Can you find this in Oakland?

[riomidwife]

Is it possible to find a rental, free standing house, with decent sized urban yard, in a safe neighborhood, near nature, for under $2,000.....? Which parts of Oakland? Thanks!

[formerluddite]

if you need it to be also "walkable," with good access to public transit, then it will be harder. but if you have a car and don't mind a 5+ minute drive to stores (or 30 min walk), then try the laurel district, redwood heights (which has a great elementary school, if you have school age kids), or near mills college. these areas are just below highway 13, and on the other (uphill) side is redwood regional park, leona heights park, and plenty of open space.

more urban/less open space (but better transit/stores) areas would be cleveland heights (aka china hill), adams point, piedmont ave, glenview, lakeshore, and grand lake.

search craigslist's east bay housing, using those neighborhood names.

"safe" is relative, though, recently there have been a lot of burglaries, even in the city of piedmont.

[MamaRhi]

I just found a cute little 3 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood for $1850. Keep looking, be persistent. We looked for several months before we found something. We're just south of Dimond District.

[maryamrose]

Try Dimond District, Adams Point, or Cleveland Heights. 

Edited by maryamrose - 8/18/11 at 11:13am

[Heather Lyn]

I second everything said by formerluddite.  We have lived off of Piedmont Ave in Oakland and also in the Laurel District (we're now in Alameda). 

I always felt safe in our Oakland neighborhoods, as well as in the Temescal area, some areas on the Oakland/Berkeley border, near Mills College, Lake Merritt/Grand Lake/Glenview and Allendale (little neighborhood near MacArthur & 38th).

You can totally find a nice, safe, fun area to live in in Oakland.  Finding a single family house with a decent backyard near nature for under $2,000 is going to be a challenge, and probably take a while, but it's not impossible.  I would ask around as well as using Craiglist, and maybe post on Craigslist in the "Looking For" section.

[Vegan Princess]

I'd steer clear of cleveland heights. We almost bought a house there but started checking the crime stats. Lots of people being attacked at gun point or being hit over the head with a gun when getting out of their cars in their driveways. It's a beautiful neighborhood, but pretty close to some not so nice neighborhoods and isn't very well insulated from the crime.

Cindy

[maryamrose]

Vegan Princess - do you happen to know if that crime carries over into Adams Point at all? I have friends who live there and claim there are no issues, but I know from my old neighborhood (Temescal) that just because I haven't personally experienced violent crime that doesn't mean that it isn't a huge problem.

[Vegan Princess]

I'm not sure where adams point is? Is it the neighboring community? I use spotcrime,info to see what has been going on. Crocker Highlands, which is walking distance from cleveland heights (but on the other side of the 580) seems to have MUCH less crime. We had been looking in crocker highlands and came across a cute house in cleveland heihgts and the schools there are highly ranked...drove around and liked it. Put an offer on the house (had to make the offer by that evening bc they were already taking offers at that time). Then we did our research. It sounded like a war zone at that time. Maybe it has gotten better, maybe not. It was only about 6-8 mos ago. I'm so glad I researched it first though! Not to say that most neighborhoods in the east bay won't have some amount of crime...but I choose to stay away from violent crimes and armed robberies/home invasions.

Cindy

[maryamrose]

Thanks Cindy. Adam's Point is on the north side of the lake (bounded by Grand on the south and 580 to the north). I really wish the crime maps could give more incident details.

At this stage, we're waiting on a house near San Pablo Park (we had to fall in love with a short sale) even though I know the area has its rough patches. Otherwise we're looking mostly at North Berkeley, which also seems to have issues, but mostly non-violent from what I can see. I wish we could consider Oakland, but can't really find a good cultural fit at a halfway-reasonable price.

[Vegan Princess]

Good luck with the house! DH wouldn't agree to move to san pablo park. But I do have a number of friends who live in that area that love it. I am on their neighborhood yahoo group email list still. I searched it out and joined when we were considering buying there. There is more crime than north berkeley, but generally not as bad as cleveland heights was. We finally landed in north berkeley. There is for sure crime around here but it's usually thefts or incidents that happen in parks at night. There are still burglaries and that scares me - but at least they are not robberies. 

Cindy

[maryamrose]

Could you please message me the SPP yahoo group address? I've looked so much and wasn't able to find it. It would really make me feel comfortable to read their list before fully committing to the house and the neighborhood. It looks like we have about eight months to solidify our housing plans, so hopefully something will work out! 

Thanks for the info :)

[happyhippie]

Does it have to be Oakland? If you are able to be close to Oakland, I highly suggest El Cerrito, Albany, or even an area called East Richmond Heights. 

[Pookietooth]

From your location I'm guessing you decided not to move to the Bay Area?