In 1905, one Charles A. Kofoid paid the now renowned architect Julia Morgan a paltry $200 to design this 3/1 brown shingle home at 2616 Etna Street for him. And it is simply delicious. Go see this quintessentially Berkeley house whether you are in the market to buy or not, and whether you are a [...]
Posts from ‘October, 2008’
The Name’s Bond: Stylish Lair For a Spy in Hiding
There’s something almost clandestine about this rather stunning mid-century home tucked into the north Berkeley heartland. That’s probably because the neighborhood’s steep, meandering streets make it difficult to find, and it’s located on a private drive to boot. A secret spy in hiding would feel right at home here.
Designed in 1962 by architect Julian Taylor, [...]
A Blog Makes its Debut as Another Bites the Dust
I have just launched this blog and wouldn’t pretend to be an expert — either on the intricacies of the real-estate business or on the art of blogging (luckily I have in-house tech support to assist with the latter).
But I do believe there is a very real role for real-estate blogs (some of my favorites [...]
The East Bay Spotted on San Francisco’s Radar
I shocked an anonymous San Francisco real-estate fan this morning — possibly causing him or her to splutter over his morning latte — by making a guest appearance on The Front Steps, a resolutely SF-focused site. My crime? Writing about “a fixer in Berkeley”.
The East Bay, I ask you. Shades of the dreaded suburbs. Way [...]
Oakland Scores High, But Not in a Good Way
Everyone likes to make it to the top of the rankings, right? Well not always. Not when we’re talking about something sad and gloomy like foreclosures.
Oakland’s 94621 and 94603 zip codes have made it to second and third place in DataQuick’s latest list of Bay Area neighborhoods with the highest foreclosure rates in the third [...]
A House To Lure San Franciscans Across The Bay
You love San Francisco and you adore urban life — but it’s beginning to wear you down. You are tired of making a life in a shoebox, scrabbling every day to find parking spaces, tripping over the detritus of city life on the sidewalk. You are constantly cold, damn it, and you crave [...]
Link Love: Best From The Wires
Faith based effort to avert foreclosures [SFGate]
Agent to buyer: “I’ll buy it myself for that!”[The Front Steps]
Housing blogs throw stones: online critics get nastier [WSJJ
SF home prices down 27.3% year-on-year [Socket Site]
Fun with maps: guide to gentrification [Curbed SF]
Perfect Oakland Pad For Wannabe Manhattanites
The Cathedral Building at 1615 Broadway is Oakland’s answer to New York’s Flatiron Building. Sited on a sharp triangular lot in the heart of the city, it’s a Gothic Revival marvel with lashings of wedding cake icing detail and a soaring roofscape.
It happens to please me a lot. The top seven floors have been converted [...]
Is This The Most Romantic Home In Berkeley?
Talk about charming. This new listing on Oakvale Avenue in Berkeley’s Claremont neighborhood was designed in 1914 by John Hudson Thomas, one of the Bay Area’s most important 20th-century architects. The steeply gabled, 4/2, 2,426 sq ft home is set back on a deep lot on one of the city’s prettiest streets.
A little bridge over [...]