sells homes.
She went so far above and beyond for us. She makes the entire process stress free for her clients. She also helps with rentals as well. I can recommend John-Michael Kyono of Alameda Victorians, he is a parent at our coop preschool here in Alameda and is generous with his advice and time and seems to know the Alameda market well.
Good luck selling I highly reccomend Rosemary McNally. She is a broker in Alameda. To give you some perspective, my husband and I have fired more agents then hired. With Rosemary we got an agent a who was working for us, not listing so many homes that she could not be at open houses, has incredible attention to detail and has been in the bussiness long enough that ups-downs-ins-outs don't really make a difference. She is sharp, honest, funny and wise.
She guided us through selling our beloved bungalow - she was a gentle task master - and we needed that. Great with our two kids. And has been selling around the bay area for decades, in alameda for at least 10 years. She is not affiliated with an agency - and we got offers from all the main names in Alameda when we sold. She does all of the paperwork - doesn't hand it off to another department like is often the case at a larger agency.
Highly, highly reccomend her. Her number: You may want to consider Alameda, which borders Oakland. We know MANY Kiwis here on the island and it's a great life - right on the water, fantastic for walking, wonderful parks, decent schools and more. You may want to try Alameda. If you don't have a car I would suggest living walking distance to Park Street which is the main commercial area, complete with fantastic movie theater, great bookstores, etc.
Alameda is cheaper compared to nearby walkable cities. It takes us less time to get to SF now that we live in Alameda. I usually only end up driving once, if that, a day. Good luck. Alameda Neighbor. Try Alameda! We moved to Alameda for the great schools and active parent communities. There are a bunch of small elementary schools within each neighborhood so you can walk to school. It was a big factor in moving out here. We have been renting our house since late Most of the elementary schools are pretty good, even if some have lower test scores, parents who have their children there love their schools and are happy with the level of instruction.
My kids went to the parks and rec preschool before attending Kindergarten and are now having a great school experience. Neighborhood schools means all the kids they know are within mostly walking distance. It's a lovely island city, flat for easy biking, the beach is great and I can't recommend it enough. Many families here have moved from San Francisco. The rents are a bit cheaper than Berkeley, a bit more than some areas of Oakland, but way lower than SF.
Check out the AUSD website for a map of school zones, look into those before and than hone your search to school zones you would like to attend. There's also an alameda parents network on yahoo if you want more insight.
It's not without it's issues local politics, the newbies vs. Alameda Lover. Things have probably changed in the last 1. I know the housing stock in Alameda is generally a good bit smaller. But if you're not in a huge rush to move could you resolve some of your dilemma by waiting for a bigger house to turn up in Alameda?
It's less expensive than San Francisco, has a few destination restaurants, some nice shopping areas, a mall with a future despite past struggles. Alameda has a great climate, has an up-and-coming art scene, and the schools - despite admitted funding issues - are decent to excellent as far as I'm concerned, the distance from ''decent'' to ''excellent'' is as wide as these three letters: ''P-T-A''. Alameda was formerly a base town and has been something of a hidden treasure some might say a backwater but more and more young, progressive families are moving in.
Most neighborhoods are walkable. Drawbacks or benefits, depending on your POV - no big-box stores - occasionally if a drawbridge is up over the estuary, it can be hard to leave town - 25 MPH speed limit even when I'm in a hurry - public beach isn't great for swimming, and public pool arrangement is lame - very limited range of seasons: we get spring, we get something sort of like fall, no real winter, and summer has cool nights.
Hi, my husband and I are considering our options of where to move with our 3 young kids before we hit kindergarten years. We are a mixed-race family and are very proud of our family's working class roots. Fortunately, financially we have the option to move to a city with a good school district and I have narrowed it down to Piedmont or Alameda.
We can barely afford Piedmont, and the house we would have to get there would be a considerable downsize from our current house in Oakland and forget getting a yard! But Piedmont has the schools, hands down. I don't want to feel like we are the Beverly Hillbillies in Piedmont, and although we would appreciate the education my kids would be getting,, my husband and I also want to be around like-minded, low key, double career parents.
I'm not sure if I'm feeling it with Piedmont. Now I'm leaning towards Alameda. Although the 'nicer' neighborhoods I am just beginning to look at don't seem diverse, per se, I know Alameda in general, econonically and ethnically, is more heterogenous. I also am hoping that we can buy more house there with a nice big yard and in a family friendly neighborhood.
Which ones?? We are interested in a nice older house, close to playground Franklin park? Any recommendations would be really appreciated. We are hoping to make this big move, then staying put until the kids are out of high school-- a long haul and consequently a big decision!
Thx, in advance. I'm a little confused by your post, since you are clearly wanting someone to TELL you to move to Alameda!! I can't see anything, in your post, that would make you want to choose Piedmont other than the schools! So, yes, move to Alameda although it's not cheap, either. Piedmont has great schools, but Alameda may have good schools, as well depending on the school. I live in Piedmont, and LOVE it, but it's not for everyone and you seem to be leaning toward Alameda, another great but very different city, so go with your gut Loves Piedmont.
We moved to Alameda a year ago and feel like we won the lottery. You can look all that up on greatschools. The scores aren't quite as high as Albany or Piedmont but they're solid all the way through. I don't have first hand experience with the commute but the Fruitvale BART station would be easy to bike to from much of the island and has free valet bike parking. Parts of the East End have blah 60ss houses but parts have quite charming older houses.
Krusi and Lincoln are also good parks. I think the East End might most have what you're looking for. Your comment about being 'Beverly Hillbillies' resonates with me.
I think a danger in stretching to live in an area where you're the poorest around is that your kids' reality is framed by what they see around them, not what's really 'normal'. If 'normal' at your kids' school is to go on big vacations several times a year, have closets full of nice clothes, etc. By our biology, humans are hierarchical animals and being at the bottom of the ladder is stressful.
As adults we have more capacity to define our own values, but hard as we may try to transmit those values to our kids there are other influences in their lives too. Re: Moving into Bay Area from Brooklyn with 4-year-old. I hope you'll check out Alameda. Buying is less expensive than San Francisco or Berkeley, although rents are probably higher than Berkeley's because Alameda doesn't have rent control.
We have at least 29 languages spoken in the public school district, which like all districts in California, struggles for funding and does a decent job considering everything. There's a reasonable diversity of restaurants and small businesses. There are a couple of shopping districts with cute boutiques; there are several independent bookstores that kept a toehold while Borders came and went.
We have a mall called 'Towne Centre' which unfortunately is nowhere near the center, often referred to by its old name, 'South Shore'. Towne Centre was recently purchased by a major developer and there are improvements in shopping choices in the works. Currently the mall is kind of low-rent. But there is a Trader Joe's with the best parking lot of any Trader Joe's I've ever shopped usually they're a nightmare for some reason. Alameda's flat great for riding bikes and trikes , has many well-kept parks.
Alameda has a low crime rate, per-hour city-wide speed limit, and most neighborhoods have high walking index scores. There are many lovely views of San Francisco Bay. Housing options are diverse, all the way from hideous 70s era apartments to adorable bungalows to Victorian mansions and storybook cottages and beachfront condos, the occasional art deco or midcentury modern and I hope you'll check it out.
Alameda is a small island directly across the Bay from San Francsico, great commute, great weather, tons of families and great schools. You can rent through one of the many agencies in town. I highly recommend Alameda as a place to live with young children.
Alameda is a small island off Oakland, and it has a small community feel. The public schools are generally considered good although with widespread budget cuts all schools are suffering right now , the area is safe, and it is VERY child friendly.
Kids still walk or bike home from school in Alameda, and there are lots of trails around the lagoons and the water for biking or walking. Alameda won't be as 'city' as Brooklyn, as it is a suburb, but it's more of a 'small town' suburb rather than a sprawling mega-suburb. What might affect your decision will be where your office is. The Bay Area is a lot bigger than East Coasters imagine I used to live on the East Coast , and you might want to figure out where your work is before you choose a neighborhood, to save yourself a 2 hour commute each way.
Alameda is pretty close to San Francisco downtown btw. You can take the ferry there, or else get dropped off at the BART commuter rail. Lots of people drive into the city but the traffic often gets bad. For realtors, I recommend the one who helped us buy our house: Catherine Bierwith, longtime Alameda resident who is very knowledgeable. It really depends on your budget, since housing it very expensive in the Bay Area and in certain communities in particular, but you're probably used to that from New York.
I live in Alameda, and think it would meet your criteria very well. It's got good schools, is diverse, safe, and has a small-town, neighborhood feel that you're probably looking for. It's actually an island, right next to Oakland, so it's off of a lot of people's radars. The one drawback is that since it's an island, the best way to access it is by ferry, car, or bus. Another good neighborhood is Piedmont, although it's pretty upper-crust and expensive.
The schools are amazing, though. And Berkeley and Albany are both really great cities with great restaurants, good schools, and lots of little neighborhoods within them. I lived in Berkeley and Albany for a decade, and finally moved to Alameda because I was sick of fighting with all of the people who crowd those two towns for a parking space, restaurant reservation, daycare spot, etc.
I find Alameda to be much more relaxed when it comes to those kinds of little things that make life so much easier, and I've been happy that I moved ever since. If you need specific Alameda location recommendations, feel free to email me. Congratulations on your new job and move! I too moved from the east coast, and have really grown to love the bay area. I highly recommend checking out Alameda. It's close to the city takes me 15 minutes to get to the financial district from my home in the west end; would be a little longer from the east end , it has great schools, restaurants, beaches, toy stores, book stores, yoga studios, and farmer's markets.
And it is the strongest community I've ever lived neighbors really get to know each other in the east bay so far having lived in Montclair, Elmwood, and Rockridge prior--which are all very nice, too. Last but definitely not least, it is kid heaven here. I honestly had no idea until I moved here how much freedom the kids can have and how much they really thrive in an environment like Alameda. If you're into some of the concepts of free-range kids, Alameda is the place.
The schools are great and very neighborhood oriented so the kids develop a really strong network of friends from an early time. It's amazing--the kids just blossom here. They can have that sort of freedom because Alameda is really safe both with crime and with having a speed limit that is 25mph on most of the island , and people really look out for each other.
I used them to buy our house in Alameda and was really impressed with their knowledge and professionalism. They've been around a long time and they really know the neighborhoods and current market. Best of luck with your move! Alameda Mama. Re: Seeking safe area with diversity, culture, quality food I highly recommend Alameda.
Alameda is a small island off Oakland, and many parts of it still have a small town, Leave it to Beaver vibe. I can ride my bike everywhere--to the supermarket, to the shopping district on Park Street, and since the speed limit on the whole island is 25mph, it's pretty safe.
We see kids riding their bikes or walking by themselves to go home from school all the time. The food on the island is good but not great but San Francisco and Oakland are short drives away. The weather is also great--not as cold and foggy as San Francisco, but not as hot as the areas on the other side of the hills, like Walnut Creek or Dublin.
There is a small community feel in Alameda that we like a lot. When we moved to the Bay Area we drove through many of the neighborhoods to get a feel for all of them. I recommend that as it was educational to actually be on the streets, instead of just looking at real estate postings. Re: New job in SF - where's a sunny place to live? The commute to downtown SF can be less than 30 minutes depending on exact downtown destination.
Alameda is sunny and walkable and I have great neighbors and I love it. Best of luck with your relocation. I would strongly recommend that you check out Alameda, CA -an island off the coast of Oakland-as a wonderful Bay area option for living.
Our family moved here last summer and have been thrilled with the open and welcoming community we have found. The commute to SF is only minutes non-rush hour , and in rush hour about However, there is a ferry 20 min , an hourly transbay bus 20 min , BART from Oakland , and many carpool options, too.
The community is full of beautiful victorian-era and craftsman-style homes and the city takes great pride in its historical character. The schools are highly-rated check greatschools.
Temps are typically 10 degrees warmer than SF. Since our arrival in July, we've had only 2 completely overcast days and no fog!
There is also a similar online parent network called 'Alameda Parents Network' which offers great friendliness and support. Bara Waters bara. We live in Alameda and we highly recommend it. Alameda is a small island off of Oakland, and we are a small community with a small neighborhood feel.
People like to describe us as a place stuck in the 50's--in a good way! Kids still ride their bikes to school and play on the streets, and there are tons of parks, lagoons and beaches where people exercise and walk their dogs. The schools here are also very good, from K some better than others, so be sure to check first. At least in Alameda I take comfort that we can settle here and send our kids to public school all the way to high school. I hear some people carpool into the city from Alameda.
A 45 minute commute seems like a lot when you are not from the Bay Area, but you will find that you have to drive at least minutes just to get anywhere, so you might have to readjust your expectations.
At least within Alameda, everything is just minutes away. Oh, and did I mention the weather is good? It's never too hot, and we don't get the fog. We are walking distance to great schools, the beach, movie theaters and lots of coffee shops. It is very, very much a community feeling yet has many of the desirable aspects of suburban life. We love it and can't say enough about it. Alameda has the reputation of being faraway but it actually takes me LESS time to get into the city.
I have lived here for 22 years, raised my kids here and have found it to be a wonderful community. I've read the archival posts about Living in Alameda all 18 pages once printed up , but the most current is from March , and wanted a bit of an update. My husband and I are looking for houses, and he really wants to move to Alameda for all the compelling reasons--low crime rate, good public school system, good economy.
It seems like a smarter idea to buy there than in Oakland, where we now live. But I'm so hesitant. I love living in Oakland. Two years after moving here from SF, I have a community of new moms and have all my bearings. Our daughter is 16 m. I really don't want to have to uproot all that. I know that Oakland's not far, but it won't be the same as calling someone up for a playdate and driving five minutes away to a park we know.
I'm also worried that I'll feel isolated, that no one will come visit, that I'll never leave the island coz it's just too much trouble, and that my DH and I will be the oldest parents in residence we are older.
But all that may just fall under the suck-it-up category. Here's my real worry. While the idea of ''small town'' and wholesomeness sounds like a nice way to raise a child, I don't even know what a child ends up like with that upbringing. I grew up in Manhattan, and to me, growing up in a city is the greatest kind of upbringing you could have. I almost feel like I'd be depriving my daughter by not giving her that opportunity.
I know many people would feel the opposite. I guess I'd like to hear about the kids in Alameda, what they're like, etc. I'd also like to hear about converts who were really really hesitant to move, but have ended up loving it. And, has anyone ended up not loving it? I've been living in Alameda for 33 years.
We are raising two boys here, and while it may not be as fantastic as Manhattan, it does have a Downtown Park Street , and is so close to Oakland that realistically you can get to many places there in a very short time. It is smaller than Oakland, but that also means that from many neighborhoods ''downtown'' is a short walk. Best idea is to cruise in, and visit for a while.
It's small enough that you can scope out pretty much everything in a short time. Alameda Dad. Alameda has become much more sophisticated in the last decade. Many older veterans and more conservative homeowners are aging out; younger families are moving in, many from places like SF and Berkeley. But there are many folks whose families have been here for generations, and who'd never consider living anywhere else. This has kept Alameda fairly stable in the face of the housing boom and bust.
Folks are usually pretty friendly. There is a lot of diversity here - I think there are over 50 languages spoken in the district. Proportionally, I'd say there are more whites and Asians than other ethnic groups; I'm sure there's census data on that somewhere. We've made some wonderful friends - and there is enormous community-oriented spirit. The pace in Alameda is a little slower - in fact the speed limit tops out at 25 mph, Island-wide.
There is a bit of crime and druggy stuff, but it could be a lot worse. We live on the East end of the Island; offspring attend public school. In other areas of Alameda, the demographics may be different. The Alameda Theater, several decent restaurants and a few great restaurants, a burgeoning artist community, and the gorgeous outdoors - including flat walkies with many parks - make for a varied and stimulating environment.
Saturdays are Garage Sale Heaven around here. There are several places to do workouts: harbor bay club; marina village club; bladium; a small gym on Park Street, a hour fitness satellite at the mall, and a regular hour fitness across the high street bridge near Home Depot.
Several venues offer live music; Not a lot of hiphop or rock around here that I know of - acoustic to reggae to swing to Americana to jazz. It's not every night and it's not the amazing variety you'll find in Berkeley, but it's improved over the last 4 or 5 years. In terms of housing, you can find anything from cheesy 70's apartments to Victorian mansions, bungalows, ranch houses, etc.
There are many walking-friendly neighborhoods. Depending on how quiet your street is there are a lot of culdesacs you may find a gaggle of children playing outside or running from home to home. You are never more than a mile walking distance from the bay or estuary. You can grow bananas, avocados, citrus, poinsettia year round. A tomato plant on a south-facing wall can last well into November if protected from frost. But the wind coming fresh off the bay in the afternoon can be quite cold.
The lack of frost can mean a dearth of fall color. Sometimes I really miss snow. Yards and lots tend to be very small unless you're willing to fork out serious dough. However, most of the parks are nice. Alameda's FLAT. The tallest inclines are the parking garage at the theater, and the Bay Farm pedestrian bridge. I gained 2 inches on my thighs when we moved here from the hills. This flatness also tends it toward dampness, drainage problems under homes and in streets, and mold.
Caveat emptor. There are even a few artesian wells around, so be careful how deep you dig! The community spirit can turn ugly when people disagree on big issues such as school curriculum, development at Alameda Point, bringing in big-box stores, even street tree maintenance. Alameda's diversity means a diversity of opinions from right to center to left.
And since the population is very small, it's easy to butt heads with a neighbor. We are definitely in a fishbowl here. While Alameda schools are for the most part very good, the school funding is a nightmare. Like some other towns hit by military base closures, Alameda lost some federal per-child funding that has never been compensated by the state of CA.
If you plan to put your children in public schools Most of the private schools are run by churches. Several of the AUSD schools are converting to magnet or charter models. There are a lot of activities for young children, but not for kids between around age 9 to 18 unless they have after-school practice for team sports which are threatened by budget cuts. Shopping is something of a pain. But there are few places to buy clothes; we have a TJ Maxx ugh and a Kohl's bleh.
We could dearly use a higher-end clothing store and a large variety store Target tried but got shot down because of a traffic uproar.
Although I'm not crazy about big-box stores, we probably go ''off island'' at least twice a month because for things like large hardware items, clothing suitable for mature adults with taste, a rain jacket, or an economy-size container of laundry detergent.
Alameda keeps itself poor by limiting its sales tax revenue. If a bridge is closed, or there's an accident in the tube, it will take you at LEAST 20 extra minutes to get off-island. Bay Farm is a peninsula near Oakland Airport and has only one main access road aside from the Bay Farm bridge to the main Island of Alameda. Go figure. We are thinking of moving to Alameda and are finding Craigslist sorely lacking in viable rentals for us. We are a family of 3 with 2 dogs and a cat, so a yard is a must.
Do Real Estate agents have a monopoly on rentals on the island? What is the best way to go about finding a nice safe house in Alameda for our nice little family? Alameda is a unique place, and that includes renting here. As you've discovered, a couple of rental agencies with brokerage fees have a lock on this place for many house rentals.
However, there are other things out there. There is an Alameda parents Yahoo Group you could post to-- word of mouth is the best around here.
Also, sounds like this is not what you are looking for, but I would add that the many apartment buildings along Shoreline and by the Marina rent out directly-- no broker, no fee.
They often compete for vacancies with specials. Alameda is a great place for families. Plenty of open space, pets allowed and a dog park 5 minutes away along the shipping channel with views of a bridge or two on a clear day.
Wild rabbits, hawks, squirrels, geese and other birds. We've been renting on Alameda Bay Farm island for nearly a year and have been very happy. Like you, we found C'List to be sorely lacking in rental opportunities. Not sure why this is the case, but it is.
My advice would be to come on over and drive around the island, get a feel for what sections feel good to you and also look for 'For Rent' signs.
Happy Hunting. OMM manages lots of rentals I see a number of places around with ''for rent'' signs out - but they are through real estate agents, albeit often without fees. You could try driving around parts of town you'd like to live and see if there's anything available.
0コメント